COVID, Economized
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/11636Keywords:
Economization, COVID-19, utilitarianism, neoliberalism, Karl Polanyi, substantivism, coronavirusAbstract
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have recognized it as posing not only a public health risk, but also an economic problem. There were, however, several different ways to formulate this economic problem. This essay lays out three prototypical economic formulations of COVID-19, which proliferated during the pandemic’s first six months in the United States and informed policy discussions and interventions: neoclassical economization, macro-economization, and substantive economization. Drawing on Karl Polanyi, I propose that among COVID-19’s potentially transformative effects is a transition away from abstract and analytical economic formulations and toward a more concrete focus on securing sustenance and material livelihood during times of crisis.
References
American Nurses Association. (2020). Survey Reveals Alarming Conditions. Nursing World. http://www.nursingworld.org/~4a558d/globalassets/covid19/ana-ppe-survey-one-pager---final.pdf
Bazelon, E. (2020). Restarting America Means People Will Die. So When Do We Do It?. The New York Times, 10 April. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/magazine/coronavirus-economy-debate.html
Bender, M.C., & Colias, M. (2020). Trump orders General Motors to make ventilators. Wall Street Journal, 27 March. https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-lashes-out-at-general-motors-over-ventilators-11585327749
Berman, E.P. (2012). Creating the Market University: How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Berman, E.P. (2014). Not Just Neoliberalism: Economization in U.S. Science and Technology Policy. Science, Technology, and Human Values, 39(3), 397–431. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243913509123
Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution. New York: Zone Books.
Burgard, S., & Kalousova, L. (2020). Recessions Often Improve Population Health, but COVID-19 May Be Different. Boston Review, 15 April. http://bostonreview.net/class-inequality-science-nature/sarah-burgard-lucie-kalousova-recessions-often-improve-population
Çalişkan, K., & Callon, M. (2009). Economization, Part 1: Shifting Attention from the Economy Towards Processes of Economization. Economy and Society, 38(3), 369–398. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085140903020580
Çalişkan, K., & Callon, M. (2010). Economization, Part 2: A Research Programme for the Study of Markets. Economy and Society, 39(1), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085140903424519
Canca, C. (2020). The Pandemic Doesn’t Run on Trolley Tracks: A Comment on Eyal’s Essay “Beware the Trolley Zealots.” Sociologica, 14(2), 73–81. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/11412
Chaney, S., & Mackrael, K. (2020). Jobs Recovery Shows Signs of Slowing as Coronavirus Surges. Wall Street Journal, 17 July. https://www.wsj.com/articles/jobs-recovery-shows-signs-of-slowing-as-virus-surges-11594987201
Congressional Research Service. (2020). Defense Production Act (DPA): Recent Developments in Response to COVID-19. U.S. Congress. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/IN11470.pdf
Davies, P. (2020). Treasury Yields Edge Higher on Recovery Optimism. Wall Street Journal, 6 July. https://www.wsj.com/articles/treasury-yields-edge-higher-on-recovery-optimism-11594035694
Edelstein, M. (2001). The Size of the US Armed Forced During World War II: Feasibility and War Planning. Research in Economic History, 20, 47–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0363-3268(01)20003-2
Emanuel, E.J., Tanden, N., Spiro, T., Conner, A., DeGood, A., Simpson, E., Rapfogel, N., & Calysn, M. (2020). A National and State Plan to End the Coronavirus Crisis. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/news/2020/04/03/482613/national-state-plan-end-coronavirus-crisis/
Espeland, W., & Stevens, M.L. (1998). Commensuration as a Social Process. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 313–343. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.24.1.313
Eviction Lab. (2021). Eviction Tracking. https://evictionlab.org/eviction-tracking/
Eyal, G. (2020a). Beware the Trolley Zealots. Sociologica, 14(1), 21–30. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/10842
Eyal, G. (2020b). Moral Philosophy or the Sociology of Morals? Response to Cansu Canca. Sociologica, 14(2), 83–91. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/11477
