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In 1899, MIT chemist Ellen H. Richards (1842–1911) instigated a series of annual “Lake Placid Con... more In 1899, MIT chemist Ellen H. Richards (1842–1911) instigated a series of annual “Lake Placid Conferences” (1899–1908) that became known as the foundation of the home economics movement. Richards’s first interest was in improving the household’s well-being by using sanitary and nutrition sciences, an objective that was passed on to the movement. However, by the 1920s, home economists rather identified their field of expertise as the “science of consumption,” emphasizing the idea of “rational consumption.” My aim in this article is to give an account of how this shift in focus came about, by telling the story of the home economics movement founded by Richards. I examine how the movement problematized consumption by highlighting its relationship and perception of itself regarding economics. I argue that the concept of consumption was central to the structuring of the movement from its beginning and allowed home economists to claim it as their field of expertise because, as they believed, economists were not addressing the issue.

The Behavioural Insights Team (hereafter, BI-Team) is an organization created in July 2010 by Dav... more The Behavioural Insights Team (hereafter, BI-Team) is an organization created in July 2010 by David Cameron coalition government. The work of the team consists in applying methods of behavioural sciences as tools to improve public policy in different fields (BI-Team, 2016). Today, the team is identified with the famous “nudge” theory coined by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (2008), and is now mostly known as “the nudge unit” (see for example Bell, 2013, Benhold, 2013). This article reassesses the creation of the team. I argue that the interlinkage between the BI-Team and the behavioural economics literature is crucial to understand how politics and knowledge diffusion/production are embedded, which seems in the case of BI-Team highly ambiguous. Section I briefly presents the work of the team and assesses the factual origins of its creation; following the work of Jones et al. (2013), section II discusses two specific moments in the history of British politics showing that the establishment of the team can be explained by factors internal to UK politics; relying on this hypothesis, section III uses the case of BI-Team to show the complex path in-between academic knowledge and the political sphere.

Book Reviews by David Philippy

Talks by David Philippy

Papers by David Philippy

Science in Context, 2023

This paper contrasts the research strategies of two women reformers, Florence Kelley and Ellen Sw... more This paper contrasts the research strategies of two women reformers, Florence Kelley and Ellen Swallow Richards, which entailed different strategies of social reform. In the early 1890s, social activist Florence Kelley used the social survey as a weapon for legal reform of the working conditions of women and children in Chicago's sweatshop system. Kelley's case shows that her surveys were most effective as "grounded" knowledge, rooted in a local community with which she was well acquainted. Her social survey, re-enacted by lawmakers and the press, provided the evidence that moved her target audience to legal action. Chemist and propagator of the Home Economics Movement Ellen Richards situated the social problem, and hence its solution, not in exploitative working conditions, but in the inefficient and wasteful usage of available resources by the poor. Laboratory work, she argued, would enable the development of optimal standards, and educational programs should bring these standards to the household by means of models and exhibits. With this aim, she constructed public spaces that she ran as food laboratories and sanitary experiments. Kelley and Richards thus crossed the doorsteps of the household in very different ways. While Florence Kelley entered the household to change the living and working conditions of the poor by changing the law, Richards flipped the household inside out by bringing women into hybrid public laboratory spaces to change their behavior by experiment and instruction.

Revue européenne des sciences sociales

Cet ouvrage est une version revisee de la these doctorale de son auteur et prend la forme d’une i... more Cet ouvrage est une version revisee de la these doctorale de son auteur et prend la forme d’une invitation a (re)decouvrir et a reformuler les debats methodologiques contemporains autour de l’economie comportementale. La these principale du livre concerne la signification epistemologique de l’economie comportementale : l’existence de cette jeune sous-discipline de la science economique ne peut etre raisonnablement comprise comme le seul resultat de l’interdisciplinarite entre economie et psyc...

Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2021

In 1899, MIT chemist Ellen H. Richards (1842-1911) instigated a series of annual "Lake Placid Con... more In 1899, MIT chemist Ellen H. Richards (1842-1911) instigated a series of annual "Lake Placid Conferences" (1899-1908) that became known as the foundation of the home economics movement. Richards's first interest was in improving the household's well-being by using sanitary and nutrition sciences, an objective that was passed on to the movement. However, by the 1920s, home economists rather identified their field of expertise as the "science of consumption," emphasizing the idea of "rational consumption." My aim in this article is to give an account of how this shift in focus came about, by telling the story of the home economics movement founded by Richards. I examine how the movement problematized consumption by highlighting its relationship, and perception of itself, regarding economics. I argue that the concept of consumption was central to the structuring of the movement from its beginning and allowed home economists to claim it as their field of expertise because, as they believed, economists were not addressing the issue.

