Early industrial capitalism created homo economicus, a new market-defined subject.

Evidence

Early industrial capitalism in England dissolved ancient ties of reciprocity and relation, stripping away complex social worlds and rendering the English people as new subjects defined by their participation in a market economy: Homo economicus. Might our present moment of dissolution leave us freshly subjectivized? Do we stand before each other as a new kind of political being—as Homo attentus? — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 460

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels Polanyi’s Great Transformation account of how market economy re-made social relations and identity. — connects to: Odysseus’s cunning mirrors the irrationality of early capitalist exchange; Economists equated the bourgeoisie with homo economicus to naturalize class society — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1128