Fabian, J. (2020). Trump Told Governors to Buy Own Virus Supplies, Then Outbid Them. Bloomberg, 19 March. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-19/trump-told-governors-to-buy-own-virus-supplies-then-outbid-them
Fligstein, N., & Vogel, S. (2020). Political Economy After Neoliberalism. Boston Review, 6 October. http://bostonreview.net/class-inequality/neil-fligstein-steven-vogel-political-economy-after-neoliberalism
Foucault, M. (2007). Security, Territory, Population. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Fourcade, M. (2009). Economists and Societies. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Frazier, R. (2020). Oil and Gas Companies Asked, then Received Changes to Fed Coronavirus Stimulus Program. NPR, StateImpact Pennsylvania. https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2020/05/11/oil-and-gas-companies-asked-then-received-changes-to-fed-coronavirus-stimulus-program/
Frijters, P. (2020). The corona dilemma. Club Troppo. https://clubtrippo.com/au/2020/03/21/the-corona-dilemma
Galston, W.A. (2020). Efficiency Isn’t the Only Economic Virtue. Wall Street Journal, 10 March. https://www.wsj.com/articles/efficiency-isnt-the-only-economic-virtue-11583873155?mod=searchresults&page=116&pos=7
Gourinchas, P.-O. (2020). Flattening the Pandemic and Recession Curves. Policy Brief No. 23. Economics for Inclusive Prosperity. https://econfip.org/policy-brief/flattening-the-pandemic-and-recession-curves/#
Haberman, M., & Sanger, D.E. (2020). Trump Says Coronavirus Cure Cannot “Be Worse than the Problem Itself.” The New York Times, 23 March. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-restrictions.html
Harberler, G. von. (1936). The Theory of International Trade. London: William Hodge.
Hilsenrath, J., & Armour, S. (2020). As Economic Toll Mounts, Nation Ponders Trade Offs. Wall Street Journal, 23 March. https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-economic-toll-mounts-nation-ponders-the-trade-offs-11584970165
Hirschman, D. (2016). Inventing the Economy, Or: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the GDP[Doctoral dissertation]. University of Michigan.
Hochschild, A.R. (2012). The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times. New York: Metropolitan Books.
Jacobs, A. (2020). Despite Claims, Trump Rarely Uses Wartime Law in Battle Against Covid. New York Times, 22 September. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/22/health/Covid-Trump-Defense-Production-Act.html
Jewett, C., & Weber, L. (2020). Trump Administration Uses Wartime Powers to be First in Line on Medical Supplies. Kaiser Health News, 3 April. https://khn.org/news/trump-administration-uses-wartime-powers-to-be-first-in-line-on-medical-supplies-ppe/
Kanno-Youngs, Z., & Nicas, J. (2020). “Swept Up by FEMA”: Complicated Medical Supply System Sows Confusion. New York Times, 6 April. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/us/politics/coronavirus-fema-medical-supplies.html
Keynes, J.M. (2010). How to Pay for the War. In Essays in Persuasion(pp. 367–439). New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Klar, R. (2020). Kudlow Calls $ 600 Unemployment Checks “Disincentive,” Expects Them to Stop in July. The Hill, 14 June. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/502642-kudlow-calls-600-unemployment-checks-a-disincentive-expects-them-to
Klinenberg, E. (1996). Heat Wave. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Krugman, P. (2020a). On the Economics of Not Dying. The New York Times, 28 May. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/opinion/coronavirus-economy-death.html
Krugman, P. (2020b). Market Madness in the Pandemic. The New York Times, 15 June. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/opinion/coronavirus-stock-market.html
Krugman, P. (2020c). The Cult of Selfishness Is Killing America. The New York Times, 27 July. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/opinion/us-republicans-coronavirus.html
Krugman, P. (2020d). April Was Trump’s Cruelest Month. The New York Times. 27 August. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/opinion/donald-trump-coronavirus.html
Krugman, P. (2020e). Gross Domestic Misery is Rising. The New York Times, 7 September. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/opinion/trump-economy-jobs.html
Lemoine, B.N. (2016). L’ordre de la dette: enquete sur les infortunes de l’état et la prosperité du marché. Paris: La Decouverte.
