This paper concerns expert and lay economic thinking. A number of perspectives are
reviewed, leading to a conceptualization which draws upon Habermas’s
distinction between system and lifeworld and Bruner’s account of narrative
and paradigmatic modes of thought. Qualitative empirical work conducted in Chile is
analysed within a framework of systemic and narrative modes of economic thinking.
Five aspects of lay and expert economic thought are identified. These include: what
is seen as the ‘figure’ and the ‘ground’ in
matters economic; modes of reasoning; the extent of linkages between elements of the
economy; the use of metaphor; and the relation between the economy, values and
society. The relationship between these two modes of thought, as well as the
implications of this distinction for economic debate in the public sphere is discussed.
Bangerter, A.
(1995).
Rethinking the relation between science and common sense: A comment on the
current state of SR theory
. Papers on Social Representations, 4(1),
61–78
.
2.
Bauer, M.
(Ed.). (1995). Resistance to new technology.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
.
3.
Bauer, M.
, &
Gaskell, G.
(1999).
Towards a paradigm for research on social representations
. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour,
29(2),
163–186
.
4.
Becker, G.S.
(1976). The economic approach to human behavior.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
.
5.
Bruner, J.
(1985). Narrative and paradigmatic modes of
thought. In
E. Eisner
(Ed.), Learning and teaching the ways of knowing.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
.
6.
Bruner, J.
(1986). Actual minds, possible worlds.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
.
7.
Callon, M.
(1998). The laws of the market.
Oxford: Blackwell
.
8.
Cranach, M. von
. (1992). The multi-level organization of knowledge and
action—an integration of complexity. In
M. von Cranach
,
W. Doise
, &
G. Mugny
(Eds.), Social representations and the social bases of knowledge.
Berne: Hans Huber
.
9.
Delli Carpini, M.X.
, &
Keeter, S.
(1996). What Americans know about politics and why it
matters.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
.
10.
Farr, R.M.
(1987).
Social representations: A French tradition of research
. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour,
17(4),
343–369
.
11.
Fleck, L.
(1979). Genesis and development of a scientific fact
(F. Bradley & T.J. Trenn, Trans.).
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
.
12.
Flick, U.
(1992).
Triangulation revisited: Strategy of validation or alternative?Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 22(2),
175–197
.
13.
Gigerenzer, G.
, &
Todd, P.M.
(1999). Simple heuristics that make us smart.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
.
14.
Gudeman, S.
, &
Rivera, A.
(1990). Conversations in Colombia: The domestic economy in
life and text.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
.
15.
Habermas, J.
(1987). The theory of communicative action, Vol. II,
Lifeworld and system: A critique of functionalist reason.
Cambridge: Polity
.
16.
ICAIC (producer)
,
Gutiérrez Alea, T. (director)
, &
Desnoes, E. (author)
. (1968). Memories of underdevelopment [Film].
(Available from New Yorker Films, 16 W. 61st Street, 11th floor, New York, NY 10023.)
17.
Kahneman, D.
, &
Tversky, A.
(1979).
Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk
. Econometrica, 47(2),
263–291
.
18.
Krugman, P.
(1996). Pop internationalism.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
.
19.
Kuhn, T.S.
(1970). The structure of scientific revolutions
(2nd ed.).
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
.
20.
Liakopoulos, M.
(2000). Argumentation analysis. In
M.W. Bauer
&
G. Gaskell
(Eds.), Qualitative researching with text, image and sound.
London: Sage
.
21.
Maital, S.
(1982). Minds, markets and money: Psychological foundations
of economic behavior.
New York: Basic Books
.
22.
Martínez, J.
, &
Díaz, A.
(1996). Chile: The great transformation.
Harrisonburg, VA: R.R. Donnelly & Sons
.
23.
McCloskey, D.N.
(1985). The rhetoric of economics.
Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press
.
24.
Miller, J.D.
(1983, Spring). Scientific literacy: A conceptual and
empirical review. Daedalus, pp. 29–48.
25.
Moscovici, S.
(1984). The phenomenon of social representations.
In
R.M. Farr
&
S. Moscovici
(Eds.), Social representations.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
.
26.
Moulian, T.
(1997). Chile actual: Anatomía de un mito.
Santiago: LOM-ARCIS
.
27.
Ormerod, P.
(1994). The death of economics.
London: Faber & Faber
.
28.
Schütz, A.
, &
Luckmann, T.
(1973). The structures of the life-world (R.M. Zaner
& H.T. Engelhardt, Jr., Trans.).
Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press
.
29.
Simon, H.
(1986). Alternative visions of rationality. In
H. Arkes
&
K. Hammond
(Eds.), Judgement and decision making.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
.
30.
Smith, A.
(1937). An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth
of nations.
New York: The Modern Library
. (Original work published 1776.)
31.
Steuer, M.
(2003). The scientific study of society.
London: Kluwer Academic
.
32.
Sunstein, C.R.
(Eds.). (2000). Behavioral law and economics.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
.
33.
Swindler, A.
(1986).
Culture in action: Symbols and strategies
. American Sociological Review, 51,
273–286
.
34.
Toloza, C.
, &
Lahera, E.
(Eds.). (1998). Chile en los noventa.
Santiago: Dolmena Ediciones
.
35.
Tversky, A.
, &
Kahneman, D.
(1974).
Judgement under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases
. Science, 185,
1124–1131
.
36.
van Bavel, R. (2000). Representations of the economy: An investigation
into economic knowledge and rationality in Chilean society. Unpublished PhD
thesis, University of London.
37.
van Bavel, R.
, &
Sell-Trujillo, L.
(2003).
Understandings of consumerism in Chile
. Journal of Consumer Culture, 3(3),
343–362
.
38.
Vergès, P.
(1987). A social and cognitive approach to economic
representations. In
W. Doise
&
S. Moscovici
(Eds.), Current issues in European social psychology, Vol. II.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
.
