Our Vision
The economic problems of the present are complex and diverse – economic instability and financial crises, national and international inequality, climate change and environmental degradation as well as poverty, exploitation, racism and gender inequality. The answers of economics education, however, are often one-sided and mono-dimensional. Disappointed by the lack of pluralism and innovation in economic teaching, students and young scholars of the Network for Pluralism in Economics developed Exploring Economics.
Our goal: to transform economics
The open-access e-learning platform intends to shift the teaching of economics away from its prevailing mono-disciplinary and one-sided state towards an open, interdisciplinary and pluralist approach. Exploring Economics responds to the international appeal of students and scholars for a fundamental change in economics that has been reinforced by the financial crisis in 2007/2008 and the acceleration of climate change in the early phase of the 21st century. By presenting and spreading alternative ideas about the economy, we seek to change the economic thinking of today’s youth and transform the economy of tomorrow into a more environmentally and socially sustainable system.
Our approach: to create a new type of integrated online and offline learning
The e-learning platform offers an introduction to pluralist economics in the form of intuitive infographics and introductory articles (orientation), it aggregates online accessible material like videos, podcasts, texts, and dossiers on economic theories and issues (discover) and it lists online study courses and books from throughout the world (study). Since the launch of Exploring Economics in December 2016, we registered more than 41.000 page views in the first month and visitors from more than 160 countries. Currently, we register over 27.000 visitors per month, who access ca. 1.300 learning materials.
Besides the e-learning platform, we offer regular writing workshops and summer academies, in order to create a new space for collective and problem-oriented economic learning. Following the open-access and bottom-up approach of Exploring Economics, new learning material is developed within writing workshops, summer schools and seminars in a decentralized way. By this, the online platform is directly anchored among students and lecturers and reaches a broad, international audience. An international team of editors and professors checks and expands the learning material and maintains academic quality.
Our method: cooperation
We cooperate with student groups, teachers, universities, foundations and NGOs worldwide to expand our learning material, anchor it in teaching and reach out to students, especially from the Global South. Our vision is to connect producers and users of economic learning and teaching material across the globe.
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