Pluralism of economic ideas

This blended course will highlight how economic theories have changed over time, and how there has always been a plurality of different views at any point in time. 

It will provide students with the opportunity to read and discuss key economic texts from the past, as well as to analyse and understand specific topics or concepts from a variety of points of view. 

Our discipline has always been characterized by a plurality of competing perspectives and research paradigms, despite the recent, worrying involution in both teaching and research. A historical view of the development of economics is key to understanding where economics comes from and where it is going.

The course comprises three modules (each with 3 ETCS):

• Module 1: reading seminars (online)
• Module 2: lectures (online)
• Module 3: workshop in Rome (in person)

Students can opt to take part in one or both of the virtual component modules (Modules 1 and Module 2). The physical component module (Module 3) is mandatory for all students. Based on the participation to the virtual components module, students will receive either 6 ECTS or 9 ECTS (corresponding to 3 ECTS for each module).

• Methods of the social sciences and reasons for pluralism
  
• The “pre-history” of economic thought (from ancient Greece to the 16th century)
• Classical political economy (Smith, Ricardo, Marx)
• The different strands of marginalism (Jevons, Walras, Menger)
• Neoclassical economics and later developments
• Keynes, post-Keynesian and anti-Keynesian economics
• Recent heterodox strands: institutionalism, feminist economics, evolutionary economics, etc.

Students taking the course will develop:

• differentiated knowledge on economic ideas from different perspectives and schools of thought;
• critical thinking on the creation, evolution, and transmission of economic ideas;
• skills in participating in debates on economic ideas and policy rationale, and their relationship with concrete social and economic issues.
  

The physical mobility component of the course will take place in Rome, Italy, from 18 to 22 January 2027.

During the physical mobility period, students will attend seminars on selected topics delivered by professors from the organizing universities and by guest speakers. They will also participate in roundtables and in a series of group activities prepared during the virtual component of the course. 

The activities planned for this in-person component will make use of innovative teaching methods, including theatrical performances and mock trials. Their purpose is to enable students to consolidate and apply what they have learned during the online modules. The specific formats chosen are intended to foreground, and in some cases require, explicit engagement with the plurality of ideas and perspectives that characterizes economics.

The theatrical performances will take the form of dialogues, in which students will impersonate previously defined characters on the basis of scripts they have written themselves under the supervision of a professor. In the mock trials, students will be divided into four groups. 

Two groups will argue for and against a given thesis, such as a major contested question in the history of economic thought, while the other two groups will serve as the jury; the professors will act as judges. The groups will then switch roles: the two groups that initially served as the jury will become the advocates in a second trial on a different topic, while the former advocates will form the new jury.

The pedagogical aim of both types of activity is to bring out the coexistence of different points of view through structured debate.

The virtual component will run from 1 October 2026 to 14 January 2027.

The virtual part is divided into two separate modules. Students may participate in one or both. We suggest awarding 3 ECTS for each module; however, please note that the final decision on credit recognition rests with each participating university, not with the BIP organizers.

The first module, “Reading Seminars,” is based on the discussion of selected key texts from current debates and from the recent history of the discipline. Students will read assigned texts and then discuss their content and significance collectively in class. The final reading list will be adapted to the students’ prior knowledge and interests, but it is likely to include works by Veblen (1898), Pigou (1917), Schumpeter (1928), Keynes (1930), Pen (1971), Minsky (1973), Robinson (1974), Boserup (1975), Hirschman (1982), Agarwal (1992), Sen (2000), Folbre and Nelson (2000), and Sylos Labini (2003). This module is entirely synchronous: students are expected to attend every session and actively contribute to class discussion. In each class, one or more students will act as rapporteur on a reading selected from those proposed by the instructors.

The second module, “Lectures,” will be delivered in a mixed format, combining asynchronous and synchronous activities. Students will be given access to a series of recorded lectures by the instructors and guest speakers, which they may watch independently at their own pace. Regular live meetings will then be held to discuss the material, help students keep up with the expected pace of study, and address any questions or comments. Topics will include value theory, employment theory, monetary theory, and related issues, all examined from a historical perspective, with attention to how different economists have interpreted and explained these questions over time. Compared with the Reading Seminars, the Lectures module will cover a broader chronological range, from the “prehistory” of economics to the mid-twentieth century, and will also introduce basic issues in economic methodology and the philosophy of economics.

In both modules, the online sessions will mainly take place between early October and mid-December. If necessary, one or two sessions may be scheduled in January.

Each module will assess the students’ skills and learning separately.

