Progressing beyond the given has been a key modern tendency. Yet modern societies are currently facing the problem of how to put limits on progress, expansion, and growth, live within them, and preserve (rather than transcend) the present. Drawing on economic sociology scholarship on valuation and morality in economic life, this article develops and applies the term economization to analyze the enactment of limits on progress. The question of end-of-life care—when to stop medical efforts to prolong life, postpone death, and advance the scientific frontier—serves as an illustrative empirical case that sheds light on limit-setting in general. My analysis of this case combines historical, ethnographic, and in-depth interview data on US palliative care clinicians, who specialize in making life-and-death decisions in acute care hospitals.

超越既定的进步一直是现代的一个关键趋势。然而，现代社会目前面临的问题是如何限制进步、扩张和增长，并在其中生活并保持（而不是超越）当下。本文借鉴经济社会学关于经济生活中的价值和道德的学术成果，发展并应用经济化一词来分析对进步的限制。临终关怀问题——何时停止延长生命、推迟死亡和推进科学前沿的医疗努力——作为一个说明性的经验案例，揭示了一般限制的设定。我对这个案例的分析结合了美国姑息治疗临床医生的历史、人种学和深入访谈数据，这些医生专门在急症护理医院做出生死决定。