KNOW11025 - The Economy Without Economics

Course Description

The phrase “It’s the economy, stupid!” signifies how thinking of our lives in terms of the economy has become a banal insight. This has not been always the case, though. According to many economists, the economy is a distinct sphere of human activity with its own laws.

To understand how we started to think of the economy in these terms, we will begin this course with the history of economics – from liberal political economy to the scientification of economics in the 20th century. We will explore the tension between the notion of economic science and that of economics as ideologically charged. How do economists relate to the “real world”?

The second part of the course will turn to the self-declared limits of “the economic.” Can there be economy without economics? With the help of classic texts by Karl Polanyi and Marcel Mauss, we will introduce discussions of economies of other times and places. What can Mesopotamian trade or gift giving practices in Polynesia say about our own economies? We will end the course by looking at what rethinking the economy looks like on the ground. Is it possible to perform other economies? Have we already always been doing that?

Course Outline

Notes

Online registration deadline: Dec. 22, 5 PM CT

Remote courses require you to login to Canvas to access the Zoom Classroom. You will receive an invitation to join Canvas about a week before your course begins. Please visit the Liberal Arts Student Resources page to find step by step instructions for Canvas and Zoom: Online Learning Resources