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Economics

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

Animals and humans Anthropology Archaeology Automation and robotics Cities Demography and migration Economic history Economics Education Environmental history Fairness and equality Future of technology Gender Global history History History of technology Human rights and justice Information and communication Making Nations and empires Politics and government Poverty and development Progress and modernity Public health Race and ethnicity Religion The ancient world The environment The future War and peace Work

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Photo of a smiling boy with short hair outdoors, viewed through a digital camera frame. Background shows a fence and greenery.

videoChildhood and adolescence

A neglected Dominican sugar town, as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old local

11 minutes

Photo of a woman wearing sunglasses, gesturing in front of a large stone monument with carved figures.

videoThinkers and theories

The prison abolitionist who dares to envision a world without ‘unfreedoms’

16 minutes

Photo of an older man with white hair and beard in a cityscape with tall modern buildings in the background.

videoEconomics

A tour of New York’s gaudiest neighbourhood with the Marxist geographer David Harvey

13 minutes

Photo of three people stacking hay bales under a cloudy sky with a pink sunset.

videoSocial psychology

What happened when a crypto scam swept over a sleepy town in the Caucasus

18 minutes

An elderly couple sit beside a child standing next to a canal with bare trees behind them. The man talks to the child and has a walking stick beside him.

essayDemography and migration

The vanishing of youth

The precipitous decline of birthrates throughout the world poses a serious threat to humanity. What is to be done?

Victor Kumar

A busy urban street with cars, a motorbike and a truck passing by a neon-lit building at sunset.

essayPoverty and development

How Kerala got rich

Fifty years ago it was one of India’s poorest states, now it is now one of the richest. How did Kerala do it?

Tirthankar Roy & K Ravi Raman

A person in a hard hat and coveralls surrounded by thick white smoke, obscuring most of the view.

videoFairness and equality

There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa

10 minutes

Six children with troubled faces sitting and lying on colourful blankets inside a dimly lit room with an earthen wall.

essayPoverty and development

Poverty is not permanent

By understanding the pernicious myths surrounding poverty, we can make progress towards a lofty goal: dignity for all

Anirudh Krishna & Dirk Philipsen

Photo of a protest in front of a historic building with statues. Signs read “End Racism Now!” and other messages.

essayNations and empires

What is decolonisation?

There’s more talk of decolonisation than ever, while true independence for former colonies has faded from view. Why?

Lydia Walker

A suburban street with mountains in the background, featuring a girl on a bike, parked cars, and old furniture on the sidewalk in front of a house.

essayProgress and modernity

The great wealth wave

The tide has turned – evidence shows ordinary citizens in the Western world are now richer and more equal than ever before

Daniel Waldenström

Shopfront of NY 99 Cent Fresh Pizza restaurant with an open sign, vaccine notice, and menu visible through the window.

essayEconomic history

Economics 101

Why introductory economics courses continued to teach zombie ideas from before economics became an empirical discipline

Walter Frick

Image of an offshore wind turbine in the sea with a large LNG ship in the background under a partly cloudy sky in calm waters.

essayThe environment

Decoupling

We need to find a way for human societies to prosper while the planet heals. So far we can’t even think clearly about it

Ville Lähde

A collage showing a ‘just married’ car, a couple speaking with a bank teller, a couple by a crib, and a close-up of a BankAmericard with a gold coin in a money clip.

essayEconomic history

Credit card nation

Americans have always borrowed, but how exactly did their lives become so entangled with the power of plastic cards?

Sean H Vanatta

Female healthcare worker examines a tattooed man’s eye in a hallway decorated with colourful artwork.

essayEconomics

Who bears the risk?

Under the guise of empowerment and freedom, politicians and business are offloading lifethreatening risk to individuals

Suzanne Schneider

A man wearing a hat and red shirt is chopping a log with an axe, with wood chips flying around, next to a tent under a blue sky with clouds.

videoWork

Does capitalism make ‘non-playable characters’ of us all? An uncanny exploration

21 minutes

Close-up of an orange Mercedes car with the focus on the front tyre, which is inscribed with ‘In Crypto We Trust’

essayEconomics

The cruelty of crypto

Selling itself as the new American dream, crypto exposes the vulnerable to fraud and scams, and loads risk onto the poor

Rachel O’Dwyer

A woman in a pink coat and carrying a pink umbrella walks past a protestor carrying a yellow placard appealing to people to use cash

essayEconomics

Going cashless

It’s not in the interests of the ordinary person but it’s not a conspiracy either. A cashless society is a system run amok

Brett Scott

A person adjusts a digital board displaying red illuminated numbers, possibly currency exchange rates, against a blurred background of people.

essayEconomics

Finance as alchemy

Finance fraud is not a deviation from an essentially rational system but a window onto the reality-distortion of markets

Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou

A shopfront with “O’DEA’S” in gold letters, two windows above with flower boxes holding pink flowers, and the number 66 on the right side.

videoHome

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

15 minutes

Abandoned shopping trolley beside a closed, grey roller shutter, surrounded by fallen autumn leaves.

essayEconomics

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

A woman with a colourful scarf covering her face stands in a queue, surrounded by other masked individuals in an outdoor setting.

videoDemography and migration

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

27 minutes

A close-up of two hands exchanging a piece of bread, symbolising sharing or giving, with a blurred background. Black and white photograph.

essayAnthropology

Keeping the score

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

Gili Kliger

A woman in a black top sits inside a vehicle, looking pensive, with her fist resting on her chin and other vehicles visible in the background.

videoWork

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

25 minutes

A woman points at a colourful bar chart labelled ‘Time Use,’ which compares data between women and men, while seated and wearing a checkered shirt.

videoEconomics

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

30 minutes