Heterodox Economics Newsletter

Issue 336 December 09, 2024 web pdf Heterodox Economics Directory

We maybe talk too rarely and too little about how teaching and thinking on heterodox economics could be more funny. While this might not seem totally apt for what is sometimes called the 'dismal science', I still wanted to point out for once that cartoons can serve as a core entry point for doing so. Human creativity is a beautiful resource, that can be employed for many purposes, and I am confident many will agree drawing funny cartoons is among the better of those purposes; one that undeniably contributes to social welfare (and resilience ;-)).

As I am trying to nudge you here to use more cartoons in your diverse communications, this should hopefully give some push to the demand for cartoons, which leaves with us with the quintessential question where to get adquate supply. My first suggestion on this is to have a look (or maybe subscribe to) www.smbc-comics.com, which regularly covers economic issues from various angles. The diverse contributions include funny summaries of basic models, specific interpretations in the history of economic thought, lessons on investment strategies, perfect foresight and financial stability, relevent basics on socialphilosophy and economic experiments as well as some advanced learnings in behavioral economics.

My second recommendation is to resort to the more abstract, but no less ingenious www.xkcd.com, which comes more from a natural science perspective. It sometimes features very forceful and inventive cartoons (like the one on climate change), but often adresses core issues of concern to heterodox economists with beautifully simple and clear aesthetics. The cartoons are really helpful for mapping some philosophical foundations, key insights from the studies of science and clear-cut lessons inmethodology. It even helps us defining economics as a discipline and periodically suggests methodological innovations of great interest.

A final option is to have a look at www.existentialcomics.com, which comes from a more philosophical vantage point. It's cartoons are often close to the standard interpretations associated with diverse philosophers, which endows it with a certain pedagagogical virtue. As there are huge overlaps between the history of philosophy and economic history or the history of economic thought, the interested reader will occasionally find cartoons that pertain to core topics of interest, like the upbringing of major economicsts, ideological clashes in hypothetical scenarios or empirical updates on men's state of nature.

While I hope you had some fun with my primary resources I would be happy to hear whether you might have some complementary sugggestions to my preliminary list of cartoon providers ;-) If so, simply write a short note to newsletter@heterodoxnews.com. Many thanks in advance!

Best

Jakob

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