Economic Justice: In search of a new paradigm

All public discussions regarding financial matters have three things in common: First of all, they seem to be overly technical and hard to understand. Secondly, they‘re presented as abiding to some irreversible natural order that justifies their unpleasant nature, in order for an “ultimate goal” to be achieved. Thirdly, they affect the citizens’ everyday life more than any other public policy.

Those three traits seem to be rather contradictory to one another. How can economic policies be so relevant to our lives and yet be that incomprehensible? And if they‘re affecting us so much, why are they usually unpleasant? And what is that “ultimate goal” that those policies are supposed to serve?

The great economic recession of the previous decade has served as a motive to start a conversation regarding economic policy goals, priorities and tools. The pandemic fuelled the need for this conversation, by challenging dogmas and questioning one-way solutions.

The goals of our project “Economic Justice: In search of a new paradigm” are:

• To analyse the tendencies of the global as well as the Greek economy.
• To trace the forming perceptions regarding economic policy.
• To actively participate in the international discussions regarding economic policy, not just by conveying the questions that are being raised abroad to the Greek public, but by actively taking part in the global public dialogue.
• To further familiarise the public to alternative economic theories.
• To contribute to the development of a new paradigm of economic justice.

Under the project’s umbrella, Eteron is striving:

• To produce primary knowledge regarding economic policy topics.
• To establish a new frame in which we can conduct public dialogue regarding the economy, by questioning what is being conceived as obvious, doubting the current priorities and giving new meaning to basic reference terms.
• To make room for discussion regarding alternative economic theories.
• To give researchers a platform where they can present their work.
• To popularise economic theory and give the non-expert citizens the necessary tools in order to understand reality.