H2020Индивидуална стипендия2022–2025

RETHEX · Rethinking Exchange: An Historical Inquiry into Self-love, Speech and Sociability

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2022-09-01 → 2025-04-07
Финансиране от ЕС: 171 473 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Икономическият обмен се разглежда като социална практика, базирана на морал и език, а не само на лична изгода, като се анализират идеите на Адам Смит. Това помага за разбирането на пазарите като пространства, които могат да поддържат социалните връзки между хората.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Rethinking Exchange: An Historical Inquiry into Self-love, Speech and Sociability

The RETHEX project identified a critical problem in modern economic discourse: the dominance of a single, restrictive notion of economic exchange based exclusively on rational and morally neutral self-interest. This theoretical perspective has created a reductionist understanding of human economic interactions that strips away moral, social, and relational dimensions of exchange. At the same time, the project identified a problematic dichotomy in contemporary economic theory, that forces scholars and practitioners to choose between accepting the limitations of self-interested exchange or rejecting exchange mechanisms entirely in favour of sharing models. The project argues that this binary thinking prevents the development of more nuanced understandings of exchange that could address contemporary challenges and fundamental questions about how human beings create and maintain social bonds through economic interaction. By returning to historical sources – with a focus on the thought of Adam Smith – and examining the development of exchange concepts before the current polarization emerged, the project has redefined economic exchange as a multifaceted social practice rooted in moral and linguistic collaboration. In an era marked by increasing inequality, political polarization, and environmental crisis, understanding how economic exchange can serve social cohesion rather than undermining it becomes crucial for developing sustainable social and economic systems. By transcending disciplinary divides and engaging with pressing societal challenges, the project positions historical scholarship as a vital resource for reimagining 21st-century economies. Its legacy lies not only in academic publications but in fostering a more nuanced public understanding of markets as spaces of ethical possibility.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

The recent lockdown brought the commercial interaction of everyday life to a stop for most people in the world at almost the same time. This resulted in a general isolation that highlighted the extraordinary relevance of economic exchanges, also from a social and existential perspective. This experience showed how unfounded it is to think that exchange is just a matter of self-interest, as is believed both by those who criticize commerce for destroying social bonds and traditional ethical systems, and those who, on the contrary, unconditionally defend the market economy. This reduction of exchange to a matter of self-interest was not present in the formative stage of political economy when, in the late 18th century, the conceptualization of commerce was bound up with discussion on the origin of human society, and a richer connection between exchange, speech and sociability was conceived. It is thus a task of the utmost importance to rethink economic exchange today by reconsidering in their historical and theoretical depth the multidisciplinary debates on human nature, on the origin of sociability and of language. To this end, the project will be organised around three major axes associated with the following controversies: a) self-love and exchange in the debate on human nature; b) sociability, values and exchange in the debate on primitive societies; c) speech and exchange in the debate on the origin of language. The project will explore the connections between these different disputes which originated in Europe in the 17th century in the nascent disciplines of anthropology, linguistics, economic science. An interdisciplinary perspective will be adopted, combining the different kinds of sources ranging over time from the Essays of Montaigne to the works of Adam Smith. Thanks to this enlarged study on the origins of the modern concept of exchange, the project aims to provide a new definition of economic relationships, as well as a new hypothesis on economic agency.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

UNIVERSITA DEL SALENTO · LecceКоординаторИталия