Principles and Pluralist Approaches in Teaching Economics ― Towards a Transformative Science

This volume is a state-of-the-art compilation of diverse and innovative perspectives, principles, and a number of practiced approaches of fields, courses, and methods of pluralist economics teaching. It fosters constructive controversy aiming to incite authors and commentators to engage in fruitful debate.

The complex economic problems of the 21st century require a pluralist, real-world oriented, and innovative discipline of economics, capable of addressing and teaching those complex issues to students from diverse perspectives. This volume addresses a number of key questions: Which models could be taught outside the equilibrium and optimality paradigm? Which methods could help to improve our understanding of the complex globalized economy? How can qualitative and quantitative methods be combined in a fruitful way to analyse complex economic problems? How can the academic isolation of mainstream economics that has developed over many decades be overcome, despite its attempted transdisciplinary imperialism? What role should knowledge from other disciplines play in teaching economics and what is the relevance of transdisciplinarity? Through examining these issues, the editors and authors have created a pluralist but cohesive book on teaching economics in the contemporary classroom, drawing from ideas and examples from around the world.

Principles and Pluralist Approaches in Teaching Economics is a unique collection of diverse perspectives on the methodology and applications of pluralist economics teaching. It will be a great resource for those teaching economics at various levels as well as researchers and intermediate and advanced students searching for pluralism in economics.

Samuel Decker is an economist and activist based in Berlin, Germany. He works as scientific assistant for the online learning platform Exploring Economics (www.exploring-economics.org/en/). He holds a master’s degree in "Political Economy of European Integration" and is an active member of the student movement for pluralism in economics.

Wolfram Elsner was Professor of Economics at the University of Bremen, Germany from 1995 until he retired in 2016. He has also worked as head of local economic development, head of the Planning Division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the State of Bremen, and as Director of the State of Bremen Government’s economic research institute, 1986 to 1995. He was president of the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy, 2012–2016.

Svenja Flechtner is an Assistant Professor of Pluralist Economics at the University of Siegen, Germany. She has been a research assistant at Europa-Universitat Flensburg and Freie Universitat Berlin. From 2014–2018, she was a council member of the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy.