To mark 500 years since the beginning of the Catholic Reformation, ‘Rethinking Economics’, a progressive economics campaign group, nailed its ‘33 theses’ to the doors of the LSE Student Union building. The organisation claimed on its website that the stunt would challenge the ‘religion’ of ‘mainstream economics’, and sought to ‘alter the establishment’s practices to its foundations’. According to a second-year Durham economics student who spoke at the event held at UCL, it would now be hard for LSE to ‘ignore the truth’.
The campaign group, who sees LSE as emblematic of an uncritical and stagnant form of economics which is ‘incapable of self-correction’, outlines areas of concern in the 4-page document. Focus on the environment, the inclusion of a plurality of economic theories, and encouraging the integration of other fields of study into the subject are just some of the demands made. The group also lays the claim against ‘mainstream economics’ that it has ultimately failed to predict banking crises and is too detached from the real world.
The event, which took place on the night of December 12th, was attended by several prominent economists such as Kate Raworth, author of ‘Doughnut Economics’, and Larry Elliott, The Guardian’s economics editor. The group also enjoyed support from Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green Party and MP for Brighton Pavilion, who expressed her concern over ‘the political mainstream who have worshipped at the altar of neoliberal economics’.
The list of demands however did not go unchallenged. Steven Machin and Oriana Bandiera, two LSE economists, alongside other professors from UCL and Manchester have since addressed the criticisms, claiming those who made the demands were guilty of ‘ill-informed expert-bashing’. They argued against what they deemed was a demand for an economics based on superstition, guided by a fundamentally ‘distorted view of economics’. Continuing the religious theme, they also stated that economists were not ‘priests to the market gods’ or ‘astrologers’ who could predict impending crises.
Regardless of the debate, two things are undeniable. First, that LSE continues to be the centre of academic discourse regarding the future of economics. Second, that the SU building isn’t the right place to state your grievances over the actions of the economics department.
