Feminist Popular Economics/Economic literacy
Popular economics can have different shades of meaning:
Begin where everyone is at
It may relate to the process of helping a group of people understand the underlying political-economic dynamics of a current issue they are facing. The immediate aim generally is to go beyond fostering a critical consciousness of a situation to develop a collective analysis and an organizing strategy to address the issue(s), or at a minimum, to better understand an organizing strategy that someone else has developed. When “popular economics” is used in this context, it almost always assumes a critical political-economic analysis with a progressive lens.
Collaboration
Economic literacy” may be less immediately activist-oriented, but refer to an engaging pedagogical approach of taking a current economic issue or situation and using that as a launchpad for learning about more theoretical economics concepts. Here the aim is to enable students/persons to see the relevance of the particular theoretical constructs for their everyday life. In this situation, the particular school of economic thought used can be anything – such as socialist, Marxist-feminist, neo-liberal or “The Chicago School.”
Here is how WIDE+, a European feminist coalition describes popular economics: “It is a tool for engendering broad public participation in debating
and setting economic policy. Economic literacy promotes a framework for revealing the
structural causes of economic and social problems. It can help us to
challenge destructive myths, to create positive policy alternatives, and to enhance community/neighborhood alternatives.”
FACILITATION TIP:
Neither popular economics or economic literacy assumes anything about a specific facilitation technique. Experiential techniques and participatory research methods could be used – it
all depends on the facilitators’ interests and skills and the setting. Facilitators can choose from among many different tools to achieve whatever goals meet the group’s needs (or teacher’s objectives in academic settings).
Check out those resources :
- Center for Popular Economics
- Economics for Everyone Conversation Deck/Baraja de Conversacion sobre Economica para Todos – United for a Fair Economy
- Neo-liberalism in a Nutshell handout
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Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
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WIDE + (Women In Development Europe)
- For more resources
For intersectional feminist and other economic literacy videos, check out CPE’s YouTube channel.
This deck of cards (in English and Spanish) is designed to facilitate conversations about identity, community, the US economy and economic justice. For groups where people do not know each other, it also includes ice breaker cards. These would work well for teens and adults, and with people from a variety of economic and cultural backgrounds. To order a deck and obtain a free facilitation guide, click here: [link to UFE website] PHOTO here
[live link to doc]
offers up-to-the-minute economic commentary and research findings from a progressive economic lens.[live link to their website.]
This feminist European coalition has created a rich compendium of feminist economic literacy resources at: https:/wideplus.org/resources/resources-feminist-economic-literacy.
Topics include: cyber-violence, female refugees and migrants, feminist economics, feminist solidarities, gender and development, gender and trade, gender justice in Europe, gender-based violence, climate crisis. The website includes videos, briefing papers, and training curricula.
Materials are available in English, with some in German and/or Spanish. There is a translation feature on the website.
A 5 sector model of the economy (see WIDE Austria) is available in German. This is a common model used to provide a wider, deeper understanding of various segments of a nation’s economy beyond formal and informal sector….In German: http://www.beigewum.at/wp-content/uploads/KW_2_2017_Gubitzer.pdf
Info on economic literacy in German from WIDE Switzerland: https://wide-switzerland.ch/de/aktivitat/economic-literacy ]
check out the links in our Tools section [live link here}