The Fairly Good Economy: Testing the Economization of Society Hypothesis Against a Google Ngram View of Trends in Functional Differentiation (1800-2000)

Journal of Applied Business Research, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 1495-1500, 2013

9 Pages Posted: 30 Aug 2013 Last revised: 13 Aug 2015

See all articles by Steffen Roth

Steffen Roth

Excelia Business School; Kazimieras Simonavičius University

Date Written: August 30, 2013

Abstract

The present article considers the economization of society a hypothesis rather than a fact. The hypothesis is tested against the results of a Google ngram viewer analysis of the most frequent function system references in the Google Books corpus for the years 1800-2000. Despite the remarkable growth figures in the English, French, and German language corpora as related to economic word frequency shares, the results suggest the rejection of the economization hypothesis. In fact, the growth trends of economic word frequencies are stopped in all of the three language areas, in none of which the economy ever reached a dominant position throughout the entire 200 years. The results give reason to assume that the idea of an economized society is an intellectual artifact rather than a fact. This fact is emphasized not to prove the marginal relevance of research in economic risks and benefits, but rather in terms of a suggestion to consider re-focusing research foci and drawing increased attention to function systems beyond the politico-economic double stars of social science. Maybe even the solution to the present “economic” “crises” is not in more, but rather in less attention to the economy.

Keywords: Google Ngram, Culturomics, Economization, Functional Differentiation, Function Systems, Social Systems

JEL Classification: A14, Z10

Suggested Citation

Roth, Steffen, The Fairly Good Economy: Testing the Economization of Society Hypothesis Against a Google Ngram View of Trends in Functional Differentiation (1800-2000) (August 30, 2013). Journal of Applied Business Research, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 1495-1500, 2013, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2318228

Steffen Roth (Contact Author)

Excelia Business School ( email )

102 rue de Coureilles
Les Minimes
La Rochelle, 17024
France

Kazimieras Simonavičius University ( email )

Dariaus ir Girėno g. 21
Vilnius, 02189
Lithuania

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