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Title: “Common sense and good sense: Everyday economists and their discourses of capitalism”
Description:
Since the ongoing global economic crisis erupted in late 2007, many people have debated why and how this collapse happened. Yet, many economists have dismissed these views as ill-informed due to a lack of economic literacy, and some have implied that this ‘illiteracy’ is a major factor in people’s own misfortunes. Because the economy plays a central role in our lives, it is crucial to understand the ways in which we make sense of the economy and the possibilities in our own agencies in addressing economic issues. Drawing upon a data base of over 300 interviews, I examine how the participants co-construct hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses of capitalism and their own relationships to it. Using a Gramscian framework of what he termed “common sense” and “good sense”, I address the following question: how are capitalist discourses taken up by everyday people in co-constructing their understandings of the economy, their roles within it, and its effects on their lives?
About Dr. Chun:
Christian Chun is Assistant Professor of Culture, Identity, and Language Learning at the University of Massachusetts - Boston. His most recent publications are The Discourses of capitalism: Everyday economists and the production of common sense (Routledge, 2017), “Addressing radicalized multicultural discourses in an EAP textbook: Working toward a critical pedagogies approach” in TESOL Quarterly (2016), and Power and meaning making in an EAP classroom: Engaging with the everyday (Multilingual Matters, 2015).
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