ICA helps shine the light on people-centred economy

By Catalina Quiroz Nino

People-centred ways of managing the economy should be part of higher education, say researchers at Britain’s York St John University. They are leading a three-year study to understand “social economy” and promote it within higher education curricula.

Among their partners is the ICA network in Spain, Canada and Nepal. In particular, ICA Spain helped them develop the concept for the study and make links with the University San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Peru, which is now co-funding the project. ICA Spain also hopes to share the ToP methodology for use in the study. For further details, please visit www.yorksj.ac.uk/socialeconomy

The university’s senior lecturer Margaret Meredith and visiting fellow Catalina Quiroz, who are coordinating the project, said: 

“People are now questioning the values implicit in a system which seeks profit at all costs. Higher Education needs to equip students with a broader vision and the tools to analyse a variety of ways in which the economy might work more effectively and for the common good and creation of sustainable wealth. We believe that the social economy warrants higher exposure in our universities and should be studied alongside other economic models.”

The Social Economy project has been awarded a grant of €335,000 from the European Union’s Erasmus Mundus programme. Besides the University of San Antonio Abad del Cusco, other partners include the Centre for African Studies at the University of Oporto, Portugal; Mondragon University, Spain; and other associate universities across the world.

A main part of the project is a comprehensive survey, to be launched in May 2013, and open to all those working in the social economy worldwide. The findings will inform a reference handbook, which will advise on European HE curriculum design.
To “friend” the project and support its aim of changing how economics and business are taught and practised, please sign up at: http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/erasmus-mundus/social-economy/get-involved.aspx

You can also post comments on its blog: http://blog.yorksj.ac.uk/socialeconomy/

Catalina Quiroz Nino is a member of ICA: Spain