From Periphery To Center: Dialoguing Into Economics

In this work I discuss on the process lived by novice, emerging economists in order to become acknowledged as full-fledged members of Economics’ community.
The participation in communities, and the knowledge/practice appropriated this way, has been largely studied (e.g. Wenger, 1998). However, the social, dialogical process of becoming a valid member for a particular scientific community –like economics– has been considerably less addressed. As Kullasepp (2008) pointed out, most of existing studies have focused on acquiring roles through pre-established paths; thus assuming that roles are ‘imported’ into the self as pre-packaged ways of relating, thinking, acting, etc. Therefore, these studies have neglected the unique, developmental and dialogical nature of these transitional processes (Zittoun, 2006). In this vein, becoming-a-scientist is understood here as a dialogical process, guided by meaning-making persons oriented towards others (Marková, 2003). This process not only entails the active construction of novel I-Other positions, but also the meaningful re-construction of multiple previous I-positions. Hence, I look to advance existing dialogical approaches on this topic by exploring the notions of Center/Periphery. As Hermans (2001) proposed, center and periphery are not fixed ‘I-positions’ of the self; in this vein, these notions are explored as relevant theoretical tools for addressing the developmental trajectories involved in the construction of scientific identities. In sum, the present work looks to discuss on how this transitional process might be understood as a dialogical movement of the self from the periphery of an economics community (‘a student’) into a full-fledged member of it (‘a fellow colleague’).