As part of the session on economic sociology, Asdal presented the paper:
"Versions of economization in tension: Into innovation, sustainable finance and classical neo-classical economics and their politics and re-valuations of nature."
ABSTRACT:
It should come as no surprise that economists and economics economize; that is, that objects and issues that were once outside the frame of economics are subjected to economization (Caliscan and Callon 2010) and thus rendered economic. A standard procedure for professions is precisely that of bringing issues and topics into their own frame, vocabulary and problem-solving capacity. Yet, economization may come in more than one version, there may be different "versions of economization" (Asdal and Huse 2023) and such versions of economization may work from different angles and act upon their object differently and by way of different means. They may involve different valuation procedures and be composing a value economy terrain differently. For decades, the economists and economics dominating advisory commissions on politics of nature have been economists and the version of economics being taught at Universities and practiced or sitting close to government offices. More recently, two different version of economization has come to make itself relevant for the environmental issue. One of these is the economics taught in business schools, including the economics of finance (sometimes labelled ‘green finance’ or “sustainable finance”). Another version of economization is "innovation". While often before being seen as an impediment or obstacle to solving environmental problems, their problem-solving capacity is now being publicly sanctioned. This paper works towards delineating these in part conflicting versions of economization, how they economize nature differently and with different implications.
Read more about the conference here.