Dan Hirschman

Graduate Student

Affiliation(s)
- Program in Science, Technology and Society.
Fields of Study
- Culture and Knowledge
- Economic Sociology and Organizations
- Power, History, and Social Change
About

Dan Hirschman entered the PhD program in Sociology in 2008. His main line of work focuses on the history of macroeconomic statistics in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. His research examines how "the economy" became an object of knowledge and manipulation through the creation and standardization of official government statistics, with a focus on national income statistics (including GNP and GDP). His work emphasizes both the omissions in official economic statistics - such as unpaid housework - as well as the ways in which macroeconomic statistics make new kinds of discourse and action possible ("macroeconomic management"). Broadly, this work draws on insights from economic sociology, science studies, and political sociology. Dan's side interests include the economization of health care, social movements that contest commodification (such as Fair Trade and Free/Open Source Software), and the rhetoric of quantitative research. His favorite social theorists are Karl Polanyi and Michel Foucault.
Education
- B.S. University of Michigan, 2006
- M.A. University of Michigan, 2010
Research Areas of Interest
- Science & Technology, Theory, Economic Sociology

People