Living Outside the Global Economy: Parallel Histories of Economic Knowledge in Times of Uncertainty

The 24-month project entitled Living Outside the Global Economy: Parallel Histories of Economic Knowledge in Times of Uncertainty (LOGE) is funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR- Access ERC). It is led by Johanna Gautier Morin under the direction of Claire Lemercier.

Summary:

The world economy is understood through international economic indicators and  data collection provided by the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, the World Bank’s  World Development Indicators, the United Nations System of National Accounts,  and the OECD’s historical statistics. They all present the activities, stocks, and flows  that they capture as a natural reflection of economic reality, easily converted into  numerical figures. However, these normative definitions and accounting  conventions enshrine the boundaries of the observed economy to monetized  activities, excluding homemakers’ domestic work, the collaborative self-help of the  most vulnerable communities, subsistence agriculture, non-market economic  activity, the informal economy, and environmental externalities. This project delves  into a century of pioneering critiques that have challenged institutional definitions.

Key-words: History of capitalism ; Sustainability ; Knowledge ; International Statistics ;  Feminist Economics