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University of Manchester economics department: teach the climate crisis beyond a simple market framework!

University of Manchester economics department: teach the climate crisis beyond a simple market framework!

The world is warming and many are already experiencing the effects of climate breakdown. At PCES we are highly aware of the power of economics teaching to alter worldviews and reproduce existing colonial power structures – the climate crisis has made this all too clear. We consider it more necessary than ever to prepare the economists of the future with sufficient skills and knowledge to tackle the crisis, which demands a critical approach to the discipline’s traditional doctrine. This is currently lacking in the University of Manchester economics curriculum.

In May 2024, the Post-Crash Economics Society launched our new research report, Is Economics Education Fit for the 21st Century? We found our curriculum to be largely stuck in the past, with no modules providing students with an introduction to ecological economics, sustainability only being taught through the lens of market “externalities”, and economics being taught in isolation from other social sciences (and depoliticised).

In the continued fight against climate change, we are calling on the University of Manchester Economics Department to:

  • Establish a new module on ecological economics within the economics program that explores approaches to solving climate change beyond the traditional market framework. This may involve working with planetary boundaries, systems thinking, and global climate politics.

  • Allow economics students to take relevant modules offered outside the department that address these issues, such as Environment and Society taught by the sociology department and Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods taught by the Global Development Institute.

As outlined in Rethinking Economics’ National Report, this teaching is already in practice in other departments across the UK, notably SOAS and the University of Greenwich. We see no reason why it should be omitted at the University of Manchester, an institution that prides itself on sustainability and social responsibility.

Sign our petition below demanding the economics department to teach climate change beyond a market framework!