“Economentality: how the future entered government.”

Before 1948, the globe had no notion what an economy was or what it was like before World War II. The term economy was understood traditionally as a process rather than a thing. The author’s key point here is that few or no economists or people have a well-informed judgment on what a country’s economy means or could be.

The key idea

The author’s main point is to demonstrate how the term grew to become what it is now.

Relation of this reading to other readings in class This reading can be linked to the “Paradox of Scientific Advising” which also shows how the world had limited scientists and people especially the government had little knowledge on the matter of sciences as demonstrated with the nuclear reaction knowledge in this reading.

Weaknesses and strength

Strength

The strength of this reading is that it informs people more on the traditional perception of the economy and how the economy as a word evolved in meaning and how it get into the operations of the government.

Weaknesses

It does not elaborate how the modern economic system was adopted.

Two questions for class discussion

What does economy mean to you?

How was the economy of a country being managed before the coming of economists?

Part Two

Race and Ethnicity in Latin America, Paschel, Becoming Black, pp. 153-238.

Brief description of my favorite argument from the reading

The favorite argument from this reading is how the blacks, after being made legitimate participants in political processes, managed the newly constructed black political subjects in both Brazil and Colombia. The author showed how the black activists fought and help the community be recognized in political processes but as after achieving their goal, the new political subject about blacks came up.

Question for class discussion

What were the main reasons why blacks were being mistreated in both states?