Lipton, E., & Vogel, K.P. (2020). Fine Print of Stimulus Bill Contains Special Deals for Industries. The New York Times, 25 March. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/us/politics/virus-fineprint-stimulus-bill.html
Livne, R., & Yonay, Y.P. (2016). Performing Neoliberal Governmentality: An Ethnography of Financialized Debt Management Practices. Socio-Economic Review, 14(2), 339–362. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwv019
Mahler, J. (2020). A Governor on Her Own, with Everything at Stake. The New York Times, 25 June. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/magazine/gretchen-whitmer-coronavirus-michigan.html
Mayer, J. (2020). How Trump is Helping Tycoons Exploit the Pandemic. The New Yorker, 13 July. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/how-trump-is-helping-tycoons-exploit-the-pandemic
Mervosh, S., Baker, M., Mazzei, P., & Walker, M. (2021). One Year, 400,000 Coronavirus Deaths: How the U.S. Guaranteed Its Own Failure. The New York Times, 17 January. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/us/covid-deaths-2020.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
Mitchell, T. (2002). The Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Mojola, S.A. (2014). Love, Money, and HIV: Becoming a Modern African Woman in the Age of AIDS. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Morath, E. (2020). U.S. Initial Unemployment Claims Edged Lower in Latest Week. Wall Street Journal, 9 July. https://www.wsj.com/articles/unemployment-benefits-weekly-jobless-claims-coronavirus-07-09-2020-11594246014
Murphy, M. (2017). The Economization of Life. Durham: Duke University Press.
Parker, A., Rucker, P., & Dawsey, J. (2020). Trump the Victim: President Compains in Private about the Pandemic Hurting Him. Washington Post, 10 July. https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/?next_url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.washingtonpost.com%2fpolitics%2ftrump-the-victim-president-complains-in-private-about-the-pandemic-hurting-himself%2f2020%2f07%2f09%2f187142c6-c089-11ea-864a-0dd31b9d6917_story.html
Peck, J. (2013). For Polanyian Economic Geographies. Environment and Planning A, 45, 1545–1568. https://doi.org/10.1068/a45236
Polanyi, K. (1968). Primitive, Archaic, and Modern Economies. Garden City: Anchor Books.
Polanyi, K. (1977). The Livelihood of Man. New York: Academic Press.
Polanyi, K. (1992). The Economy as an Institute Process. In M. Granovetter & R. Swedberg (Eds.), The Sociology of Economic Life(pp. 29–52). Boulder: Westview Press.
Polanyi, K. (2001). The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time(2nd ed.). Boston: Beacon Press
Portes, J. (2020). Don’t Believe the Myth That We Must Sacrifice Lives to Save the Economy. The Guardian, 25 March. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/25/there-is-no-trade-off-between-the-economy-and-health
Prokupecz, S., & Kelly, C. (2020). Cuomo Calls Trump “Incorrect and Grossly Uninformed” about New York’s Ventilator Situation as Fight Escalates. CNN, 28 March. https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/27/politics/cuomo-trump-incorrect-and-grossly-uninformed/index.html
Pueyo, T. (2020). Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now. Medium, 10 March. https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
Rappeport, A. (2020). Getting a Stimulus Check? Trump’s Name Will Be on It. The New York Times, 14 April. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/us/politics/stimulus-check-trump-signature.html
Ray, R., & Rojas, F. (2020). Vaccines, Masks, and Routine Disruptions During COVID-19. Contexts, 8 July. https://contexts.org/blog/vaccines-masks-and-routine-disruptions-during-covid-19/
Robbins, L. (1932). An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. London: MacMillan.
