We need to make sure that the accreditation system upholds – and importantly develops – the values and spirit of economic pluralism in teaching. It also needs to be accountable to the wider stakeholder community. So how can we do that? Here are some initial thoughts for your comment. We have looked at other similar … Continued
Who shaped our world more Neil Armstrong, Jimi Hendrix, or the King of Sweden? By any standards, 1969 was a momentous year. Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon, half a million people came to Woodstock to hear Jimi Hendrix, and the Stonewall riots kicked off the gay liberation movement. The … Continued
Objective To seek comments on proposed processes for assessing whether masters programmes meet the criteria for taking a pluralist approach to teaching economics and ensuring ongoing compliance and collective learning. Context In general university department programmes are not accredited but do have to be approved by internal university processes, which take some time and are … Continued
Mark Preen looks at the situation in the UK since economics A level reform in 2015 As both an economics graduate and A Level Economics teacher I have observed with great interest the Rethinking Economics Movement which emerged following the 2008 Financial Crisis. Criticisms levelled at university economic departments by their students included the lack … Continued
1. Recognition of the existence and potential value of a range of different perspectives from economics and other disciplines for understanding economic related issues. Rationale: This is the core value of those who take a pluralist approach to understanding the economy. 2. Incorporation of a reasonable breadth of perspectives into the curriculum with an expectation … Continued
Everything starts with an integral conception of the human being, radically different from the conventional-Cartesian view that the human being is a brain encapsulated by the skin. An integral conception of the human being naturally acknowledges that we are much more than thoughts, be these rational, or irrational for that matter. I would say historically, … Continued
One week into the online dialogue, we are already seeing a range of interesting debates emerging. Here are a flavour of three that interested us: How much economics should be required? What are we looking for pluralism in? Should there be a role for the heart as well as the head? So what to you … Continued
The conformity in economics teaching in many ways is the most damaging aspect of our current economics discipline. Thousands of graduates all round the world enter work each year with the impression that there is only one way of thinking about organising our economies. Innovative and critical thinking is crushed just when we need it … Continued
Post the Crash, we seemed set for a revolution in economics. Even The Economist magazine, defender of free markets, concluded that a new economics was needed. Yet we are still waiting! We think the answer is to legitimise the innovators outside the mainstream rather than expect change to come from within. Following revelations of the … Continued
Interdisciplinarity is seen as a means of gaining new insight by some. But everyone agrees it is not easy. So how can you build the necessary respect, trust and understanding? We started the process with a panel discussion and then a more radical open space session. People seemed to enjoy it. Lets see where we can … Continued
After a few days spent visiting the OECD to mark 10 years after the failure of Lehman Brothers, the task of reforming economic teaching could seem even more daunting. You hear for yourself how this teaching has hardwired neo-classical economics into heads of policy makers. Some have even lost their ability to converse in normal … Continued
Professor Sugden, a renowned and celebrated pioneer of behavioural economics, has written an important book. In it he skewers the “nudge economics” fudge that maintains the illusion of the possibility of economic rationality and reframes how we should judge markets. They are just one form of social collaboration for mutual benefit…. or not. It is … Continued
So what does an economics look like that is fit for the 21st century? The mainstream environmental economics framework of labelling the environment as an ‘externality’ clearly doesn’t fit the bill. We are now dominating global ecosystems so they should hardly an add on in our thinking and models. So what does an economics look … Continued
Larry Elliot in his piece ‘Heretics welcome! Economics needs a new Reformation’ reported on Steve Keen and other leading economists ‘nailing’ 33 theses on ‘economic reformation’ to the door of a top university. This was designed to echo the apocryphal story of Luther nailing up his 95 theses 500 years ago. Clearly we do need … Continued
I have a problem. I don’t really understand it. This sort of problem has never been solved before. Yet I want you to tell me how you are going to go about solving it and at what cost. That seems like madness but it is every day life. It is called competitive tendering. It is … Continued