Thesis Chapters by David Philippy

Université de Lausanne, 2022

La thèse est une enquête historique retraçant l’émergence d’un champ de recherche dédié à l’étude... more La thèse est une enquête historique retraçant l’émergence d’un champ de recherche dédié à l’étude de la consommation aux États-Unis au début du 20ème siècle. Le trait caractéristique notable de ce champ est qu’il était essentiellement composé de protagonistes situés à la frange de l’économie politique, et dont la grande majorité était des femmes associées à la discipline de l’économie domestique.
À l’issue de discussions survenues juste après la création de l’American Economic Association en 1885, les économistes américains se montrent en effet peu favorables au développement d’un domaine d’étude spécialisé et séparé de celui de la production portant sur la consommation pour des raisons épistémologiques, disciplinaires, et de genre (chap. 1). Ce statu quo décidé par les économistes classiques et marginalistes a alimenté la critique institutionnaliste naissante, et amorça avec Veblen les premières proto-théories de la consommation au tournant du siècle (chap. 2). Parallèlement aux premiers institutionnalistes, la consommation fût revendiquée comme objet d’étude par un groupe de femmes réunies autour du « home economics movement » fondé par la chimiste Ellen Richards, dont l’influence sur le développement théorique de l’économie de la consommation sera significative (chap. 3). À partir des années 1920, la théorie de la consommation de Hazel Kyrk forme un épicentre théorique et structure le champ jusqu’aux années 1930 à travers un double héritage de l’économie domestique et de l’institutionnalisme, revendiquant à la fois une portée normative forte (i.e. à l’usage ou la protection des consommatrices) et une exigence de réalisme épistémologique (chap. 4). Vers la fin des années 1930, l’économie de la consommation devint une science essentiellement empirique, représentée par des études de budgets et des enquêtes sociales, en particulier dans les bureaux fédéraux. Le corpus théorique qui avait émergé et s’était présenté comme une alternative à l’étude déductiviste de la consommation disparait progressivement de l’analyse économique avec le déclin de l’institutionnalisme, la généralisation de l’ordinalisme, et la popularisation de la représentation macro-économique de la consommation après Keynes (chap. 5).
Ce travail examine le rôle joué par les enjeux épistémologiques et de genre dans cet épisode historique méconnu, donnant la possibilité d’étudier la façon dont les objets d’étude émergent dans l’histoire des sciences en dialogue avec le façonnement des identités des producteurs et productrices de discours scientifique. Cette thèse caractérise la consommation dans l’histoire de l’économie politique américaine comme frontière délimitant les cloisonnements disciplinaires, traduisant le poids du contexte socio-historique dans la construction des savoirs.

Abstract (English):
The thesis is a historical investigation that traces the emergence of a field of research dedicated to the study of consumption in the United States in the early 20th century. The notable feature of this field is that it was essentially composed of protagonists located on the fringe of political economy, the vast majority of whom were women associated with the home economics discipline.
Just after the American Economic Association’s foundation in 1885, American economists did not favor the development of a specialized field of study separate from that of production because of epistemological, disciplinary, and gender reasons (chap. 1). This status quo decided by classical and marginalist economists fed the nascent institutionalist critique, along with Veblen who started one of the first proto-theories of consumption by the end of the century (chap. 2). Together with the first institutionalists, consumption was claimed as an object of study by a group of women united around the “home economics movement,” founded by chemist Ellen Richards, whose influence on the theoretical development of the economics of consumption would become significant (chap. 3). From the 1920s, Hazel Kyrk’s theory of consumption formed a theoretical epicenter and structured the field until the 1930s through a twofold heritage of home economics and institutionalism, claiming both a strong normative stance (i.e. helping and protecting consumers) and epistemological realism (chap. 4). By the late 1930s, the economics of consumption essentially became an empirical science, represented by budget studies and social surveys, notably in federal bureaus. The theoretical corpus that had emerged as an alternative to the deductivist study of consumption gradually disappeared from economic analysis with the decline of institutionalism, the generalization of ordinalism, and the popularization of macroeconomic representation of the Keynesian consumption function (chap. 5).
This research examines the role played by epistemological and gender issues in this little-known historical episode, providing an opportunity to study how objects emerge in the history of science in dialogue with the shaping of the identities of scientific discourse producers. This thesis characterizes consumption in the history of American political economy as a boundary delineating between different disciplines, and reflecting the significance of the socio-historical context in the construction of knowledge.

