The invention of Choice

The business history group at the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, CBS, in conjunction with the Public-Private Platform, is organizing this workshop, which takes place at CBS January 12th-13th. Paul du Gay will chair a Roundtable Discussion on “‘Choice’ and Public Governance: Introducing CBS’ Business-in-Society Public-Private Platform” on the second day of the workshop. The workshop outline:The concept of “choice” is at the heart of much theorizing in marketing, micro-economics and consumer psychology today. The aim of the workshop is to problematize the notion of “choice” from various historical and theoretical perspectives. Rather than asking whether or not more (or less) choice per se is either good or bad for citizens and consumers – a perspective that dominates much of the discussion in marketing, consumer psychology, behavioural economics etc. – we want to use this workshop to exchange ideas about the historical, cultural and political circumstances that led to the reification of choice as a social policy aim in its own right. The workshop will bring together scholars from as wide a background as business and economic history, psychology, marketing, theology, and sociology to analyse when, why and how the mundane idea of “choice” became a political-economic concept with such an enormous power to mobilize people.