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This workshop offers an introduction to Degrowth and Ecological Economics. It starts by surveying the socio-ecological crisis and its pseudo-solutions, and then moves to Ecological Macroeconomics as a relatively recent field of scholarship within Ecological Economics.
2021
Level: beginner
Ecological Economics and Degrowth
How do people make decisions? There is a class of models in psychology which seek to answer this question but have received scant attention in economics despite some clear empirical successes. In a previous post I discussed one of these, Decision by Sampling, and this post will look at another: the so-called Fast and Frugal heuristics pioneered by the German psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer. Here the individual seeks out sufficient information to make a reasonable decision. They are ‘fast’ because they do not require massive computational effort to make a decision so can be done in seconds, and they are ‘frugal’ because they use as little information as possible to make the decision effectively.
2020
Level: beginner
Bounded Rationality: the Case of ‘Fast and Frugal’ Heuristics
Based on a paper by Jason Hickel and Giorgos Kallis Decoupling refers to the separation of economic value creation material extraction and pollution. Ecological limits pose a challenge to growth-led development and the low historical and predicted rate of decoupling suggests that long-term sustainable growth-led development is impossible.
2021
Level: beginner
Degrowth and Environmental Justice: Decoupling
Post-Keynesian and heterodox economics challenge the mainstream economics theories that dominate the teaching at universities and government economic policies. And it was these latter theories that helped to cause the great depression the United States and the rest of the world is in.
2012
Level: advanced
In Defense of Post-Keynesian and Heterodox Economics

Tony Lawson has become a major figure of intellectual controversy on the back of juxtaposing two relatively simple and seemingly innocuous ideas. He has argued firstly that success in science depends on finding and using methods, including modes of reasoning, appropriate to the nature of the phenomena being studied, and also that there are important differences between the nature of the objects of study of natural sciences and those of social science.

