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Economics (really) needs to change: Introducing ‘Wellbeing Economics’ by Nicky Pouw

By Nicky Pouw

Beneath the surface of neoclassical economics lies unwavering faith in the pursuit of big numbers: more is always better. More growth means more income, more supply and production, more employment, more demand, more investment, more growth, and so forth. Big numbers give people a certain sense of security; everything is ‘going well’ and the economy is ‘healthy’. Only when a crisis hits, such as the current COVID-19 virus, people seem to become aware of the danger that lurks in big numbers; namely, they always involve tipping points and introduce risk into other areas, such as public health or international security. By ‘tipping point’, I mean that a certain equilibrium is upset, such as the equilibrium in economic growth or the balance between supply and demand. Continue reading “Economics (really) needs to change: Introducing ‘Wellbeing Economics’ by Nicky Pouw”

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It’s about Europe’s future, stupid!

Against the background of the global Corona pandemic, there is an urgent need for the EU to step up its international cooperation efforts.

By Michael Obrovsky

Reacting rather swiftly to the economic and social effects of the COVID-19 crisis, The European Council in its July 2020 meeting has agreed on the reconstruction instrument “NextGenerationEU“. The latter features a financial volume of € 750 billion to strengthen the EU budget 2021-2024 and € 1,074.3 billion for the long-term budget (MFF Multiannual Financial Framework) for the period 2021-2027. While new instruments and billions of euros are being provided for the recovery of the European economy, the EU’s international cooperation framework with the Global South is still based on a pre-COVID-19 approach. Continue reading “It’s about Europe’s future, stupid!”

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Insects on the Plates!

By Sarah Nischalke and Sebastian Forneck

Finding people who love to feast on insects and collect them from the wild, handing them a few plastic boxes with simple trays for vegetable waste from the kitchen, water and for egg laying/breeding- and ready is the mini-livestock farm that produce crickets, locusts or other insects that go into processing for snacks made of insect flour, and, voila: there is a vibrant insect market… Continue reading “Insects on the Plates!”

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It is time to abandon “development” goals and demand a post-2030 Utopia

By Julia Schöneberg and Mia Kristin Häckl

These are troubled times. Times of multiple, interrelated crises that bring to the fore the injustices, inequalities, and racisms that are not new, but continue to persist and become increasingly hard to ignore.

The SDGs started off ambitiously and claimed to set a mark for a new era in which all countries would be unified in a universal – shared but differentiated – quest to develop. Much has been critiqued in terms of how the goals are formulated and implemented. Continue reading “It is time to abandon “development” goals and demand a post-2030 Utopia”

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Learning from the grassroots: “Together we are much more than two”

Impressions from the Third Bridge 47 Iberian Knowledge Exchange Partnership Meeting

By Talia Vela-Eiden

“…
y en la calle codo a codo
somos mucho más que dos.”
(and in the street side by side
we are much more than two)
Te quiero, Mario Benedetti

It was not to be, meeting in Lisbon. However, coming together online to save the day, members of the Iberian Partnership in the Bridge 47 Project on Global Citizenship Education (GCE) sat down to learn about how to implement SDG4 in practice at the local level, drawing from the experience of the city of Valencia. Continue reading “Learning from the grassroots: “Together we are much more than two””