Heterodox Economics and Global Emergencies

From the financial crash to the climate emergency and Covid- 19, this book demonstrates that recent crises have had unequal impacts, they require a heterodox approach to economics for their understanding, and new ways of thinking are needed to address them. Drawing on a variety of heterodox and radical perspectives and global voices, including those from India, Africa, and South America, this collection explores the causes and impacts of global emergencies from a wide array of viewpoints. The first section outlines how the pandemic has shown up the biases of orthodox thought and policy, particularly its Eurocentric and patriarchal focus on the urban, formal economy. It outlines how adding an international dimension to institutional analysis uncovers systematic inequalities in the responses to emergencies, and how new paradigms can provide better alternatives. The massive interventionism worldwide has led to renewed interest in the global financial system, and also in Marxian approaches to money. The second section of the book therefore considers a range of alternative approaches to the study of finance – from Marx to Minsky – which are currently being revisited. The collection concludes with a suggestion for heterodox economics pedagogy, since changing economics education is vital for future dissemination of real- world ideas. The book will be of interest to a variety of researchers and postgraduate students, and lecturers, especially in the fields of development, health, labour and feminist economics, and also international political economy and heterodox economics.