What is wrong with economics we study today?
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About the video: ‘What is wrong with economics we study today?’
Manfred Max-Neef believes that economics taught in most schools today is at odds with reality as experienced by the world’s poor. Modern economics, taught in isolation from other schools of economic thought, calls itself a ‘value-free science’. But how, he asks, can an academic discipline that measures human behaviour not take into account human values or motivations? Professor Max-Neef argues that reform is needed. He suggests that students should spend part of their studies living in an impoverished community. Only then will they understand economic activity as it effects the poor.
Total views: 2,982
Filmed: Geneva, Switzerland on 21 May 2006
Credits: Interviewer - Marcus Morrell, Camera and Editor - Marcus Morrell
Copyright © 2006 Big Picture TV
About Manfred Max-Neef
Manfred Max-Neef is a Chilean economist widely respected for his work on international development. In 1981 he wrote the book for which he is best known, ‘From the Outside Looking in: Experiences in Barefoot Economics’, which describes his experiences practising economics among the poor in South America.
In the same year he founded the Centre for Development Alternatives (CEPAUR).
In 1983, Max-Neef won the Right Livelihood Award, known as the Alternative Nobel Prize for his work in poverty-stricken areas of developing countries.
Until 2001 he has been Rector of the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia.
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