• for the “reading seminars” online module, assessment will be based on the students’ active participation to class debates, which will demonstrate that they have completed the assigned readings.
• for the “lectures” online module, students will take a short test at the end of the module, in the form of an online interview.
• for the physical mobility module, the students will participate in several group activities and roundtables, and their performance will be assessed by the teaching staff.

Motivation Letter

Level of english (According to CEFR)

CV

Applications will be evaluated mainly based on the motivation letter, provided that the level of English satisfies a minimum requirement. 

Only if too many applications will be received, the CV will be considered too.

François Allisson is a historian of economic thought at the University of Lausanne, affiliated with the Institute of Political Studies and the Centre Walras-Pareto, where he teaches and conducts research. He is also a member of the REHPERE team. In 2015, he published Value and Prices in Russian Economic Thought with Routledge, a work that synthesizes Russian economic thought from 1890 to 1920 and which earned him the Best Book Award from the European Society for the History of Economic Thought.

Maria Bach is a historian of economics serving as a première assistante at the University of Lausanne’s Faculty of Social and Political Sciences. She is affiliated with both the Institute of Political Studies (IEP) and the Centre Walras-Pareto for Interdisciplinary Studies in Economic and Political Thought. Her academic journey includes a PhD in International Political Economy from King’s College London, where her dissertation on the first generation of modern Indian economists earned the Joseph Dorfman Award for Best Dissertation in the History of Economic Thought in 2020. 

Javier Baquero Pérez is Profesor Ayudante Doctor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). His research focuses on labor market dynamics, with a particular emphasis on their relationship with education, collective bargaining and their socioeconomic impacts. Javier has extensive experience in researching the employment integration of university students in the European Union. He is a member of the Society for the Advancement of Socioeconomics (SASE).

Marcella Corsi is Professor of Economics at  Sapienza Università di Roma, where she coordinates "Minerva - Laboratory on Diversity and Gender Inequality". She is among the founders of the web-magazine inGenere, is chief editor of the "International Review of Sociology", and a member of the board of the International Association for Feminist Economics.

Julimar da Silva Bichara is Associate Professor of Economics at the Department of Economic Structure and Development Economics of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). He has been a member of the Society for the Advancement of Socioeconomics (SASE) since 2006 and a member of its Executive Council since 2018. Julimar has recently published on Cepal Review, the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Metroeconomica and World Economy, and is the current coordinator of UAM’s Master's on Economic Development and Public Policy. 

Carlo D’Ippoliti is a professor of political economy at Sapienza Università di Roma and editor of open-access economics journals “PSL Quarterly Review” and “Moneta e Credito”. His research interests include science policy and the history and sociology of economics.

Nobantu Mbeki is a lecturer in economics at the School of Economics and Finance, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She holds a PhD from the University of Manchester, and her research focuses on Post-Keynesian pricing theory and the Post-Keynesian theory of the firm. In 2023, Dr. Mbeki published Post-Keynesian Theories of the Firm: Kalecki and Radical Uncertainty, which explores the influence of radical uncertainty on firm behavior through the lens of Michał Kalecki’s theories. She co-authored A Manifesto for Social Change: How to Save South Africa with Moeletsi Mbeki, addressing strategies for economic and social reform in South Africa. 

Robert McMaster is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Glasgow. His research lies at the intersection of institutional and evolutionary economics, the history of economic thought, and the methodology of economics, with particular attention to the role of institutions, power, and ethics in economic analysis. He has published widely in leading journals, and has contributed to debates on pluralism in economics. He has also held editorial roles in academic journals and has been actively involved in international scholarly associations promoting heterodox and institutional approaches to economics.

Nicholas J. Theocarakis is Professor of Political Economy and History of Economic Thought at the Dept of Economics of The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He is the Director of the MPhil Economics Program and Head of the Doctoral Studies Committee. He has served as a Secretary General for Fiscal Policy of the Ministry of Finance and Greece's representative in the Eurogroup Working Group. He has served as Chairman and Scientific Director of the Centre of Planning and Economic Research (KEPE) and Chairman of Megaron-The Athens Concert Hall. He has written three books on Political economy and the History of economic thought.

Giulia Zacchia is an associate professor of economics at Sapienza Università di Roma. She holds a PhD in History of Economic Thought, she was a founder of the Working Group on Gender Economics for the Young Scholars Initiative of the Institute of New Economic Thinking (INET) and is a member of the executive committee of STOREP - Italian Association for the History of Political Economy. Her research interests extend to social and financial inclusion, gender economics and gender gaps in labor markets and in academia, including the identification of the contribution of women to the development of economic thought.