Social Studies of the Economy in Latin America

Social Studies of the Economy in Latin America

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in research offering a close-up examination of economic life. In particular, ethnographic research has increasingly shed light on the multiple ways in which economy, culture and technology intersect, and in which the economy as an object is constituted and performed. Fertile inquiry has been conducted into the world of economic policy-making and expertise, the media’s role in the public economic discussion, the configuration of markets and economic subjects, the nature of economic calculation and its material devices, and the variety of economic knowledges, among other topics.

This workshop will focus on the social studies of the economy in Latin America. It aspires to put together the plurality of work about the social nature of the economy that has been developed in the region, and to discuss the advantages, limitations and challenges of the social studies of the economy for understanding Latin America’s political economy.

Programme:

All welcome on July 1st, at UCL, Room 347, 16 Taviton Street, LONDON, WC1H 0BW

  • 9.45 Welcome / Introduction
  • 10.00 – 11.50 
    • Mariana Heredia/Claudia Daniel (Universidad Nacional de San Martin, Argentina): “Inflation before and after economic expertise in Argentina: Framing a public problem in the press (1940-1990)”
    • Federico Neiburg (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil): “Economic Emergencies and the Real Economy. Some ethnographic threads of thought”
  • 12.10 – 14.00
    • Gustavo Onto (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil): “Competition through papers: the role of materiality in antitrust regulation”
    • Tomás Undurraga (University College London, UK): “Making news of value: exploring valuation practices at Valor Economico”
  • 15.00 – 16.50
    • Tomás Ariztía (Universidad Diego Portales, Chile): “Enacting customers in Chilean business practices: three movements for an ethnography of data practices and devices”
    • Ana Gross (University of Warwick, UK): “Observing Indicators Decompose and Multiply: Controversial Economic Data in Argentina and Beyond”
  • 16. 50 - 17.30 Concluding remarks