Economic concepts actively constitute the economic behavior they describe

Evidence

Modern economic activity would not be as it is were it not for the fact that all members of the population have mastered these concepts and an indefinite variety of others. … Concepts such as these, and the theories and empirical information linked to them, are not merely handy devices whereby agents are somehow more clearly able to understand their behaviour than they could do otherwise. They actively constitute what that behaviour is and inform the reasons for which it is undertaken. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 105

Categorization

• XREF: This is Giddens’s reflexivity thesis — connects directly to the reader’s Giddens/Luhmann framing, where expert concepts loop back into the lay actions they describe. — connects to: Economic value emerges through the distance exchange creates between self and object — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 250; Labour’s representation of the working class actively constitutes that class; Use-value is a purely formal, historically produced concept within political economy — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1285 (+8 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies Giddens’s core concept of reflexivity: concepts do not merely describe but constitute social activity.

Related

• Economics actively shapes the economy rather than merely describing it (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Labour’s representation of the working class actively constitutes that class #exemplifies (0.70)
• Economic value emerges through the distance exchange creates between self and object #expands (0.45) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 250