Thread by @AFEP_EcoPo

1. Last december, our president Florence Jany-Catrice reminds Adrien de @Tricornot the lack of pluralism in the teaching of economics.
A thread on students’ struggles for pluralism in the teaching of economics at the university ⤵
xerficanal.com/strategie-mana…

2. To get started, we recommend you to read this paper, in which, among other things, A. Orléan @OrleanAndre distinguishes different ways of being pluralist in the teaching of political economy :
variances.eu/?p=3626

3. In this paper, A. Orléan begins by recalling that, over the last 20 years, in France, the teaching of economics in higher education raised strong controversy.

4. Pluralism had progressively disappeared from graduates and undergraduates programs all over the world in the past years.

5. For example in the US in 1988, the American Economic Association formed a ‘Commitee On Graduate Education in Economics’ which presented a report that was highly critical of the uniformity found in graduate economics programs. The report (JEL 1991) here: citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/downlo…

6. Students began to fight for pluralism in France 20 years ago.

7. A year after the publication of Vernières’ report (1999), available here autisme-economie.org/rubrique31.html, a first student’s movement to reform the teaching of economics at university and “Grandes écoles” (soon to call itself Autisme-économie) sprung up.

8. In their open letter (Le Monde 06/17/2000), these students asked for, among other things, « a pluralism of approaches in economics ». The text is available here : autisme-economie.org/article142.html

9. Jack Lang, the French Minister of National Education, then instructed Jean-Paul Fitoussi to report on undergraduate and graduates economics programs within a year. ofce.sciences-po.fr/pdf/documents/…

10. Autisme-économie’s opinion about Fitoussi’s report can be read here:
autisme-economie.org/article147.html

11. This movement soon internationalised. Among others, 27 embattled economics PhD students at Cambridge University, published a petition titled “Opening Up Economics” (june 2001).

12. In June 2001, “75 students, researchers and professors from 22 nations gathered for a week of discussion on the state of economics and the economy at the University of Missouri - Kansas City (UMKC)”:
paecon.net/PAEtexts/Kansa…

13. Thanks to Edward Fullbrook, autisme-économie gave birth to Post-Autistic Economic Networks: “In November 2000, paecon.net was launched to give international direction to what had become known as the “post-autistic economics movement”

14. "A Brief History of the Post-Autistic Economics Movement” can be found here:
paecon.net/HistoryPAE.htm

15. The first issues of the Post-Autistic Economic Review (today Real World Economic Review) are newsletters:
paecon.net/PAEReview/whol…

16. This network has led to the creation, in may 2011, of the World Economics Association (WEA) @RealWorldEcon: worldeconomicsassociation.org

17. The WEA “ fills a gap in the internat. community of economists — the absence of a truly internat., inclusive, pluralist, professional associations. ...

18. ... The AEA and UK’s Royal Eco Soc provide broad associations mainly for their country’s economists. The WEA will do the same for the world’s community of economists, while promoting a pluralism of approaches to economic analysis.” @RealWorldEcon

19. Its pedagogical blog is here:
weapedagogy.wordpress.com

20. E. Fullbrook tells the story of this movement in the introduction of ‘The Crisis in Economics: The post-autistic economics movement: the first 600 days’. This book, which also contains interesting contributions about the teaching of economics, is here: researchgate.net/publication/37…

21. Gilles Raveaud @RaveaudGilles also tells this story, with comments on Vernières’ and Fitoussi’s report in a paper published in 2015:
cairn.info/revue-educatio…

22. For Gilles Raveaud @RaveaudGilles, this students’ movement was an « intellectual victory » but a « political defeat ». And for good reasons as nothing changed.

23. Hence a 2nd students’ movement sprung up in France in 2011, which called for pluralism in economics programs. The group calls itself Peps-économie @Pepseconomie i.e. “For a Pluralistic Teaching in Economics in Higher Education”. Their website is here:
pepseconomie.org

24. For these students “Three forms of pluralism must be at the core of curricula: theoretical, methodological and interdisciplinary.” @Pepseconomie

25. According to them, these three forms of pluralism “will not only help to enrich teaching and research and reinvigorate the discipline”. They also carry “the promise of bringing economics back into the service of society”.

