An Exploration of our Economic Futures
27th – 29th July
What is the Rethinking Economics Digital Festival? Well, it’s a mouthful, for starters. But more than that, it challenges and fills your brain with new ideas, perspectives and tools! The festival will propose better paths for our economic futures while reflecting on issues of past and present. This is not just for economics students, but for anyone who wants to understand how the world can and should change.
The Festival may be over but you can still catch up on anything you missed on our Youtube channel.
Explore the five themes of RE Festival 2021
Political and Economic Impact of COVID-19
The pandemic took away what we held dearest – our loved ones and our freedom. Now left to pick up the pieces, we owe it to ourselves to find a better way ahead. As vaccination progresses, we all want life to go back to normal, but is simply returning to the old “normal” a mistake? We now have the opportunity to choose what “normal” we would like; we should not waste it. At RE Festival 2021 we will ask the questions – would merely turning back the clock help? Or do we need to totally rethink how we govern ourselves?
Social Economics of Climate Change
In the past, the topic of climate change in economics was completely ignored. The focus instead being on endless growth. We have seen challenges to the growth model such as the indigenous buen vivir (living well) concept in South America, Green GDP and the Happiness Index. Yet nothing has overthrown dominance of GDP within economics. With the COP26 climate talks set for November, there is no better time to push for change. Major obstacles remain convincing governments and industry that possible short-term disruption to the economy is worth our future. This series will look at the impacts of growth on natural resources. Can economies thrive without growing? Is our measure of growth as economic success stopping the big changes we need? How can we be fair and inclusive when implementing green policies?
Digital Economy
Over the past year technology has become even more dominant in our lives. Many countries in the Global South and rural regions have suffered from lack of IT and internet coverage. Businesses across the world have had to rapidly digitise their work, whereas the large tech companies have thrived in this period. Despite inaccessibility for many, there are currently over 5 billion people in the world with a mobile phone. We are more connected than ever but monopoly power has made us more vulnerable to abuses by technology companies. In this series we will ask questions including: Is it time to rethink the rules around tech, data and the digital economy? Does AI discriminate? How can technology empower local systems?
Informal, Forgotten and Hidden Economies
The success of an economy and the welfare of its people are measured by its GDP. But GDP only includes things which are exchanged for money. But what doesn’t it include? Unpaid care and housework, voluntary work and work done off the books. The majority of this unpaid labour falls on women around the world. Not including these activities in GDP acts to support the view that the average woman’s work is less important and that they are less hard working. In this series we will be asking – Is GDP the best measure of welfare? How can we better include the unpaid work of women into our economic systems?
Global South Economics
There is a path to development we are taught and have become accustomed to – Open borders up, cut taxes and deregulate. But this has led to sweatshops, long hours, exploitation and environmental degradation. Have we truly made such little progress in economics since the 1800s that we are unable to see development without environmental destruction and severe abuses of human rights? And even if it did work for the Global North, why would it work for countries in the Global South who face very different constraints. In this series we ask if economic thinking is relevant to the Global South. How can we move beyond the current narrow view of development? And how can we decolonise the economics curriculum?
Festival Programme 2021
There’s plenty happening at this year’s digital festival from the 27th – 29th July. Check out the schedule for event times and speaker details.