Do you often listen to someone talking about economics and feel like they’re speaking a different language?

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WE DO! Economy Project Information Pack

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In 2016 YouGov asked the UK public if they felt “politicians and the media talk about economics in a way that is accessible and easy to understand”. Only 12% answered yes.  We’ve started our campaign for Understandable Economics to reclaim what the subject is really about. 3

It’s not ‘economics’, it’s seven billion stories, it’s the lives we lead, it’s the choices we make. Economy Project Information Pack

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economy is the place for a new kind of economics, one that’s interesting, understandable and real. Economy is a new and rapidly growing charity with a mission to create a more understandable economics, giving people the confidence to question what economics means and shape what the economy could be. We find out how people feel about economics, and design a better way of talking about the subject—one that allows them to identify with, understand, and feel empowered by it. We’re also about being the change we want to see. We provide jargon-free news, simple guides to economics, and entertaining, imaginative, and down-to-earth content on our website www.ecnmy.org. We also work with schools, communities, and economic institutions to provide tools and create spaces for people to talk about the subject in fun and engaging new ways. After aIl the economy is for everyone.

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Audience

economy is for people who wouldn’t visit a site called economy.

We’re all about engaging people that really don’t identify with this subject—perhaps it confuses them, or perhaps it makes them feel powerless. We take our audience on a journey...

Identity Highlighting the economics in everyday life—for those who feel it has nothing to do with them.

Understanding Demystifying jargon and breaking down the theory—for those who feel it’s unnecessarily complicated.

Empowerment Giving people ways to question and shape economics—for those who feel they can’t change it. 6

Learn

ecnmy.org/learn

The quick & simple guide to economics Learn is your quick and simple guide to economics sorted innovatively, into 10 ways you’ll actually come across it in your life. Starting with You, and zooming out to Your Home, Your Livelihood, Your Society and Your Future—Learn is turning the notion that the economy has nothing to do with you, on its head.

How is Learn different? To combat traditional narrow prescriptive teaching, Learn is the evolving product of a network of academics, economists, consultants and students from around the globe. The resource is edited by our staff team in London, but it is collaboratively written and is under constant review by all those that have a passion for improving it.

Do you have opinions on what economics is, can or should be? Perhaps you have a use for Learn within your organisation, or would like to run its content as a course?

Be part of creating a world class resource on economics, at ecnmy.org/edit

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Engage

ecnmy.org/engage

A digital news and entertainment platform Engage is where you’ll find a fresh take on news and entertainment. With a mix of opinion, hard facts, and new ideas, we’re making sense of the dry stuff in the financial press, highlighting the economics of current news stories, and revealing the economics in the least expected places, from sports, to food, to celebrity culture. With passion, humor, imagination, creativity and personal stories, we’re creating accessible, engaging, and relevant online content with world-class contributors from around the globe.

Write, Produce, Entertain, Contribute Engage is not a place for traditional academics. It’s a place for writers, filmmakers, musicians, poets, comedians, illustrators, animators, or anyone with a creative take on the lives we lead, the choices we make, the things we love, and everything in between.

Do you write about dogs, host Asian cookery podcasts, produce viking metal, or make GoPro skiing videos? We’ll help you find the economics—just pitch us your idea!

Pitch us your idea, and sign up to our contributor mail­-out at ecnmy.org/contribute

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Act

ecnmy.org/act

Workshops, toolkits, pub chats & more Communities getting together, armed with the tools and confidence to question economics and ask for change, are the key to making understandable economics a reality. We supply an Economy starter kit—a rough guide to starting conversations on questioning economics and shaping the economy—and you kickstart the conversation in your local area. If you want to host a pub quiz, a coffee morning, or just a discussion with your neighbors, we have kits for that too.

Reaching people around the world We’re building a global network of volunteers and partners to help spread our toolkits to as many people as possible, some of whom might not be able to access our digital products. It’s not just about engaging with our content online—it’s about making change happen in the real world too.

Want to help build our toolkits, run a workshop, or just have a chat about kickstarting a conversation in your local area?

Join our growing team of volunteers at ecnmy.org/join

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We’re talking about an economics that you can identify with, that is understandable and that empowers you.