26. Students of @Pepseconomie soon conduct a study on undergraduate economics programs in French universities, which results confirm the lack of three forms of pluralism: theoretical, methodological and interdisciplinary.

27. This study leads them to propose an undergraduate curriculum. The study’s results and the curriculum are available here:
pepseconomie.org/wp-content/upl…

28. And they were presented by the students of @Pepseconomie the 6th april 2013 at the « Etats Généraux de l’enseignement de l’économie dans le supérieur » (EHESS):
pepseco.wordpress.com/etats-generaux…

29. The story has repeated itself, since the French Minister of Higher Education and Research, G. Fioraso, mandated P.-C. Hautcoeur to analyse the situation of economics curriculum in the light of, among other things, the principle of theoretical diversity.

30. P.C. Hautcoeur’s report, « L’avenir des sciences économiques à l’Université en France » (June 5, 2014) is available here:
…dia.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/file/Formation…

31. Students of @Pepseconomie analyze it here:
pepseconomie.org/wp-content/upl…

32. Around the same time @IdiesInstitut published an excellent report titled « sortir de la crise de l’enseignement supérieur d’économie »:
idies.org/index.php?post…

33. Our release related to these two reports is available here:
assoeconomiepolitique.org/communiqueapre…

34. As a matter of fact, this French movement was part of a second wave of students’ protests, for initiatives like Pepseconomie popped up aroung the world.

35. See, for example, the Post-Crash Economic Society in Manchester @PostCrashEcon. Their report is available here:
drive.google.com/file/d/1bXo8ZO…

36. In 2014, 82 student groups from 31 different countries organized themselves into the network ISIPE (International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics):
isipe.net//

37. As recalled by @RethinkEcon, the 6th anniversary of the #ISIPEOpenLetter was yesterday:
rethinkeconomics.org/journal/reflec…

38. Students of the network Rethinking Economics @rethinkecon were part of ISIPE. According to them "Economics in universities is (…) dogmatically taught from one perspective as if it is the only legitimate way to study the economy.”:
rethinkeconomics.org

39. Students organizations worked hard (and still are) at helping to reform economics education at the university. They conducted studies, did research, wrote reports and books, built websites, etc.

40.J. Christopher Proctor’s report, titled “Mapping Pluralist Research” (March 2019), “provides an overview of the research which has come out of the student movement for pluralism in economics.” @Jcproctor29 It is available here:
oikos-international.org/news/mapping-p…

41. For example, in 2018, Rethinking Economics NL @Rethinkecon puplished a quantitative analysis of economics bachelor curricula in the Netherlands:
rethinkingeconomics.nl/uploads/5/3/2/…

42. More recently, Rethinking Economics Belgium conducted an excellent survey of 566 students majoring in economics and management in the six universities of Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (2019):
econospheres.be/10-ANS-APRES-L…

43. Students’ initiatives exist all over the world to compensate for the lack of pluralism in their curricula.

44. Some students created Exploring Economics @exploringecon an open-source e-learning platform, built to give people “the opportunity to discover & study a variety of economic theories, topics, and methods.”:
exploring-economics.org/en/

45. “Launched in December 2016, this open-access and bottom-up e-learning platform is today driven by an international team of partners, editors, students, and lecturers, with numerous opportunities to participate.” @exploringecon @PluralEcon @rethinkecon @Pepseconomie

46. Another noteworthy platform is the one of the Cambridge Society of Economic Pluralism: @CSEPluralism :
cambridgepluralism.org

47. Let’s conclude by pointing out that they are still some pluralist master degrees in France:
assoeconomiepolitique.org/licences-et-ma…

48. Reteaching Economics @ReteachEcon (a network of UK-based early career academics supporting student demands for pluralist teaching in economics) catalogued pluralist economics programmes in the UK:
reteacheconomics.org/courses/

49. Don’t hesitate to criticize or complete this thread.

50. Don’t forget that the world that comes after covid-19 is up to us and that we need pluralism to invent it.

Last but not least, take good care of yourself. 🙏