Collectiion: Historische Social Research

Veröffentlicht am: 31.12.2010

Weiteres:

Abstract: »Économie des conventions und die Geschichte von Ökonomien.
Perspektiven für einen transdisziplinären Ansatz in der Wirtschaftsgeschichte.
«. This introduction and the contributions of the HSR issue intend to develop
and to demonstrate the potentialities of the economics of convention (EC) for a
transdisciplinary approach to the history of economies. “Convention” has become
a core concept in the renewal of French social sciences from structuralism
towards pragmatism. Conventions are interpretative schemes for action
and coordination that persons and actors use in situations under conditions of
uncertainty. Through repeated interaction they become an intimate part of the
history, incorporated into justifications, behaviours and social objects like institutions.
In contrast to neoclassic economics and to new historical institutionalism,
the EC starts from assumptions of a plurality of economic frameworks
of action, of the socio-historical construction of concepts, categories, and data.
It rejects dichotomies, adopts a broad conception of the economy, conceives
institutional change as the change of the “conventional” foundations for the
pragmatic use and interpretation of institutions. Its methodology is that of a
“complex pragmatist situationalism”, dedicated to a comprehensive approach
aiming at reconstructing the internal going-on of historical processes. This special
issue offers a set of contributions on: the origins of the approach, its methodological
standpoint, its possible developments towards a sociology of engagement
or hermeneutical concerns, several applications on economic history
(notably about conventions of quality and of labor).
Keywords: Economics of convention, institutions, pragmatism, economic action,
situation, economic history, new historical institutionalism, justifications,
plurality.