Genealogies of Human Capital

ongoing

Genealogies of Human Capital (GenHumCap) explores the rise of human capital theories between the collapse of the labor theory of value and the World Bank’s recent Human Capital Plan. Specifically, it charts how human life, although formally absent from market exchange, was rendered tractable to neoclassical practices of valuation and calculated investment; then how diverse experts used these methods to reconfigure healthcare, development aid, and population control programs in the name of maximized future wellbeing. Using methods from sociology, the history of science, and the digital humanities, the project will gather new data from archives, expert interviews, and new text-mining techniques, analyzing the results in light of contemporary French sociological studies of the social sciences. It will do so in close dialogue with leading sociologists at the CESSP in Paris, under the supervision of Professor Gisèle Sapiro. To disseminate its findings, the project will result in a conference, two academic articles, and a book manuscript; and in public-facing summaries in newspapers and EU-sponsored dissemination projects. Through innovative, interdisciplinary methods, GenHuC will provide the first substantial investigation into human capital, advancing multiple fields by reframing a series of sociological debates on 'neoliberalism,' 'biopolitics,' and 'biocapital,' and creating new connections between the history of science, sociology, and economics. In the process it will cement the base for a competitive research career in European academia.