Performativity

Different perspectives on the intervention of social sciences in general and economic theories in particular as well as expertise in the formation of institutions, so called performativity, are discussed. In the field of institutional and technological change, the issue of scholarly work as opposed to activism has been discussed at length. The question is reflexive: whether different notions of technological and institutional change may contribute to a change of existing relations between technologies and institutions. There are of course important examples of this; one needs only to mention Marxism as both a theory and a political practice. The conclusion is nevertheless that technological and institutional change influences the forming of theories more than theories influencing policymaking and practices.