Democratizing Work after the Pandemic Speaker Series
Sunrise Bard
The Economic Democracy Initiative (EDI), led by Bard College, is the Open Society University Network's collaborative program focusing on economic democracy and basic economic rights as preconditions for economic stability, security, and opportunity in a global economy that works for all.
EDI Lecture Series, Working Paper Series, and Data Resource Tools
Our inaugural projects focus on building data resources for research on labor markets and the connections between unemployment, precarious employment, and broader socioeconomic deprivations.
The OSUN Economic Democracy Initiative (EDI) is launching a new undergraduate Certificate in Applied Economic Policy Analysis. The certificate is designed for the next generation of policymakers committed to the principles of economic stability, shared prosperity, and economic rights by supplementing their economics training with insights from other disciplines. The certificate is designed to provide students with a set of cutting-edge interdisciplinary analytical techniques and theoretical approaches to tackle urgent twenty-first century problems.
Right to Employment OSUN Course
Right to Employment is an interdisciplinary OSUN course that focuses on social, economic, legal, and policy developments regarding the right to employment, and introduces students to international initiatives and innovative programs. Students read economic analyses, policy proposals, legislative documents, and program reviews. The course can be tailored to the pedagogical and research interests and capacity of each OSUN partner including adjustments for the particular OSUN program, context, and location.
Democratizing Work after the Pandemic OSUN Course
This course rethinks and reimagines work as a democratic project in the post-pandemic world. Working people are not simple ‘resources.’ That was a central lesson of the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The course examines why economic well-being and economic security cannot be governed by market forces alone. It evaluates how and why existing economic structures exacerbate rampant inequalities, erode the very foundations of economic stability, and threaten the lives of the most vulnerable.
EDI Policy Work
Unemployment, Inequality, and Economic Policy
EDI Founding Director Pavlina Tcherneva presents at a hearing before the French National Assembly on the Job Guarantee in January 2020.
Nika Dubrovsky, widow of the late David Graeber, has established "The Fight Club" to keep David's unique way of challenging conventional wisdoms alive. Each "Fight" will pit leading advocates, thinkers and visionaries against each other.
The inaugural fight was a debate between the renowned economists Thomas Piketty, author of “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, and Michael Hudson, author of “And Forgive Them Their Debts”. You can watch it here.
Join us for a follow up Q & A session with Hudson, Bard's Pavlina Tcherneva, and Steve Keen of Debunking Economics. Astra Taylor will moderate. They will discuss: what is money and what is debt? What are the most serious problems of today’s finance-capital economies? And what are the best remedies? Come with your questions!
Summer Workshop in Public Finance and Economic Policy
OSUN Economic Democracy Initiative The Open Society University Network welcomes undergraduate applications for its summer workshop in Public Finance and Economic Policy. Organized and hosted by the OSUN Economic Democracy Initiative, this five-day workshop is for undergraduate students interested in public policy to tackle economic instability and insecurity, and in understanding the financing capacity and policy space available to governments to pursue these aims.
The workshop provides undergraduate students with a unique opportunity to learn about the latest research on modern money, public finance, and public policies that tackle economic instability and insecurity.
June 6-10, 2022 Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA
All undergraduate students, regardless of whether they attend an OSUN institution or not, are welcome. Applicants from partner OSUN institutions are eligible for financial assistance and are especially encouraged to apply.
COVID and the climate crisis have taught us that governments must act decisively to tackle the most pressing challenges before us, and not leave solutions exclusively to private actors. These developments have led to a rethinking of the role of the state on a global scale. How shall we think about the policy options before different governments? What are their abilities to achieve them? What kind of real or financial constraints do they face? This workshop will provide students with a new framework for thinking about these questions and with concrete tools and techniques to explore these policy-relevant concerns.
