Economics is generically performative when real-world actors actually use it.
Evidence
At least three levels of the performativity of economics seem to me to be possible (figure 1. 1). The first, weakest level is what might be called “generic performativity.” For an aspect of economics to be performative in this sense means that it is used, not just by academic economists, but in the “real world”: by market participants, policy makers, regulators, and so on. Instead of being external to economic processes, the aspect of economics in question is “performed” in the generic sense of being used in those processes. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 85
Categorization
- DEFINE: Introduces and defines the foundational term ‘generic performativity’ that the whole book’s taxonomy rests on.
- ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the reader’s stated purpose of grasping the performativity thesis’s precise terminology.
- XREF: connects to: Economic theories are endogenous and actively shape the world they describe. — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 122; Economics is effectively performative only when using it changes market outcomes. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 87; Economic theory embodied in devices performs and creates its own posited phenomena. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 1196 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Economic theory embodied in devices performs and creates its own posited phenomena.
#expands(0.85) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 1196 - Economic concepts actively constitute the economic behavior they describe
#corroborates(0.80) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 105 - Economics operates through material devices and algorithms as much as beliefs.
#expands(0.75) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 95 - Markets can be performatively constructed by agents who are not atomistic homo economicus
#expands(0.75) — Donald MacKenzie & Yuval Millo, Constructing a Market, Performing Theory, 25