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A Perspective of Science and Technology Studies (STS) for Economy: the Performativity Thesis  

Kim, Byoung Soo (서울대학교 과학사 및 과학철학 협동과정)
Publication Information
Journal of Science and Technology Studies / v.17, no.2, 2017 , pp. 81-111 More about this Journal
Abstract
In this paper, I focus on the performativity thesis introduced and developed by Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholars such as Callon, MacKenzie, etc. since the mid 1990s. The performativity thesis was discussed in economic sociology by STS scholars has been pervaded to other research areas including general economics, accounting, finance and so on. The main idea of the thesis is that economic theories perform, shape, and format economy rather than just describe economy. I show that the thesis is based on the traditional STS ideas such as performativity derived from Merton's self-fulfilling prophecy and the actor-network theory. Although the thesis has been criticised by various researchers from both inside and outside STS, it has provided meaningful implications for understanding economic phenomenon from a viewpoint of STS. Furthermore, reflexive researches for performativity of STS theories can be discussed in the next stage.
Keywords
performativity; performativity thesis; actor-network theory (ANT); economic sociology; agencement;
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