Basics workshops
The Basics on Pluralism (yellow slots in the schedule) equip
participants with the tools and background knowledge on pluralism within
economics. You will meet your Basics group at the beginning of the week
and stick with them until you do the check-out on the last day. This
means that you will spend some time in this group and get to know the
other participants, discuss the preparation material and inputs with
them, and hopefully even find some new friends. In terms of content
there are three tracks.
Basics 1 starts on Sunday with an introduction of different ontologies of
economics. From there we proceed with a comparison of different quantitative
and qualitative research methods on Monday, and end with a discussion of the
role of scientists in social transformation as well as the relationship between
researchers and the people they study on Wednesday.
Basics 2 starts with an introduction to a variety of heterodox models on
Sunday and proceeds with a discussion of empirical research approaches
in their relation to theory on Monday. In the final session on
Wednesday, we will reflect on the knowledge social scientists produce
and the relationship of researchers to the people they study.
CoLab: For those participants that want to start a collaborative
(research) project, there will be a space to do so at the same time as
the basics courses. This space is reserved for participants that are
either interested in starting a project or for participants that already joined
our Summer School at least once (and are interested in doing collaborative
research projects).
Participant workshops
On Tuesday and Thursday morning (orange slots in the schedule),
participants are given the space to hold their own workshops or present
academic and activist projects they are currently working on. Topics
could look like: An introduction to different forms of cooperatives, a
discussion on the specific challenges of implementing a degrowth economy
in Switzerland, or different how-to-workshops (...e.g., how to organize
your own Summer School or academic lecture series).
Participants interested in holding a workshop are not expected to be a
researcher or expert on the topic. (After all this format is aimed at
breaking hierarchies in the academic knowledge production.) Instead
participants are expected to create a sound didactic concept: Preferably
your workshop is designed as participative as possible and contains
refreshing hands-on elements.
After we reviewed the applications, participants will receive more
information as well as the opportunity to share their workshop ideas and
concepts.
Preparation materials
To help you prepare for the Summer School, we made a podcast playlist. The podcasts introduce topics connected to the basics workshops and provide complementary food for thought. Have a look at the playlist here!
Workshops by participants and invited speakers also have recommended readings, which we shared via email.