Economy I: What is "economy"?

Tue, Sep 06

This is the first of a three part introductory sequence of courses aimed at unmasking one of the Sheedy Family Program's core concepts: economy. It may sound silly to say it, but lots of us might admit -- on reflection -- that we don't have a clear sense of what "economy" really means, where the term came from, and how it differs from "the economy" as we use that phrase in contemporary culture. In this class, we'll explore the history of the concept (which, surprisingly, initially arose with respect to conversations about things like household management, estates, and land ownership). We'll then contrast this with our concept of "the economy" (i.e. the things economists study, the reason we're all paying $4 or $5 per gallon to fill our gas tanks, etc), and will draw connections between these two.

Learning Goals - by the end of this class session, you will:

1. Expand/nuance definitions of "economy" to encompass not just "what economists study" but also/rather what people have done since the beginning of time: make decisions about how to allocate limited resources
2. Articulate contemporary assumptions about the values of markets and capitalist economics, and contrast these assumptions with the views of thinkers at critical moments in the history of the development of capitalism,
3. Develop your own view about which values markets (and a capitalist economy) can promote, and how we might realize that without a contemporary political framework like our own.