Reading Practices in Political Economy: The Case of Adam Smith

Abstract

The main references of the social sciences and humanities are texts. Texts are the means by which social scientists communicate their ideas and the means through which we, as readers, access those same ideas. Consequently, reading can be regarded as one of the main tools in the social sciences and ultimately the cornerstone of academia. This minisymposium takes the idea of reading and reading practices as its central focus. More specifically, the minisymposium demonstrates a variety of ways in which the reading process is complex, varied, and subject to many influences. In addition to this shared consideration of reading practices, articles in this minisymposium are united in their discussions of Adam Smith. It is through the means of interrogating readings and receptions of Smith that each article brings to the fore a different aspect of the reading process. The four articles contained within the minisymposium were first presented in May 2020 at an Adam Smith workshop funded by Newcastle University's Political Philosophy Cluster, and they each represent a continuation of the contemporary revisionist discussions on Smith—put forward by the likes of Glory Liu, Warren Samuels, and Amartya Sen—that criticize and revise dominant interpretations of Smith's works. The articles offer a diverse range of thoughts on the complex and multifaceted nature of the reading process, on how we might interrogate our own reading practices and those of others, and, ultimately, why doing so is beneficial and worthwhile.