Inquiry into Scarcity: How Modernity Acted for Equality Limitations

ISHMAEL intends to explore the impact of scarcity as a pivotal concept for government choices in the genesis of political economy, and to define its current use in contemporary political-philosophical arguments on economic choices.The general hypothesis is that the concept of scarcity and its semantics (notions such as rarity, lack, poverty) have been fundamental in shaping the social practices used by political economy as a discipline born as a science of government in the 18th century.

This frame led to the establishment of a contemporary economic-political model that made inequality a systematic form of social living, as it does not focus on the regulation of resource competition or the just distribution of wealth, but on the constant vigilance in maintaining the ratio of scarcity within society, i.e. unequal access to resources (food, economic, cultural).The aim is to shed new light on the epistemic frame underlying the political governance choices of modern democracies, thereby raising awareness about social policies based on the logic of increasing precariousness and competition for scarce resources.

The framework of the concept of scarcity and its epistemic implications have not yet been thoroughly explored through a philosophical-political perspective that considers the history and logic of the development of political economy.

Moreover, there is still no rigorous philosophical-political and historical conceptual study focusing on the use of scarcity as a pivotal notion in political governance and political economy as they are understood today.ISHMAEL’s methodology will be an original interweaving of German Begriffsgeschichte, Foucauldian analysis, Critique of legal devices and Social philosophy.

In so doing, it will be possible to analyse the historical semantics of the concepts at stake, highlighting their contingency and nature as social constructs, while defining the epistemic structure in which they were produced and ideologically exploited.