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FRIHUMSAM-Fri prosj.st. hum og sam

Value-Threads: Tracing the economy as technology and culture in an emergent value-economy

Alternative title: Verdi-tråder: Økonomi som teknologi og kultur i en framvoksende verdi-økonomi.

Awarded: NOK 10.2 mill.

Project Manager:

Project Number:

301733

Application Type:

Project Period:

2020 - 2027

Subject Fields:

Partner countries:

Are we about to enter a new form of economy that encapsulates the qualitative and the quantitative in novel and as of yet underexplored ways? Where is this 'new economy' eventually, coming from? Does it perhaps come from the business and business school-sector but also from sustainability discourses? These are the hypotheses that the project Valuethreads works from. We also suggest that the notion 'value-creation' plays in important and interesting part in this. In order to research these developments and possible shifts in the economy (which will also include historical analyses), we have developed the notion 'value-economy' which we will use as an analytical tool in our empirical studies. We argue that understanding these economic modalities and possible shifts in the economy, is of societal relevance: Understanding the processes of valuation: how value is thought of and practices is important we argue if we are to be able to answer the sustainability and responsibility challenges of a post-carbon- bioeconomy and the tensions and conflict-lines that are and will be integral to it. The research by ValueThreads will be executed by an interdisciplinary research team involving close collaboration between the project leader and her host-institution and Centre de sociololgie de l'innovation in Paris, one of Europe's leading research environments on valuation studies.

The hypotheses of ValueThreads is (1) that there is an ongoing shift towards a new form of economic modality which may encapsulate the qualitiative and the quantiative in novel and as of yet underexplored ways. (2) That this is a shift which is coming from the business-sector and sustainability-discourses in novel re-combinations and entanglements. (3) That the notion of value-creation is vital to this new discourse, and are intimately linked to new ways of approaching and practicing the economy. Unless we understand this "value-economy", we cannot answer the sustainability and responsibility challenge of a post-carbon- bioeconomy and the tensions and conflict-lines that are integral to it. Valuethreads proceeds by analyzing the economy as material and technological culture, including the technologies by which entities are rendered economic. This is taken further in three novel directions: (1) By systematically also taking the normative and the qualitative into the analysis of the economy(2) By proposing a more overarching argument, not only about the technologies the economy works by, but also about what kind of economy we are observing. (3) By employing the concept of a value-economy as an analytical tool by which to investigate the economy, and to employ this also to include how present approaches are conditioned upon historical and institutionalized arrangements and discourses. The research by ValueThreads will be executed by an interdisciplinary research team involving close collaboration between the PI and her host-institution and CSI, one of Europes leading research environments on valuation studies. The research is organized in five WPs: Three empirical studies (1. at OECD, 2. with bio-businesses and start-ups and 3. on forest-economics in and beyond-text-book economics) one WP on the project's cross-the cross-cuttings themes and one WP drawing the hypothesis of a value-economy together into a comprehensive conceptually driven analysis.

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FRIHUMSAM-Fri prosj.st. hum og sam