Vermont Business Magazine Do you ever wonder why our global economy produces an enormous range of goods and services yet fails to meet even the most basic needs of 45% of the people of earth? Do you worry that climate change has advanced so far that we are undermining the planet’s capacity to provide the resources and process the wastes on which life depends? Are you troubled that anti-democratic forces seem to be on the rise, with explosions of political violence and insurgent racism?
The Center for the Advancement of Public Action (CAPA) at Bennington College is pleased to invite members of the community to examine these questions during a two-day class called “Rethinking Capitalism.”
The module will be held from 9:30 am–5:30 pm on Saturday, October 7 and Sunday, October 8, 2023, at CAPA Symposium and will examine every-day economic myths that regularly stand in the way of making important or necessary investments in people and policies. Those interested in attending should register in advance at https://tinyurl.com/benningtonrethinkingcapitalism. There is no charge and refreshments and a lunch break will be provided.
This intensive weekend module begins by questioning the prevailing economic systems and the theories and policies that support them. It introduces two modern branches of economic thought, Modern Monetary Theory and Ecological Economics, which are beginning to provide an alternative and hopeful way of transforming global crises.
The weekend exploration will be led by visiting Australian economist Dr. Steven Hail, the author of Economics of Sustainable Prosperity. Hail is one of Australia’s leading heterodox economists, who blends the imperatives of dealing with climate change and inequality with the insights of modern monetary theory, especially those that suggest that governments have the substantial fiscal space to finance the transitions to sustainable prosperity.
Hail was educated at the London School of Economics, where he received his BSc and MSc. He was the 2016 recipient of the Vice Chancellor’s Medal for Doctoral Thesis Excellence at Flinders University. In 2021, Hail left his appointment in the School of Economics at University of Adelaide to create a groundbreaking graduate program in Sustainable Economics at a think tank, The Modern Money Lab, in collaboration with Torrens University in Australia.
The course uses a combination of short presentations and videos by Hail as well as large- and small-group discussions. No preparation or special knowledge is required or expected. The module is accessible to anyone who is concerned about the challenges of caring for people, the economy, and the planet. Participants should register in advance at https://tinyurl.com/benningtonrethinkingcapitalism.
ABOUT CAPA
Founded in 2011, the Center for the Advancement of Public Action (CAPA) at Bennington College is furthering the educational philosophy and pedagogy of the College by connecting classroom learning to hands-on engagements with a wide range of current issues like international conflict and leadership, art in the public realm, incarceration in America, and, increasingly, our region’s food, energy, and water systems. CAPA teaches the essential capacities needed to develop an educated and emboldened citizenry. Drawing together the deep artistic and analytic resources of Bennington College and collaborating with existing public and private organizations, CAPA leverages the classroom as a new kind of laboratory for creative problem solving and innovation.
ABOUT BENNINGTON COLLEGE
Bennington College is a liberal arts college in southwestern Vermont that has distinguished itself as a vanguard institution within American higher education. It was the first to include the visual and performing arts in a liberal arts education. It is the only college to require that its students spend a term—every year—at work in the world. Bennington students work intensively with faculty to forge individual educational paths around their driving questions and interests.
Rooted in an abiding faith in the talent, imagination, and responsibility of the individual, Bennington invites students to pursue and shape their own intellectual inquiries and, in doing so, to discover the profound interconnection of things. Learn more at bennington.edu.
