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The first day of the workshop is intended to initiate students to the foundational concepts of ecological economics. Ecological economics is an ecological critique of economics, applying the energetics of life to the study of the economy. It also investigates the social distribution of environmental costs and benefits. It does so by deconstructing concepts that are taken for granted like “nature” or “the economy”, excavating their ideological origins.
2022
Level: beginner
Political ecology, degrowth, and the Green New Deal
Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, is teaching in this online session about the global rules under which the modern (free trade-focused) type of globalization operates and why, under such institutions, international community fails to deal with the climate change and pandemics.
2020
Level: beginner
Pandemics, Climate Change, and Global Economics: Where Did We Go Wrong in Globalization?
This lively introduction to heterodox economics provides a balanced critique of the standard introductory macroeconomic curriculum. In clear and accessible prose, it explains many of the key principles that underlie a variety of alternative theoretical perspectives (including institutionalist economics, radical economics, Post Keynesian economics, feminist economics, ecological economics, Marxist economics, social economics, and socioeconomics).
2015
Level: beginner
Reintroducing Macroeconomics
In his 2010 published book “The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism” multi-talented US geographer, anthropologist and Marxist economist David Harvey aims to analyse the capitalist system that has shaped western society and the globalized world of today.
2011
Level: advanced
The Enigma of Capital
Silvia Federici outlines the content of her book „Caliban and the Witch - Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation“. Departing from a critique of the Marxist blindspot on reproductive labour, Federici aims at researching the historical process by which the exploitation of women and the construction of the unproductive housewife has been established. Federici points to the transition from the feudal to the capitalist mode of production and explains how the gender specific prosecution (witch hunt) was linked to necessity of control over bodies and the sexuality in the great transformation. Federici also presents arguments why this research is highly relevant for the analysis of women's situation in current capitalism.
2013
Level: beginner
Caliban and the Witch
Economist and politician Costas Lapavitsas: presents differing theoretical definitions of financialization, namely from Marxist and Post-Keynesian thinkers and compares their approaches. By presenting pattern and features of the economic and financial crisis, he interprets the latter as a crisis of financialization. Lapavitsas emphasizes his arguments by presenting data from the U.S. and Germany on the transformation of business, banks and households.
2015
Level: beginner
The Financialisation of Capitalism
This text provides an overview of feminist perspectives on various kinds of work and reproductive labour. The authors start at the intersection of Marxism and Feminism. They, then, give a historical background on the United States feminist movement. They, finally, provide alternative perspectives on work and reproductive labor that are not based on Marxist Feminist theory.
2016
Level: advanced
Feminist Perspectives on Class and Work
Marxist scholar David Harvey explains key concepts of capital from Marx. Applying Marx's analysis of capital to today's world, showing both the longevity and relevance of Marx's Capital, 150 years after its publication.
2017
Level: advanced
Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason
Usually, Critical Theory and Economics are, for better or worse, no longer seen to be in a continuum. This article by Lukas Meisner serves as an introduction to Critical Theory for all (heterodox) economists, who want to understand and explain what they can, otherwise, just state and describe.
2024
Level: beginner
Critical Theory for Heterodox Economists: Questioning the Premises of Supply and Demand
Once in a while the world astonishes itself. Anxious incredulity replaces intellectual torpor and a puzzled public strains its antennae in every possible direction, desperately seeking explanations for the causes and nature of what just hit it. 2008 was such a moment. Not only did the financial system collapse, and send the real economy into a tailspin, but it also revealed the great gulf separating economics from a very real capitalism.
2011
Level: advanced
Modern Political Economics
The goal of this teaching pack by Economy Studies is to make students familiar with different visions for how the economy could be organised and enable them to critically reflect on such ideas. As future economic experts, it is important that they become aware of prominent proposals for reorganising the economy and practise how to deal with them.
2022
Level: beginner
(Some) Visions for the economy - Economy Studies
In this famous article Michal Kalecki describes the three main reasons that push business leaders to reject the intervention of the government to ensure full employment i dislike of government interference in the problem of employment as such ii dislike of the direction of government spending public investment and subsidizsing …
1943
Level: beginner
Political Aspects of Full Employment
Teaching and learning ontology and epistemology. Onto-what? Bates & Jenkins explain what is needed to equip students with the ability to critically reflect on learned content and understand meta-discussions in their field.
2007
Level: advanced
Teaching and Learning Ontology and Epistemology in Political Science
What made the false assumption that saving the economy at all cost during a pandemic so popular? This paper discusses different pathways through the COVID-19 pandemic at national and international level, and their consequences on the health of citizens and their economies.
2021
Level: beginner
How not to save the economy? The interplay of economics and health during the COVID-19 pandemic
"First published more than a decade ago, Globalizing Capital has remained an indispensable part of economic literature. This classic book emphasizes the importance of the international monetary system for understanding the international economy. The second edition, published in October 2008, has consistently appeared on syllabuses since its release
2019
Level: advanced
Globalizing Capital
Hamilton argues that economics lacks the political economy context in order to understand racism, and demonstrates how racism is embedded in the political economy of America.
2020
Level: beginner
How America’s Economy Runs on Racism
Dr. Katherine Trebeck explains some reasons why we should believe the future of the economy should be a wellbeing economy.
2020
Level: beginner
Why the Future Economy has to be a Wellbeing Economy
The text presents a short perspective of International Political Economy, which "have often sought to complement discussions of governance with a healthy dose of critique", on resistance against e.g. economic inequality or economic and political power.
