The writer teaches at Soas, University of London. His latest book is ‘Edible Economics’
In the aftermath of the biggest financial crisis in three generations in 2007, economics students in the UK and elsewhere staged an uprising, demanding a fundamental reform of their curriculum. We had never been taught economic history or that markets could implode, they said. Why are we being told a fairy tale?
Two decades on, the challenges facing humanity have multiplied and intensified — ecological crises, geopolitical clashes, deepening inequality and anti-democracy movements, to name just a few. But, shockingly, the curriculum being offered to incoming economics students this autumn remains the same.