In 1899, MIT chemist Ellen H. Richards (1842–1911) instigated a series of annual “Lake Placid Con... more In 1899, MIT chemist Ellen H. Richards (1842–1911) instigated a series of annual “Lake Placid Conferences” (1899–1908) that became known as the foundation of the home economics movement. Richards’s first interest was in improving the household’s well-being by using sanitary and nutrition sciences, an objective that was passed on to the movement. However, by the 1920s, home economists rather identified their field of expertise as the “science of consumption,” emphasizing the idea of “rational consumption.” My aim in this article is to give an account of how this shift in focus came about, by telling the story of the home economics movement founded by Richards. I examine how the movement problematized consumption by highlighting its relationship and perception of itself regarding economics. I argue that the concept of consumption was central to the structuring of the movement from its beginning and allowed home economists to claim it as their field of expertise because, as they believed, economists were not addressing the issue.

The Behavioural Insights Team (hereafter, BI-Team) is an organization created in July 2010 by Dav... more The Behavioural Insights Team (hereafter, BI-Team) is an organization created in July 2010 by David Cameron coalition government. The work of the team consists in applying methods of behavioural sciences as tools to improve public policy in different fields (BI-Team, 2016). Today, the team is identified with the famous “nudge” theory coined by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (2008), and is now mostly known as “the nudge unit” (see for example Bell, 2013, Benhold, 2013). This article reassesses the creation of the team. I argue that the interlinkage between the BI-Team and the behavioural economics literature is crucial to understand how politics and knowledge diffusion/production are embedded, which seems in the case of BI-Team highly ambiguous. Section I briefly presents the work of the team and assesses the factual origins of its creation; following the work of Jones et al. (2013), section II discusses two specific moments in the history of British politics showing that the establishment of the team can be explained by factors internal to UK politics; relying on this hypothesis, section III uses the case of BI-Team to show the complex path in-between academic knowledge and the political sphere.

Science in Context, 2023

This paper contrasts the research strategies of two women reformers, Florence Kelley and Ellen Sw... more This paper contrasts the research strategies of two women reformers, Florence Kelley and Ellen Swallow Richards, which entailed different strategies of social reform. In the early 1890s, social activist Florence Kelley used the social survey as a weapon for legal reform of the working conditions of women and children in Chicago's sweatshop system. Kelley's case shows that her surveys were most effective as "grounded" knowledge, rooted in a local community with which she was well acquainted. Her social survey, re-enacted by lawmakers and the press, provided the evidence that moved her target audience to legal action. Chemist and propagator of the Home Economics Movement Ellen Richards situated the social problem, and hence its solution, not in exploitative working conditions, but in the inefficient and wasteful usage of available resources by the poor. Laboratory work, she argued, would enable the development of optimal standards, and educational programs should bring these standards to the household by means of models and exhibits. With this aim, she constructed public spaces that she ran as food laboratories and sanitary experiments. Kelley and Richards thus crossed the doorsteps of the household in very different ways. While Florence Kelley entered the household to change the living and working conditions of the poor by changing the law, Richards flipped the household inside out by bringing women into hybrid public laboratory spaces to change their behavior by experiment and instruction.

Revue européenne des sciences sociales

Cet ouvrage est une version revisee de la these doctorale de son auteur et prend la forme d’une i... more Cet ouvrage est une version revisee de la these doctorale de son auteur et prend la forme d’une invitation a (re)decouvrir et a reformuler les debats methodologiques contemporains autour de l’economie comportementale. La these principale du livre concerne la signification epistemologique de l’economie comportementale : l’existence de cette jeune sous-discipline de la science economique ne peut etre raisonnablement comprise comme le seul resultat de l’interdisciplinarite entre economie et psyc...

Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2021

In 1899, MIT chemist Ellen H. Richards (1842-1911) instigated a series of annual "Lake Placid Con... more In 1899, MIT chemist Ellen H. Richards (1842-1911) instigated a series of annual "Lake Placid Conferences" (1899-1908) that became known as the foundation of the home economics movement. Richards's first interest was in improving the household's well-being by using sanitary and nutrition sciences, an objective that was passed on to the movement. However, by the 1920s, home economists rather identified their field of expertise as the "science of consumption," emphasizing the idea of "rational consumption." My aim in this article is to give an account of how this shift in focus came about, by telling the story of the home economics movement founded by Richards. I examine how the movement problematized consumption by highlighting its relationship, and perception of itself, regarding economics. I argue that the concept of consumption was central to the structuring of the movement from its beginning and allowed home economists to claim it as their field of expertise because, as they believed, economists were not addressing the issue.

