Invite us to run a workshop
People’s Economy’s one-off workshops and multi-week courses are all about building power among communities experiencing economic injustice to build their confidence and knowledge around the economic root causes of issues they care about, and explore practical solutions.
Free trade, fiscal rules, financial contingency planning…there are a lot of ‘f’ words in economics, and all the jargon makes most of us just switch off. We’ve cut out the boring bits to bring you economics classes with a twist. Our sessions explore everything from why there’s a housing crisis, to different ways of measuring whether we have a ‘good’ economy.
We’ve run workshops across London, Birmingham, Greater Manchester, Scotland and Wales. We offer workshops to all sorts of groups, from community centres to unions to campaign groups and other changemakers.
If you’d like to invite us to run a workshop or course for a group you work with, or if you’d like to get involved another way, get in touch at workshops[at]ecnmy.org.
Who are our workshops for?
Our sessions are aimed at people who want to further connect their own experiences and their vision for social change with the wider economy. They might want to:
- Understand what economics is and how it affects their lives and their communities
- Learn how an economic analysis can strengthen their mission for social change
- Understand how different economists explain the building blocks of economics
- Explore solutions to problems in our economies
- Link in with existing campaigns and networks that are pursuing these solutions
- Learn how to talk about all these things in an accessible and engaging way
What are the outcomes?
Our sessions enable participants to:
- Go from feeling like economics is just for experts, to feeling more confident with economic concepts at the root of social problems
- Understand the most important problems and debates in economics, and the different ways of thinking about them
- Develop their communication and critical skills, through the ideas discussed in the workshops
- Feel empowered to get involved in improving their communities
- Communicate with others about the economy in an engaging way
In addition, 85 percept of participants who gave us feedback have said that their knowledge has improved after participating in one of our online workshops, while 90 percent said they found the workshops useful.
We have had great feedback from our partner organisations and participants. Check out our blog post about how the pilots went, and this video made by the Guardian about our workshops (created when we were called “Economy”):
Who does People’s Economy partner with to run sessions?
We’ve worked with all sorts of groups in the past including charities, community groups, campaigns, trade unions and decision makers. We’re always looking for new partners, and are particularly keen on working with organisations that work with people and communities whose voices are often ignored in discussions about the economy.
If your organisation is interested in partnering with us, get in touch at workshops[at]ecnmy[dot]org.
We work with organisations on a needs basis, and have funding to offer free workshops in some cases.
How are our sessions taught?
We run one-off workshops, or longer courses. Sessions are around two hours long, and are a mix of individual and group activities, discussions and visual materials. With a minimum of maths and graphs, through stories and reflection we make economics relevant to normal lives, and participants are encouraged to think about how their own life experiences relate to the wider economy. Our sessions aim to make participants aware of a balanced and diverse range of economic problems and solutions, in a way that is fun, relevant, clear, and jargon-free. Here are a few things people have said about workshops they’ve attended:
“Very accessible, understandable introduction to a subject that I thought too complex to begin understanding.”
“Brilliant facilitators.”
“The style of tutoring was excellent.”
“Excellent session. Enjoyed the group work.”
“[I liked] the fact that it was easy [to] have my voice heard and to take part without anyone dominating the conversation.”
““It’s a good balance between absorbing stuff and chatting. Days have flown by, and the course is very accessible.”
Who teaches the workshops?
“‘I’m absolutely loving it. I’d do this again in a heartbeat- I’m enjoying it more than I ever thought!’
We run some of our workshops ourselves, and some are run by volunteers we train and recruit. We also train individuals to run workshops themselves for their organisations or communities. Some volunteers have an economics background, some don’t – what ties them together is strong facilitation skills, a passion for community building and a shared conviction that economics should be for everyone. Learn more about volunteering to facilitate a workshop.
Which topics do we cover?
We explore everything from money, housing, government policies and the job market, to how economies across the world are linked through the environment they share. Our workshops are designed to get you thinking about how your day to day life is affected by and affects the economy; together we explore how we measure ‘success’ in economics, whether that makes sense; and what we can do as individuals and communities to change the economy for the better. We also run workshops on how to talk about the economy in an accessible and productive way.
Alongside foundational topics we design and run workshops on a wide range of areas, for example:
- Why UBI?: What is Universal Basic Income, and do we need it?
- Reshaping the economy post Covid.
- How will we pay for the crisis? Understanding debt, taxes, and government and austerity
- Green new deal or green industrial revolution? What are they and do we need them?
- Caring and the economy
- Transport, climate change and local economies
- Local procurement
““What has particularly interested me? Everything I’ve learned, from the first session to this last session.”
Why are we doing this work?
We are building a democratic, equitable and liveable economy where communities can meet their needs and priorities.