Enacting Dismal Science / Perspectives from Social Economics (PDF)

Ivan Boldyrev is Associate Professor at the Higher School of Economics, Russia, and Research Associate at the Witten Institute for Institutional Change at the University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany. His books include Ernst Bloch and His Contemporaries and Hegel, Institutions and Economics (with Carsten Herrmann-Pillath). He has authored many articles focusing on the intellectual history of economics, philosophy of the social sciences, and German Idealism. Ekaterina Svetlova is a Senior Lecturer of Accounting and Finance at the University of Leicester's School of Management, UK. Previously, she has been a Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Constance, Germany; Zeppelin University, Germany; and University of Basel, Switzerland. She also worked as a Portfolio Manager and Financial Analyst at a big investment company in Frankfurt, Germany, for six years. Svetlova has published on themes such as economic sociology, social studies of finance, and economic philosophy in journals that include Economy and Society, Culture and Organization, Science in Context, Synthese and International Studies in the Philosophy of Science.

“This collection is commendable for actually doing what it says it does; presenting different views on the theoretical discussions and empirical developments that define performativity of economics today. … Enacting dismal science explicitly positions itself within performativity of economics and, hence, will find a particularly engaged audience among scholars who identify with this perspective – and field.” (Sine Nørholm Just, Ephemera. Theory & Politics In Organization, Vol. 18 (3), 2018)





“Enacting Dismal Science aims at bringing together sociologists, philosophers, and economists to give an overview of ‘what has happened in performativity research in the last year’ … . Indeed, the volume’s strength is in combining theoretical and empirical contributions that give readers a good sense of this fast-growing, cross-disciplinary field, including the various lines of (at times fierce) criticism that has been directed against it.” (Benjamin Braun, Economic Sociology, The European Electronic Newsletter, Vol. 18 (3), July, 2017)

“Boldyrev and Svetlova have set out a challenging and important task to push forward the dispersed streams of thought on performativity of economics. While this volume offers a solid reconstruction of the historical origins of the concept … .” (Pavel Kuchař, Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, Vol.10 (2), Fall, 2017)


“This book … provides new important tools for inquiring into that notion, called performativity… . The book’s title contains the word ‘enacting’, as the mechanism of enaction is considered a pivotal performative mechanism … . it emphasizes that the study of performativity constitutes a real opportunity for economics.” (Enrico Petracca, History of Economic Ideas, Vol. 25 (3), 2017)