Rodrik, D. (2020). Will COVID-19 Remake the World? Project Syndicate, 6 April. https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/will-covid19-remake-the-world-by-dani-rodrik-2020-04?barrier=accesspaylog
Rosenberg, E. (2020). Uncertainty, Anxiety and Sleepless Nights for the Unemployed as Congress Lets $ 600 Benefit Lapse. Washington Post, 31 July. https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/?next_url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.washingtonpost.com%2fbusiness%2f2020%2f07%2f31%2f600-dollar-unemployment-benefit%2f
Schwirtz, M. (2020). The 1,000-Bed Comfort Was Supposed to Aid New York. It Has 20 Patients. The New York Times, 2 April. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-usns-comfort.html
Simkins, J.D. (2020). Hospital Ship Comfort Departs NYC, Having Treated Fewer than 200 Patients. Navy Times, 30 April. https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/04/30/hospital-ship-comfort-departs-nyc-having-treated-fewer-than-200-patients/
Singer, P., & Plant, M. (2020). When Will the Pandemic Cure Be Worse Than the Disease? Project Syndicate, 6 April. https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/when-will-lockdowns-be-worse-than-covid19-by-peter-singer-and-michael-plant-2020-04?barrier=accesspaylog
Smith, Z. (2020). Intimations. New York: Penguin.
Snell, K. (2020). What’s Inside the Senate’s $ 2 Trillion Coronavirus Aid Package. NPR, 26 March. https://www.npr.org/2020/03/26/821457551/whats-inside-the-senate-s-2-trillion-coronavirus-aid-package
Somers, M. (2020). Even the Republican “Skinny” Relief Bill Failed. How Is Such Unnecessary Suffering Justified? The Guardian, 14 September. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/14/republican-skinny-coronavirus-relief-mitch-mcconnell?CMP=share_btn_link
Somers, M., & Block, F. (2005). From Poverty to Perversity: Ideas, Markets, and Institutions over 200 Years of Welfare Debate. American Sociological Review, 70(2), 260–287. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240507000204
Sontag, S. (1991). Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors. New York and London: Penguin.
Sparshott, J. (2020). What Are the Markets Saying about U.S. Recovery. Wall Street Journal, 28 July. https://www.wsj.com/articles/newsletter-what-are-markets-saying-about-the-u-s-recovery-01595932799
State of Michigan. (2020a). Executive Order 2020-5: Temporary prohibitions on large assemblages and events, temporary school closures. https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/0,9309,7-387-90499_90705-521595--,00.html
State of Michigan. (2020b). Executive Order 2020-09: Temporary restrictions on the use of places of public accomodation. https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/0,9309,7-387-90499_90705-521789--,00.html
State of Michigan. (2020c). Executive Order 2020-11: Temporary prohibition on large assemblages and events, temporary school closures. https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/0,9309,7-387-90499_90705-521890--,00.html
Strain, M.R., & Gottlieb, S. (2020). Congress Can Take the Economic Edge off COVID-19. Wall Street Journal, 11 March. https://www.wsj.com/articles/congress-can-take-the-economic-edge-off-covid-19-11583940758
Torry, H., & BeBarros, A. (2020). WSJ survey: Overall Economy Is Recovering Faster Than Economists Expected. Wall Street Journal, 10 September. https://www.wsj.com/articles/wsj-survey-overall-economy-is-recovering-faster-than-economists-expected-11599746400
Trump, D. (2020). Full Transcript: Trump’s 2020 State of the Union Address. The New York Times, 5 February, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/us/politics/state-of-union-transcript.html
Watts, J. (2020). Bruno Latour: “This is a Global Catastrophe that has Come from Within”. The Guardian, 6 June. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/06/bruno-latour-coronavirus-gaia-hypothesis-climate-crisis
White House. (2020a). How President Trump Uses the Defense Production Act To Protect America from the China Virus. Office of Trade & Manufacturing Policy. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7036228-OTMP-DPA-Report-FINAL-8-13-20.html#document/p4
White House. (2020b). Remarks by President Trump on the Jobs Numbers Report. White House Press Briefing. 2 July. https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-jobs-numbers-report/
Wright, L. (2020a). How Pandemics Wreak Havoc — And Open Minds. The New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/how-pandemics-wreak-havoc-and-open-minds
Wright, L. (2020b). The Plague Year. The New Yorker, 28 December. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/01/04/the-plague-year
WSJ Editorial Board. (2020). The Lockdown’s Destruction. Wall Street Journal, 30 July. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-lockdowns-destruction-11596150889
Yonay, Y.P. (1998). The Struggle over the Soul of Economics: Institutionalist and Neoclassical Economists in America between the Wars. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Roi Livne
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
