German Speaking Economists' Discourse on Crisis

As in most other European national academic settings controversy arose over what actually was at stake and who was to blame for the economic crisis that started in 2008. The discussions reached a first climax in June 2012, when the European Council decided to go ahead with building a European Banking Union, a decision strongly support by Angela Merkel and at the same time rejected by many well-known figures in German politico-economic discourse. The decision immediately triggered two open letters: one signed by 274 economists opposing and one signed by 221 in favour of a European banking union. The research project on which the paper is based analysis these economists. The paper forwards the hypothesis that differences in the economists’ discursive position-takings are best explained with reference to the economists’ positions in the field of economists. Discursive stances are documented by coding problems, solutions, responsibilities and values to be found in texts produced by these economists. At the same time biographical information on the economists was collected from CVs and other publically accessible sources and a biographical dataset was built. This allows reconstructing the main differences that structure the relationships between German economists: the degree of internationalisation and Europeaninsation as opposed to the national anchoring, the degree of engagement with national political institutions and business as opposed to a stronger engagement in scientific research, and the opposition between high and low academic merits and prestige. The paper argues that these differences and similarities can be understood as objectifications of the everyday practice of economist and may hence be used to understand other forms of objectifications, such as the stances taken in the politico-economic discourse on how to govern Europe in times of crisis. The hypothesis is investigated using a multiple correspondence analysis of the data set.