Performativity studies allow for new and important perspectives in economic theory Boldyrev & Svetlova 16

All in all, recent performativity studies inscribe economics in the ‘jun- gle’ of the social and thus occupy an uneasy position between economists and their critics. Of course, there might still be economists who believe that they solely are entitled to reflect upon their discipline; and critics of economics who condemn the performativity perspective for its collusion with the foe. But we hope that both of these positions will prove unten- able and eventually drop its radicalism, for it is not wise to see malicious criticism in any attempt to consider economics from outside, and it is even less so to ignore—or to uncompromisingly oppose—economics’ and economists’ entanglement in modern societies. But in what sense is the performativity of economics, once it establishes economists’ involvement, able to influence economics? To be sure, econo- mists themselves, unlike management scholars, sociologists, anthropolo- gists, political scientists, or cultural theorists, pay little attention to the idea of performativity. However, we suggest that, although economists rarely read and cite the literature from other social sciences, the general cultural and social context does matter both for their attitudes and their work. The general patterns of public opinion and intellectual trends (e.g., in poverty and inequality issues) do make a difference for them. Whenever public atmosphere and general cultural norms change, economists will also take account of the general performative consequences of their and others’ work and eventually embark upon building a more reflexive—and, per- haps, more responsible—social science. So, how does the performativity of economics matter? Perhaps the most immediate answer is that this perspective illuminates the role played by economic theories in our social life, in individual and collective sense- making, in struggles of visions becoming social struggles, and in the sta- bilization of collective practices. From vague ‘conditions of felicity’ for performative speech acts, we now move to the complex constitution of the social—with all the renewed significance of ontology, language, and poli- tics we referred to above. After the turn, we cannot ignore anymore that economies are permeated and sustained by performative practices. Once this idea begins to inform both theoretical and metatheoretical accounts, once we add the performative dimension to our conceptual repertoire and abandon the traditional epistemological frameworks, some fascinating perspectives open up in addressing economies and/as economic knowl- edge. This volume, inspired by the developments in various disciplines, steps into this new terrain and invites the readers to follow.