The win
The members of Rethinking Economics Lugano agreed in 2018 on the demand for a course on Critical History of Economic Thought. Not only did the university agree to this demand, they also hired a professor who was qualified to deliver this teaching – Ivan Moscati. The very first class in October 2018 attracted over 90 students! The course still runs to this day (here is the university’s info page about the course – in Italian) and gives participating students 6 ECTS (credits).
The way there
In 2018, an alliance of Italian and Swiss Rethinking Economics groups united for a campaign to change their economics curriculum. While their overarching goal was to promote pluralism in economics degrees, the concrete demand that all groups brought home was to introduce a History of Economic Thought course into the undergraduate degree program. Here is the petition’s text.
To push for this campaign locally, the members of RE Lugano built a relationship with the Dean which proved to be successful.
Factors of success
- Mobilised a large base of support in the student body
- Powerful ally in the dean
Learnings
- Planning a number of different direct actions in advance, as part of an escalation plan, could have helped increase the win
- Opposition from the university is likely and needs to be accounted for, especially in increasing the power number of the group
Swiss group VWelles Bern runs Pluralist Economics lecture
The win In February, the Swiss local group VWelles Rethinking Economics Bern will kick off its first self-organised lecture series, “Introduction to Pluralist Economics”. The course will give an overview of the different schools of thought, after three introductory sessions on philosophy of science. Six […]
Monday 1 January 2024
Coût de la virilité en Suisse | Rapport du Fonds pour Antennes Locales
L’antenne lausannoise est fière de mener le projet du coût de la virilité en Suisse. C’est l’ouvrage de l’historienne Lucile Peytavin qui a motivé quelques étudiant·e·s et alumni de la HEC Lausanne à former un groupe de travail. Dans ce travail inédit de calcul de […]
Monday 8 August 2022
Curriculum Health Check update: University of Leeds
University of Leeds is an undergraduate course that Rethinking Economics UK argues fits many of the principles that we want to see from an economics education.
Tuesday 4 November 2025