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
© public domain
Table of contents
- Call for Papers
- 14th International Critical Management Studies (ICMS) Conference (Manchester, June 2025)
- 15th Annual IIPPE Conference: "Immigration: Crisis of the World Capitalist System, Crisis for the World Capitalist System" (Ankara, September 2025)
- 16th Input-Output-Workshop (Groningen, March 2025)
- 28th Annual ESHET Conference: "It's the end of economics (as we know it)" (Torino, May 2025)
- 46th AFIT @WSSA: "Historical Insights and Modern Solutions: Navigating Polycrises and Achieving Social Justice in a Globalized Digital World" (Seattle, April 2025)
- 60th ITH Conference: "Workers and Worldmaking - Labor in the Era of Decolonization" (Linz, September 2025) TILL
- Call for Expression of Interest: Black People, Black Issues, and Black Scholarship in The History of Economics
- Capitalist Transformations in Eastern and Central Europe (online, May 2025)
- Conference on "Marginality and Marginal Knowledge in the Economy" (Grenoble, June 2025)
- International Conference on Cooperative Research (Helsinki, June 2025)
- Organising in the Capitalocene: Labour and the Struggle against Disaster and Genocide (Athens, April 2025)
- Politics and Governance: Special Issue on "The Politics of Pro-Poor Policies in the Global South"
- RSA Conference: "(Re)building industrial policy capabilities" (Porto, May 2025)
- Rethinking Marxism: Special Issue on "The current relevance of the Marxian critique of Political Economy: an homage to Professor Maria de Lourdes Rollemberg Mollo"
- SASE Mini conferences: An overview (Montreal, July 2025)
- Socio-Economic Review: Special Issue on "The socio-economics of loss and decline in the climate crisis"
- YSI Pre-conference: "Dimensions of (Neo-) Extractivism: Space, Resilience, and Narratives of the Ecological Crisis" (Buenos Aires, March 2025)
- YSI Workshop: "The Political Economy of Growth and Distribution II: Global Imbalances, Power Relations, and Historical Perspectives" (Siena, February 2025)
- Young Scholars’ Conference: Time & Justice. Temporal interrogations into Social-Ecological Justice (Hamburg, October 2025)
- Call for Participants
- 3rd Scenarios Forum for sustainability and climate (Leeds, July 2025)
- 4th Labour Transfer School: establishing links between research and labour activism (Italy, June 2025)
- Summer School on "The History and Philosophy of Econometrics" (Vienna, July 2025)
- WINIR-WSES Workshop on The Future of Economic Sociology (Wisconsin/online, April 2025)
- Conference Papers, Reports, and Podcasts
- Smith and Marx Walk into a Bar: A History of Economics Podcast 84
- Job Postings
- Center for Sustainability Research (CSR) / Sustainable Finance Lab (SFL), Sweden
- Europa-University Flensburg, Germany
- Global Climate Forum (GCF), Germany
- Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
- Public University of Navarre (UPNA), Spain
- Saint Peter’s University, US
- University of Augsburg / Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany
- University of Hamburg, Germany
- Awards
- AFIT-AFEE Student Scholars Award Competition
- Winner Announcement: David Marsden Paper Prize 2024
- Journals
- Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review 21 (2)
- Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium 14 (4)
- Cambridge Journal of Economics 48 (6)
- Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 17 (3)
- Capital & Class 48 (4)
- Ecological Economics 228
- Economy and Society 53 (4)
- Environmental Politics 33 (7)
- European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies 21 (3)
- Forum for Social Economics 53 (4)
- History of Economics Review 88 (1)
- International Journal of Political Economy 53 (4)
- Journal of Economic Issues 58 (4): Symposium on the 100th Anniversary of the Publication of John R. Commons’ The Legal Foundations of Capitalism
- Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 47 (4)
- New Political Economy 29 (6)
- Review of Evolutionary Political Economy 5 (3)
- Review of International Political Economy, 31 (6)
- Review of Political Economy 36 (5)
- Review of Social Economy 82 (4)
- Revista de Economía Crítica 37
- Socio-Economic Review 22 (4)
- The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 31 (2)
- The Review of Austrian Economics 37 (4)
- The Review of Black Political Economy 51 (4)
- real-world economics review 109
- Œconomia 14 (3)
- Books and Book Series
- Inequality and Stagnation: A Monetary Interpretation
- Political Economy Comparative, International, and Historical Perspectives
- Rethinking Financial Behaviour: Rationality and Resistance in the Financialization of Everyday Life
- Social Media: A Critical Introduction (Fourth edition)
- The Late Marx’s Revolutionary Roads: Colonialism, Gender, and Indigenous Communism
- Work, Pay & Sustainability: A New Economics of Labor
- Heterodox Graduate Programs, Scholarships and Grants
- EPOG-JM | Economic POlicies for the Global bifurcation master programme
- Social Macroeconomics PhD Scheme and Scholarship (UCL Institute for Global Prosperity)
- Visiting Scholars Programme (Vinson Centre, University of Buckingham)
- Websites
- Institutional Landscapes Website
- Sustainable Welfare and Eco-Social Policy Network
- Heterodox Economics in the Media
- Keynes The Musical (BBC)