Iara Vigo de Lima

Polanyi and Foucault on the Issue of Market in Classical Political Economy

Studies have pointed out that the value of markets is related to their impact on the character of a society. Karl Polanyi’s thesis about social disembeddedness attributed to 19th century economic liberalism the responsibility for consolidating the process of separating markets from society, which changed the dynamics between the state and population when economic rationality began dictating their connections. However, Polanyi only suggested analyses regarding power relations between these three elements and their effects on the social context. This paper argues that Michel Foucault’s writings concerning technologies of power and biopolitics complement Polanyi’s considerations insofar as they provide an understanding about how biopolitics emerged and how this led to a new posture of the state regarding population care and economic environment regulation.

Economic thought in the 17th and 18th centuries: a linguistic approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse Michel Foucault’s new epistemological model regarding an analogy between the theory of language and economic thought in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Design/methodology/approach – Through the scrutiny of language, Foucault intended to demonstrate that some analogies, among different branches of knowledge (interdiscursive practice), allow us to apprehend the underlying configuration of thought regarding ontological and epistemological conditions that have historically determined knowledge. He draws a parallel between four theoretical segments borrowed from general grammar (Attribution, Articulation, Designation and Derivation) and economic thought on wealth. Findings – One of the most remarkable propositions of this approach is that the theory of language and economic thought were epistemologically isomorphic in that context. What the theory of language stated in relation to “attribution” and “articulation” corresponded to the “theory of value” ...

An Archaeology of Adam Smith's Epistemic Context

Abstract Adam Smith played a key role in Foucaults archaeology of political economy. This archaeology, which Foucault accomplished in The Order of Things, is the focus of this article. Foucault may have disagreed with the writings of the classical political economists but he widens our perspective through new possibilities of understanding. It is very illuminating to understand Smiths thinking as following a discursive practice that economic thought shared with the knowledge of living beings (natural history) and language (grammar). Foucaults archaeology highlights some ontological and epistemological conditions that shed light on some of the pillars of Smiths thinking: the centrality of exchange, the division of labour and the labour theory of value. The proximity between Newton and Smith is also examined in ontological and epistemological terms which can be understood through an investigation of that interdiscursivity practice. Beyond testing Foucaults considerations, our aim is to demonstrate their potential for the current scholarship of Smiths works. Foucaults archaeology of knowledge offers a range of elements that warrants greater analysis by historians of economic thought.