Economic Models vs Words and Concepts in Politics
@Nicole Dewandre JRC Scientist & Advisor in DG CONNECT, European Commission Brussels, September 18, 2018
EUR-Lex Corpus; 8695 ref, incl. 7329 with content; 1985-2017
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Cloud of model's proximity terms EUR-Lex Corpus (7329 documents, 1985-2017)
Cloud of models' proximity terms EUR-Lex Corpus (7329 documents, 1985-2017)
Descriptive
Normative
Words matter! Metaphors [are] the daily bread of all conceptual thought
The metaphors we live by!
Image
words
Power is actualized only Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition
What is emptying words and disconnecting them from reality ? 4 CONCEPTUAL KEYS • SENSITIVE INVERSION
1988
1993
• SIZE MATTERS • DEFICIT FRAMING 2010
• SPEED IS OF THE ESSENCE
Modern Agents
Rational Subjects
upper version
Alone! Control!
Transparency! Flexibility!
lower version
In transition? COM(2016)725 final
COM(2017)228 final
COM(2017) 500 final
COM (2017) 547 final
Narratives
Where we come from!
Emerging narrative
ANNUAL GROWTH SURVEY 2017
Business-centric
Human-centric
COUNTRY SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS DSM MID-TERM REVIEW
Lisbon strategy
Social Turn
Advocating for the digital transition
Coping with the digital transition
Tax as burden
Tax as contribution
FAIR AND EFFICIENT TAX SYSTEM FOR THE DSM IN THE EU
Social turn
?
Encouraging signs‌
…but not there yet…!
Image
Get rid of …modern agents
upper version
• Rational interest as motive, disembodied!
• Subjects two-sided: in control or under control. Alone! Individual!
lower version
Arendt's conceptualization of agents Organic: with basic needs and sense of satiety (necessity) Rational: with strategic abilities (instrumentality) Plural: equal, unique and with who-identities (freedom)
&
Image
Arendt's inspired Agents • Relational basic needs, maker, plural
• Selves vulnerable, who-identity, interdependant
&
Thank you for attention !
"[Humans] are not born in order to die but in order to begin" Hannah Arendt
References: • Words matter! • Political Agents as Relational Selves • Envisaging the EU's future with Hannah Arend t: taking plurality seriously E-mail: nicole.dewandre@ec.europa.eu