2017
Level: beginner
Resistance
Foreign exploitation of economic crises in the developing world has been a central claim of neoliberal critics. This important and recurring international theme is the subject of closer scrutiny in this new collection, where contributors offer competing interpretations of the interaction between international and domestic forces after crises.
2008
Level: advanced
Power and Politics after Financial Crises
This course teaches basic concepts relevant in political economy. Topics include the contractual nature of the state, public versus private goods, property rights and economic externalities, the logic of collective action and social choice theory. It also refers to the fundamentals of political philosophy, bringing two ideas of liberty into the picture. The relevance and limitations of the economic approach to the study of law and politics are then discussed.
Level: advanced
State, Law and the Economy
The foundational economy is a concept which describes the infrastructure of everyday life, encompassing all essential services like utilities or healthcare that people require for wellbeing. This contribution provides an overview of foundational thinking.
2025
Level: beginner
The foundational economy: Focusing on what matters
This Micro-Masters program on Circular Economy looks at the concept and its application from different angles, covering a very wide variety of topics (From Fossil Fuels to Biomass: A Chemistry Perspective; Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Approach; Economics and Policies in a Biobased Economy). It offers a well-rounded, multidisciplinary perspective, using sciences and humanities together for a deeper understanding of the topic. A great start for newbies with Circular Economy! The access to the course is for free, but you can also apply for full-time on-campus graduate-level programs, be it Wageninged or other universities.
2016
Level: advanced
Economics and Policies for a Circular Bio-Economy
This article outlines the fundamental challenges of democratically planned economies and categorises proposed models into six groups, each of which approaches planning and coordination at different levels of authority and between myriad economic units in a particular way, taking into account efficiency as well as democratic principles and environmental and social sustainability. Through a classification system based on decision-making authority and mediation mechanisms, the article provides a framework for understanding and comparing these models. By examining their different approaches, it offers insights into the complexities and potential paths of democratically planned economies in the 21st century.
2024
Level: beginner
Rethinking Democratic Economic Planning: An Overview
This paper surveys the development of the concept of socialism from the French Revolution to the socialist calculation debate. Karl Marx’s politics of revolutionary socialism led by an empowered proletariat nurtured by capital accumulation envisions socialism as a “top-down” system resting on political institutions, despite Marx’s keen appreciation of the long-period analysis of the organization of social production in the classical political economists. Collectivist thinking in the work of Enrico Barone and Wilfredo Pareto paved the way for the discussion of socialism purely in terms of the allocation of resources. The Soviet experiment abandoned the mixed economy model of the New Economic Policy for a political-bureaucratic administration of production only loosely connected to theoretical concepts of socialism. The socialist calculation debate reductively recast the problem of socialism as a problem of allocation of resources, leading to general equilibrium theory. Friedrich Hayek responded to the socialist calculation debate by shifting the ground of discussion from class relations to information revelation
2017
Level: beginner
Socialist alternatives to capitalism I: Marx to Hayek
Political-economic systems define the ways in which the production and distribution of goods and services are organised that shape people’s lives. We live in capitalism, but what does that mean? This essential lecture by Economy Studies helps students develop an understanding of it on the basis of the book Capitalism by Geoffrey Ingham.
2022
Level: beginner
Capitalism - Economy Studies
This lecture is based on the “Introducing the Economy” chapter from the Economy Studies book, which introduces the first building block in their framework for transforming the economics education. The aim is to give students a feel and understanding of the economy as part of a bigger whole. Thus, it is aimed to introduce to students before getting into the economics curriculum with theory and models.
2022
Level: beginner
Introducing the Economy
Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece and the co-founder of the international DiEM25 platform, discusses the economic and political impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic, in particular with regards to the Eurozone and southern European countries.
2020
Level: beginner
Coronavirus Economics and the Eurozone
Understanding international trade is central to economics and is currently a hot political issue. It’s an area where popular perceptions of mainstream economics are low, since they have historically missed some important downsides of trade agreements, especially the hollowing out of former manufacturing hubs in the Western world. et economists have for long time had a theory of trade with an impressive amount of scientific clout behind it: the gravity trade model.
2020
Level: beginner
A Theory of Enormous Gravity
In the course Sociology and Socialism, students engage with classical theories of socialism as well as their applications in a variety of historical and international contexts. Staunchly interdisciplinary, the course utilizes expertise in philosophy, history, economics, sociology, anthropology and political theory.
2020
Level: beginner
Socialism and Sociology
What is game theory? Game theory is a way of thinking about strategic interactions between people, which makes it a crucial component of economics, political science, international relations, psychology and a variety of other disciplines that deal with the complexities of human interaction in decision making.
2018
Level: beginner
An Introduction to Game Theory in Public Policy
Crises are a key part of the history of the global economy. This lesson by Economy Studies introduces students to the crisis management theories of John Maynard Keyens by presenting them in the historical context of the Great Depression, the Post-War increase in the state in managing the economy, and the Energy Crisis of the 1970s.
2022
Level: beginner
How to get away with a crisis? - Economy Studies
What is sustainable development and what is the idea of a green economy? What is the role of the green economy in the current triple crisis? The short video discusses the concept and in particular the concerns about a green economy, especially with regards to inequality and poverty. The short statements in the video also reflect other possibilities of transformation.
2012
Level: beginner
Green Economy and Sustainable Development: Bringing Back the Social

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