Université de Lausanne, 2022

La thèse est une enquête historique retraçant l’émergence d’un champ de recherche dédié à l’étude... more La thèse est une enquête historique retraçant l’émergence d’un champ de recherche dédié à l’étude de la consommation aux États-Unis au début du 20ème siècle. Le trait caractéristique notable de ce champ est qu’il était essentiellement composé de protagonistes situés à la frange de l’économie politique, et dont la grande majorité était des femmes associées à la discipline de l’économie domestique.
À l’issue de discussions survenues juste après la création de l’American Economic Association en 1885, les économistes américains se montrent en effet peu favorables au développement d’un domaine d’étude spécialisé et séparé de celui de la production portant sur la consommation pour des raisons épistémologiques, disciplinaires, et de genre (chap. 1). Ce statu quo décidé par les économistes classiques et marginalistes a alimenté la critique institutionnaliste naissante, et amorça avec Veblen les premières proto-théories de la consommation au tournant du siècle (chap. 2). Parallèlement aux premiers institutionnalistes, la consommation fût revendiquée comme objet d’étude par un groupe de femmes réunies autour du « home economics movement » fondé par la chimiste Ellen Richards, dont l’influence sur le développement théorique de l’économie de la consommation sera significative (chap. 3). À partir des années 1920, la théorie de la consommation de Hazel Kyrk forme un épicentre théorique et structure le champ jusqu’aux années 1930 à travers un double héritage de l’économie domestique et de l’institutionnalisme, revendiquant à la fois une portée normative forte (i.e. à l’usage ou la protection des consommatrices) et une exigence de réalisme épistémologique (chap. 4). Vers la fin des années 1930, l’économie de la consommation devint une science essentiellement empirique, représentée par des études de budgets et des enquêtes sociales, en particulier dans les bureaux fédéraux. Le corpus théorique qui avait émergé et s’était présenté comme une alternative à l’étude déductiviste de la consommation disparait progressivement de l’analyse économique avec le déclin de l’institutionnalisme, la généralisation de l’ordinalisme, et la popularisation de la représentation macro-économique de la consommation après Keynes (chap. 5).
Ce travail examine le rôle joué par les enjeux épistémologiques et de genre dans cet épisode historique méconnu, donnant la possibilité d’étudier la façon dont les objets d’étude émergent dans l’histoire des sciences en dialogue avec le façonnement des identités des producteurs et productrices de discours scientifique. Cette thèse caractérise la consommation dans l’histoire de l’économie politique américaine comme frontière délimitant les cloisonnements disciplinaires, traduisant le poids du contexte socio-historique dans la construction des savoirs.

Abstract (English):
The thesis is a historical investigation that traces the emergence of a field of research dedicated to the study of consumption in the United States in the early 20th century. The notable feature of this field is that it was essentially composed of protagonists located on the fringe of political economy, the vast majority of whom were women associated with the home economics discipline.
Just after the American Economic Association’s foundation in 1885, American economists did not favor the development of a specialized field of study separate from that of production because of epistemological, disciplinary, and gender reasons (chap. 1). This status quo decided by classical and marginalist economists fed the nascent institutionalist critique, along with Veblen who started one of the first proto-theories of consumption by the end of the century (chap. 2). Together with the first institutionalists, consumption was claimed as an object of study by a group of women united around the “home economics movement,” founded by chemist Ellen Richards, whose influence on the theoretical development of the economics of consumption would become significant (chap. 3). From the 1920s, Hazel Kyrk’s theory of consumption formed a theoretical epicenter and structured the field until the 1930s through a twofold heritage of home economics and institutionalism, claiming both a strong normative stance (i.e. helping and protecting consumers) and epistemological realism (chap. 4). By the late 1930s, the economics of consumption essentially became an empirical science, represented by budget studies and social surveys, notably in federal bureaus. The theoretical corpus that had emerged as an alternative to the deductivist study of consumption gradually disappeared from economic analysis with the decline of institutionalism, the generalization of ordinalism, and the popularization of macroeconomic representation of the Keynesian consumption function (chap. 5).
This research examines the role played by epistemological and gender issues in this little-known historical episode, providing an opportunity to study how objects emerge in the history of science in dialogue with the shaping of the identities of scientific discourse producers. This thesis characterizes consumption in the history of American political economy as a boundary delineating between different disciplines, and reflecting the significance of the socio-historical context in the construction of knowledge.