Economies of Writing, Without the Economics: Some Implications of Composition’s Economic Discourse as Represented in JAC 32.3–4

Abstract

Composition studies has recently increasingly engaged with economic concerns, as evidenced by the 2012 Watson Conference on “Economies of Writing” and a corresponding special issue of JAC. However, that increased engagement has not reflected an increased engagement with economic scholarship, resulting in a rhetoric that represents economy as either beyond intervention or a metaphor for non-economic phenomenon. Attention to economic scholarship can provide composition studies with a rhetoric that opens possibilities for economic agency.

Notes

1. 1I am grateful to RR reviewers John Trimbur and Doug Sweet for their helpful suggestions on previous drafts of this article and to Joseph Harris for his generous and encouraging feedback on the early draft I presented at the 2012 Watson Conference.

2. 2Marazzi’s book and Fumagalli and Mezzadra’s collection may be too recent to appear.

3. 3It is perhaps worth noting that some scholars in rhetoric and composition make use of citation counts and journal impact evaluations for the economic purposes of tenure and promotion.

4. 4I follow conventional usage in distinguishing “Marxist” from “Marxian”: “Marxist” describes the social and cultural movements with goals of advancing Marx’s revolutionary ideals whereas “Marxian” describes the study and analytical application of Marx’s economic principles.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mike Edwards

Mike Edwards earned his PhD in rhetoric and composition from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2006. He held a position at the United States Military Academy at West Point before moving to Washington State University, where he is an assistant professor. His scholarship, including a monograph currently in progress, focuses on the intersections of digital rhetorics and economics.