The Mathematisation of the World: Uncovering the Socio-Economic Tensions for Ethics in Mathematics Education

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Müller, Dennis
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Müller, Dennis
author_facet Müller, Dennis
contents The mathematisation of the socio-economic sphere, where mathematics actively constructs social reality, presents a challenge for studies on ethics in mathematics and its education. While existing scholarship on ethics in mathematics offers insights, it often remains philosophically driven and disconnected from other relevant disciplines. This paper addresses this gap by asking how debates on ethics in mathematics and its education can be connected with economic sociology, and what socio-economic tensions become visible through this connection. Drawing from concepts such as imagined futures, varieties of capitalism, and variegated capitalism, we synthesise a new perspective. This analysis reveals six interconnected tensions: a socio-economic valuation gap regarding ethics education; the multifaceted implementation of mathematics across different capitalist systems; its material opaqueness; a growing gap between economic power and social unaccountability; the enclosure of imagination limiting sustainable futures; and the erosion of multilateralism, which challenges critical pedagogy. The paper's contribution is a first step towards a structural socio-economic framework that links the limited literature on ethics in mathematics with these broader sociological perspectives.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_23349
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Mathematisation of the World: Uncovering the Socio-Economic Tensions for Ethics in Mathematics Education
Müller, Dennis
History and Overview
00A30, 01A80, 97A40, 97B99, 97C60, 97D20, 97E20, 97M10
The mathematisation of the socio-economic sphere, where mathematics actively constructs social reality, presents a challenge for studies on ethics in mathematics and its education. While existing scholarship on ethics in mathematics offers insights, it often remains philosophically driven and disconnected from other relevant disciplines. This paper addresses this gap by asking how debates on ethics in mathematics and its education can be connected with economic sociology, and what socio-economic tensions become visible through this connection. Drawing from concepts such as imagined futures, varieties of capitalism, and variegated capitalism, we synthesise a new perspective. This analysis reveals six interconnected tensions: a socio-economic valuation gap regarding ethics education; the multifaceted implementation of mathematics across different capitalist systems; its material opaqueness; a growing gap between economic power and social unaccountability; the enclosure of imagination limiting sustainable futures; and the erosion of multilateralism, which challenges critical pedagogy. The paper's contribution is a first step towards a structural socio-economic framework that links the limited literature on ethics in mathematics with these broader sociological perspectives.
title The Mathematisation of the World: Uncovering the Socio-Economic Tensions for Ethics in Mathematics Education
topic History and Overview
00A30, 01A80, 97A40, 97B99, 97C60, 97D20, 97E20, 97M10
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.23349