Launching Kingston’s Rethinking Economics Group

Reposted from the Rethink­ing Eco­nom­ics website

Stu­dents at Kingston Uni­ver­sity kicked off a cam­paign for a new approach to eco­nom­ics with the suc­cess­ful launch of new soci­ety Rethink­ing Eco­nom­ics Kingston this week.

Almost 100 peo­ple squeezed in to hear Pro­fes­sor Steve Keen – newly appointed head of the School of Eco­nom­ics, Pol­i­tics and His­tory – launch the new soci­ety with a speech on what’s wrong with main­stream eco­nom­ics and how stu­dents should change it.

Pro­fes­sor Keen — author of Debunk­ing Eco­nom­ics and well-known critic of main­stream eco­nom­ics – described how the­o­ries taught in most eco­nomic classes were unable to pre­dict, under­stand or even take on board the recent finan­cial crisis.

Keen set out his vision for Kingston’s eco­nom­ics depart­ment as a bea­con for stu­dents inter­ested in a vibrant, plu­ral­ist atmos­phere for learn­ing. He also described his own his­tory of chal­leng­ing the nar­row aca­d­e­mic approach to eco­nom­ics while still a student.

Manav Chaud­hary from LSE’s Post Crash Eco­nom­ics Soci­ety described the rapid growth of the Rethink­ing Eco­nom­ics move­ment and the enthu­si­asm of stu­dents across the coun­try in cam­paign­ing for bet­ter eco­nom­ics teaching.

Pro­fes­sor Keen said:

“Across the world, stu­dents are call­ing for real­ism in eco­nom­ics, and demand­ing to be taught all schools of thought, not just the dom­i­nant one that was caught com­pletely unawares by the eco­nomic cri­sis. Most Uni­ver­sity depart­ments are resist­ing this call—amazing in itself for a dis­ci­pline that claims to be about mar­kets, and in which the con­sumer is sup­posed to be king. Kingston is respond­ing to this call. We are going to pro­vide our stu­dents with a com­plete, hon­est, warts-and-all, intro­duc­tion to all the strands of think­ing in eco­nom­ics. I’m delighted that Kingston stu­dents have formed their own Rethink­ing Eco­nom­ics group, and I’d encour­age stu­dents at other uni­ver­si­ties to do the same. Change in eco­nom­ics will only come from the young, and with pres­sure from the pub­lic for eco­nom­ics to be realistic.”