The Public Face of Economics

Abstract

Economics is a discipline remarkably distant from its publics. This is particularly striking when compared to science, which has been strenuously brought into public view for decades. The academic work done around science engagement provides a starting point for our questions here. Who is the imagined public for economics? How are they to know about economics? What is the economics that is made when it is made public? By looking at museums, books, newspapers, movies and documentaries, and through an in-depth look at blogs, we describe a public that is presumed ignorant but interested, a knowledge that is communicated from the top down, and an economics that is technical, secretive and macro-focused.