title: Mainstream economics and sense-making.
abstract: This work presents a semiotic approach to the economy, underlining that any economic phenomena is at the same time a communicative act as it is contingent to sense-making. The article discusses this topic by focusing on a specific phenomenon studied by economics: the underground economy. It shows that the conceptualization of the underground economy in terms of sense-making processes offers a thought-provoking perspective for theoretical development. More in general, the discussion proposed makes it clear that in order to deepen our vision of economic phenomena in a more thoughtful and realistic way we need to rethink these phenomena as being reciprocally and circularly embedded in the semiotic flow of life. The economy is within sense-making and it is shaped by it; at the same time sense-making is within the economy, as its semiotic substance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational, Psychological and Teaching Science, Via Stampacchia, 45, 73100 Lecce, Italy. sergio.salvatore@ateneo.unile.it
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Salvatore
authors.forename: Guglielmo Forges
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Davanzati
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Potì
authors.forename: Ruggero
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ruggieri
mesh_terms: D002755:Choice Behavior; D003142:Communication; D003469:Culture; D003662:Decision Theory; D004467:Economics; D004651:Employment / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D018803:Models, Economic; D008960:Models, Psychological