Events

Abstract:

Standard histories of economic thought assume that the emergence of economics follows the rise of the modern economy. In this talk, he explores an alternative trajectory, situating the emergence of economics in relation to the rise of the modern state. The early modern discourse of political economy borrowed from and reconfigured post-Hobbesian political thought to suggest appropriate limits—and targets—of state power. In so doing, it reworked the classical pairing of oikos and polis to delineate a new social universe, the economy, which it simultaneously theorized and helped to construct. This alternative history has implications for our understanding of the normative foundations of economic analysis and the political preconditions of market societies.

Brief Bio:

David Singh Grewal is an Associate Professor at Yale Law School. He is the author of Network Power: The Social Dynamics of Globalization and is presently at work on a second book, The Invention of the Economy. He received his PhD from Harvard University, where he was also elected to the Harvard Society of Fellows.