Menu
DonateNewsletter
SIGN IN

Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future
Save

video

Home

Whether above a pub or in a castle, our childhood homes leave an indelible mark

15 minutes

Save

essay

Economics

The empty basket

Economics is the language of power and affects us all. What can we do to improve its impoverished menu of ideas?

Ha-Joon Chang

Save

video

Demography and migration

How the world’s harshest lockdown hit India’s millions of migrant workers

27 minutes

Save

essay

Anthropology

Keeping the score

The gifts we exchange are both generous and yet fraught with social rules and obligations. Marcel Mauss explained why

Gili Kliger

Save

video

Work

Living out of a truck, Maikhuu finds promise and peril on Mongolia’s ‘coal highway’

25 minutes

Save

video

Economics

We all play by economic rules set by men. What could a feminist economics look like?

30 minutes

Save

video

Art

Is paying with hand-drawn banknotes artistry or forgery? The knotty case of J S G Boggs

10 minutes

Save

essay

Economics

Beyond Eurocentrism

If you really want decolonisation, go beyond cultural criticism to the deep structural insights of economist Samir Amin

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven

Save

essay

Economics

A softer economics

Financial markets are entangled and uncertain. When will economists let go of physics envy to embrace the quantum revolution?

David Orrell

Save

essay

Economics

The worldly turn

After generations of ‘blackboard economics’, Berkeley and MIT are leading a return to economics that studies the real world

Tom Bergin

Save

video

Travel

‘My people!’ A Trinidadian’s love letter to his island, just before its 1962 independence

17 minutes

Save

essay

Economics

The biggest picture

No wonder we cannot agree on how globalisation works and whether it’s a good thing. All the stories we have are flawed

Anthea Roberts & Nicholas Lamp

Save

video

Animals and humans

Familiarity breeds roach-respect, and even love, for a group of Florida insect farmers

13 minutes

Save

video

Thinkers and theories

Bigger isn’t better – the renegade ‘Buddhist economics’ of E F Schumacher

30 minutes

Save

essay

Economics

Stock-picking for humanity

Everyone on the planet has a stake in making investment more ethical. What’s new is that they have the power to do so too

Ellen Quigley

Save

video

Future of technology

Tech companies shroud their algorithms in secrecy. It’s time to pry open the black box

4 minutes

Save

essay

Thinkers and theories

The abuses of Popper

A powerful cadre of scientists and economists sold Karl Popper’s ‘falsification’ idea to the world. They have much to answer for

Charlotte Sleigh

Save

video

Subcultures

Dented cans, ugly fruit – it’s all tasty (and free) if you’re willing to get your hands dirty

21 minutes

Save

essay

Economic history

Economics for the people

Against the capitalist creeds of scarcity and self-interest, a plan for humanity’s shared flourishing is finally coming into view

Dirk Philipsen

Save

essay

Human rights and justice

Weak links

The idea of the ‘supply chain’ shackles how we think about economic justice. What forces could new metaphors unleash?

Michael Gibb

Save

essay

Work

Universal unions

Being an employee is a threat to your liberty. But while firms exist, compulsory unions are a basic safeguard of freedom

Mark R Reiff

Save

essay

Human rights and justice

Private gain, public loss

Putting public services in private hands is bad economics. Worse, it undermines our bonds as a political community

Alon Harel

Save

idea

Economics

Private gain must no longer be allowed to elbow out the public good

Dirk Philipsen

Save

essay

Economics

The people’s economist

Paul Samuelson’s mathematical brilliance changed economics, but it was his popular touch that made him a household name

Roger Backhouse