[Commlist] CFP - Twenty Years After: The Workshop on Cultural Economy

*Twenty Years After: The Workshop on Cultural Economy*
/City, University of London/
/Friday January 10th 2020/

The Workshop on Cultural Economy took place at the turn of the 
millennium, at the Open University’s Walton Hall in Milton Keynes, 
hosted by the Pavis Centre for Social and Cultural Research. This 
brought together scholars from a range of social science disciplines – 
cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, management, human geography, 
science & technology studies – to discuss renewing the study of economic 
life, after “the cultural turn”. Participants were interested, first, in 
the rise of finance, corporate management culture, the business 
functions of design, advertising and marketing, retail and service work, 
“enterprise discourse” in the creative industries and emerging tech 
sector, and so on. This was loosely referred to as the “culturalisation” 
of the economy. Second, they were interested in applying and developing 
constructivist approaches to these phenomena, particularly drawing from 
Foucauldian governmentality and genealogy, Actor-Network Theory, and the 
broader world of economic sociology, anthropology and geography. This 
led to an edited collection, book series’ and teaching programmes, 
followed by large funded research consortia (e.g. CRESC 
<https://www.cresc.ac.uk/>) and eventually a new journal: the Journal of 
Cultural Economy. <https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjce20/current>

 From an initial loose programme of research, it might now be described 
as a distinct (if still relatively undisciplined) academic field, with 
international reach. As a field, it is characterised by the production 
of insightful and detailed re-descriptions of the micro-sociology of 
trading floors, economic methods, algorithms, the lived experience of 
debt, credit, insurance, speculation, calculation and a range of market 
devices. These are typically informed by rich ethnographies, inventive 
textual re-readings, and sometimes primary professional experience. Yet 
the relation to cultural studies (arguably whence it sprung), especially 
to cultural /identity/ and cultural /politics/, is no longer at all 
clear – even while this would seem to be an increasingly urgent 
empirical concern for contemporary economic and social life.

The anniversary workshop will aim to look back at the emergence of this 
field therefore – taking a cultural economy approach to Cultural 
Economy, as it were – to think about its theoretical and institutional 
conditions, alongside absences, counterfactuals and paths not taken. It 
will seek to learn from this and provoke new directions.

Extended arguments as well as shorter provocation pieces are equally 
welcome. Those who cannot attend are encouraged to contribute to the 
dialogue through blogposts to be published on the JCE website. A 
selection of contributions to the workshop are intended to be compiled 
for a future issue of the Journal of Cultural Economy.

A limited number of travel grants are available for PhD students, or 
those without access to appropriate institutional resources, based in 
the UK (courtesy the Journal of Cultural Economy, and Sociology 
departments at the University of Edinburgh and City, University of London).

Please respond to (toby.bennett /at/ city.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(toby.bennett /at/ city.ac.uk)> by Friday November 29th 2019.

---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------