Discourse and Discipline

Abstract

This chapter advances the claim that to understand the development of economic knowledge from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, one needs to understand the new location that this knowledge found: the modern university. Broad questions of ‘education and economy’ in industrialising societies are raised and placed in an international context. Following on from this, existing work on the ‘institutionalisation’ of economics is reviewed, emphasising the need for detailed knowledge of institutional structures—what was taught, how it was taught, the sources of student demand, and the attitude of employers—if we are to adequately capture the dynamics of an emerging discipline.