Title: Opening the way for a pluralistic approach in teaching economics: an outsider's view

Authors: Daniel Louis Chable

Addresses: Certified Actuary, Route de Cremières 18, CH-1070 Puidoux, Switzerland

Abstract: This paper outlines a curriculum reform of economics at the undergraduate level in Western universities centred around eight main themes and which follows a pluralistic, interdisciplinary approach. The aim is to liberate teaching from the stultifying grips of neoclassical economics and its corollary neoliberal policies, which have led to the 2007-2012 global crisis and in particular to the crisis of the Euro zone. A change in attitude, akin to the reaction of European thinking towards scholasticism in the 17th century, is necessary, permitting graduates, pursuing further studies or directly entering the professional world, to once again make sensible judgements on matters of practical importance, instead of being straight-jacketed into formalistic reasoning based on inadequate models significantly at odds with macroeconomic experience.

Keywords: critical realism; economic theory; macroeconomics; pluralism; teaching economics; undergraduate education; economics education; neoclassical economics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPEE.2012.051138

International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, 2012 Vol.3 No.3, pp.277 - 294

Published online: 16 Aug 2014 *

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