2009
Level: advanced
Ontology and Economics
This study offers a unique evolutionary economics perspective on energy and innovation policies in the wider context of the transition to sustainable development. The authors include: - an analysis of the environmental policy implications of evolutionary economics - a critical examination of current Dutch environmental and innovation policies and policy documents - systematic evaluation of three specific energy technologies, namely fuel cells, nuclear fusion and photovoltaic cells, within the evolutionary-economic framework.
2007
Level: advanced
Evolutionary Economics and Environmental Policy
The current global financial system may not withstand the next global financial crisis. In order to promote the resilience and stability of our global financial system against future shocks and crises, a fundamental reconceptualisation of financial regulation is necessary. This reconceptualisation must begin with a deep understanding of how today's financial markets, regulatory initiatives and laws operate and interact at the global level.
2016
Level: advanced
Reconceptualising Global Finance and its Regulation
Shadow banking became one of the main features of modern market based financial capitalism and financial globalisation. Daniel Gabor locates this development in a Super-Cycle framework and sketches out opportunities to launch a new cycle that is green and just through financial regulation and publicly organised sustainable finance.
2019
Level: advanced
Shadow banking and financial market regulation
What are the debates, feminist and otherwise, surrounding the phenomena of globalization? How does a gendered lens complicate our understandings of neoliberal globalization? How are particular labor regimes integral to global restructuring, and how are these gendered? What are the implications of global restructuring for bodies, identities, relations, and movements?
2014
Level: beginner
The Gender and Labor of Globalization
In this interview, the political activist, author and lecturer Dr. Vandana Shiva explains the linkage between ecology, feminism and economics along the lines of current effects and implications of the Corona-Crisis in India and around the world.
2020
Level: beginner
Ecology, feminism and economics in times of Covid-19 pandemic
In most economics classes we focus on the production and consumption of goods and services, but what happens to the product and its packaging after it’s consumed? Waste disposal is a crucial step in the production process and as the theme of this month’s World Environment Day is #BeatPlasticPollution, we use the example of plastic bottles.
2023
Level: beginner
Production and Waste: Plastic Pollution – Economy Studies
The documentary recounts the history of the first World War and gives a biography of Lenin. The concept of imperialism is briefly explored and it is concluded that by the end of world war one the old certainties and old ruling alliances between aristocracy and traditional capitalists were broken up.
1977
Level: beginner
The Age of Uncertainty Episode 5 Lenin and The Great Ungluing
John K. Galbraith recounts episodes in the history of money such as the creation of the bank of Amsterdam, John Law's fraudulent Bank Royal, the inception of the Bank of England and of the Federal Reserve to illustrate concepts such as money creation by commercial banks, the bank rate, open market operations or the money supply in general. The emotions, myths and struggles surrounding money are addressed and explained in a clear and consistent manner.
1977
Level: beginner
The Age of Uncertainty Episode 6 The Rise and Fall of Money
Hunt (economics, U. of Utah) provides a concise history of the rise and triumph of capitalism, centering mainly on England until 1800 and the U.S. since 1800. He traces the evolution of some of the most significant institutions of capitalism, analyzes the recurring ideological defenses and the radical critiques of capitalism, and examines intellectual developments which were occurring at the same time.
2003
Level: advanced
Property and Prophets
This short video visualizes the destabilizing effects financial markets can have on food prices, based on a paper by Jayati Ghosh. It introduces and explains the idea of future contracts and how those are used to speculate with basic food stuffs. After establishing the concepts, the video sketches out how the increase in those practices resulted in a substantial rise and later collapse of food prices around 2008 with severe consequences for many developing countries and their people.
2021
Level: beginner
Food and Finance
This graduate-level course examines issues related to women’s paid and unpaid work during a time of rapid integration of world markets. Students will analyze the role of government policy, unions, corporate responsibility, and social movements in raising women's wages, promoting equal opportunity, fighting discrimination in the workplace, and improving working conditions.
Level: advanced
Women and Work
Economics, Culture and Social Theory examines how culture has been neglected in economic theorising and considers how economics could benefit by incorporating ideas from social and cultural theory.
2009
Level: advanced
Economics, Culture and Social Theory
Gender Development and Globalization is the leading primer on global feminist economics and development. Gender is a development issue because social considerations are not easily incorporated into institutions such as policies, regulations, markets and organizations. This process is often referred to as the mainstreaming of gender in development institutions.
2018
Level: beginner
Gender Development and Globalization
Mainstream economics almost completely ignores the role power plays in determining economic outcomes, which means it can only provide partial explanations of the distribution of wealth and income, and of the problems associated with inequality and poverty.
2016
Level: advanced
Power and Neoclassical Economics
Diane Perrons and Sigrid Stagl combine feminist and critical environmental economics perspectives to develop a critique of the free market growth model and offer new ideas for a more sustainable gender equitable model of development in the interests of all.
2019
Level: advanced
A Feminist Political Economy for an Inclusive and Sustainable Society
Could working less make people and the planet better off? Find out in this dossier by exploring the landscape of working time reduction policies and their potential for reimagining, restructuring, and redistributing time as a political resource in the 21st century economy.
2020
Level: beginner
Could Working Time Reduction Policies Save People and the Planet?
This volume explores the relationship between law and economics principles and the promotion of social justice. By social justice, we mean a vision of society that embraces more than traditional economic efficiency. Such a vision might include, for example, a reduction of subordination and discrimination based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or class.
2009
Level: advanced
Law and Economics
This book argues that mainstream economics, with its present methodological approach, is limited in its ability to analyze and develop adequate public policy to deal with environmental problems and sustainable development. Each chapter provides major insights into many of today’s environmental problems such as global warming and sustainable growth.
2009
Level: advanced
Post Keynesian and Ecological Economics
This course focus on the behaviour of individuals from an pluralist economic and an interdisciplinary bevavioural science apprach.
2020
Level: advanced
Actors, Behaviours and Decision Processes
Debunking Economics - Revised and Expanded Edition exposes what many non-economists may have suspected and a minority of economists have long known: that economic theory is not only unpalatable, but also plain wrong. When the original Debunking Economics was published back in 2001, the market economy seemed invincible, and conventional "neoclassical" economic theory basked in the limelight.
2011
Level: beginner
Debunking Economics - Revised and Expanded Edition
The objective of this MOOC is to develop an understanding of the problems related to water management. Firstly, this course will define a resource and, more specifically, the resource of water. It will look at how water is used and the activities associated with it as well as any potential conflicts. The course will look at water management in detail through the analysis of the different types of rights and obligations associated with, for example, the development of a multi-sectorial regulation system or a watershed management approach.
Level: advanced
Water Resource Management and Policy
"Why information grows" by Cesar Hidalgo and the atlas of economic complexity. César visits the RSA to present a new view of the relationship between the individual and collective knowledge, linking information theory, economics and biology...
2015
Level: advanced
Why information grows and the atlas of economic complexity.
The Nobel laureate Amartya Sen´s text analyzes three main figures in social sciences and the relation between them: the Italian economist Piero Sraffa, the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and the Italian politician and philosopher Antonio Gramsci.
2003
Level: advanced
Sraffa, Wittgenstein, and Gramsci
In this course we will critically analyze both economic theory and economic life through the lens of gender. Topics covered include: a critical examination of gender patterns and trends in the household, labor market, and the firm; issues concerning gender inequalities in the economy.
2014
Level: beginner
Gender and the Economy
A direct and fundamentally optimistic indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized much of urban planning in this century, The Death and Life of Great American Cities has, since its first publication in 1961, become the standard against which all endeavors in that field are measured.
1992
Level: advanced
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Banner and Pastor debunk granted assumptions of the neoclassical theory, such as self-interested human behavior, the necessity of inequality and growth, to pull the threads between the new possible foundations of our society, "prosperity, security and community".
2020
Level: beginner
Solidarity Economics—for the Coronavirus Crisis and Beyond
South Africa’s taxi industry was established by black people in the 1930s and has faced numerous challenges, including those posed by decades of apartheid laws. Covid-19 has highlighted contemporary challenges facing the industry and has also raised questions about how it can keep ‘driving forward’. This podcast explores questions such as what changes need to be made, and who can be the ‘drivers’ of such change.
2021
Level: advanced
Driving Forward Social and Solidarity Economy: The Case of South Africa's Taxi Industry

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