Economy Project Information Pack

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Our Campaign Reforming a subject people find so alienating into one that has real meaning, is no mean feat, but what if all of economics was actually understandable? What would that world look like? Our campaign explores the source of the ‘unusable’ economics across politics, the media, industry and academia, and lays out a vision where economics is not something people don’t have the head space for, but something that can actively improve their lives. We look at things like language, diversity, transparency and values to create positive, helpful steps that take institutions away from a world full of jargon, and into one where they are able to speak effectively with and involve people in the work they do. To do this we’re finding out how everyone feels about economics, how they really connect with and ‘use’ it, by providing spaces like www.ecnmy.org to try out a new kind of economics that people can actually get on board with. We call this ‘Understandable Economics’. Read more about our campaign at www.ecnmy.org/campaign 11

5 ways that Understandable Economics is one that people can get on board with... Clear

Real

Available

Diverse

Transparent

Understandable Economics knows there’s an appropriate time for jargon.

Understandable Economics relates directly to the lives that we live everyday.

Understandable Economics is in the hands of all citizens of the world.

Understandable Economics reflects the diversity of the world it serves.

Understandable Economics is open and aware of how it makes decisions.

We’re not asking economists to stop using jargon altogether, but we are saying that there’s a better kind of language we can use when addressing the general public and talking about economics, one that’s clearer and jargon-free.

Conversations about the economy can all too quickly become intangible and we end up forgetting what we’re really talking about. Let’s have conversations about real lives, real people, and real effects.

For a subject that affects us all, economics is quite difficult to get to grips with. Let’s make learning about the economy fun and easy to do. Let’s teach it in schools, and let’s make great resources available to everyone.

Economics has a poor record of diversity—from the gender of those that study it, to the diversity of thinking it encourages. Let’s create a subject that better reflects society, and uses a diverse set of tools, methodologies and approaches.

Economics often presents itself as value-free and unaffected by history or politics. Let’s be transparent about the values and assumptions that influence economic policy, and create more honest and relatable conversations. 12

Our research

To support all this work, our research project, entitled ‘UX for the economy’, is about finding out how people feel about economics to design a better ‘user experience’ of the economy.

UX for the economy Everything we do at Economy is learning. From focus groups asking people how they feel about the word ‘economics’, to videos capturing reactions to recent news stories, we’re constantly learning about how people interact with the economy, and the potential it holds to be a positive part of their life. Through constantly evaluating our learning, we’re able to better identify what needs to change in order to make economics understandable and accessible. By presenting our findings in shareable formats, we’re providing dynamic, honest analysis of how good a job economics is doing at explaining itself. Read more about our research at www.ecnmy.org/research

Take part in our ambitious global research project The work we do at Economy is just a small part of a big mission. We need to work with organizations and individuals like yourself from around the world if we want to achieve Understandable Economics.

Would you like to help shape our research methodology, conduct interviews, design questions, run focus groups, or just share your own insights into how people feel about economics? Get in touch at [email protected] 13

Excited? Let’s talk...

Economy Project Information Pack

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Our story

Economy is a collection of people around the world united in our mission to make economics for everyone. A project conceived by the Rethinking Economics movement, a group of students from all over the world (from Uganda to the UK, and Quito to Istanbul) dissatisfied with their economics education, Economy is staffed by a dedicated team in London, funded by our generous donors. Supported by its awesome volunteers, and a growing international community on board with its mission, our organisation is built on a spirit of mucking in and building on ideas. Governed by a Board of Trustees, we exist solely for the public benefit, and to keep us grounded, our direction is agreed by consensus of the students of the Rethinking Economics movement.

Strengthened by a global network of advisors in media, academia, industry and politics, we stop short of nothing to be a robust and trusted resource for our users. And of course the most vital people to our mission are not only those contributing their words, videos and art to this project, but the people previously alienated by the subject—our end users, the more of which there are, the more economics is for everyone.

Diversity

How can we expect economics to work in the interests of every race, gender identity, sexuality, age, education level and part of humanity, if the subject itself is not made up of the thoughts and ideas of the diverse set of minds it is supposed to serve? To make economics what it needs to be, we pursue contributions from a diverse range of thinkers, doers and speakers, and we strive to take our project to every part of humanity. Without diversity, we won’t achieve our mission of an economics that is for everyone.

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economy is only possible with the help of people like you If you believe in our mission and want to help us continue the work we do, we would love to hear from you. A special thank you to our funders, and everyone supporting our project via ecnmy.org/donate Thank you to our funders

We are seeking partners and funders to help us to continue deliver our mission. Get in touch at [email protected] facebook.com/ecnmy

instagram.com/ecnmy

twitter.com/EconomyAsks

YouTube: Economy Video

and to everyone supporting our cause at ecnmy.org/donate

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