Crossing Boundaries of Knowledge

Full course description

Economists look at societal issues in an economic way, in contrast to sociologists, biologists, psychologists and historians. In this project, students should ponder and synthesise evidence from different science fields and investigative journalism on a topical societal issue. Candidate topics are: addiction as an earning model of businesses; the industry behind tax evasion and crime; how people get disciplined and encultured into certain ways of thinking; an archeology of needs (how these have changed in the course of history and why so); perverse links between desirables and undesirables (two examples are: cheap, unhealthy products and charity foundations from billionaires that got rich through dubious business). For a chosen topic, a group of students writes a substantive report (not an essay but a report in which evidence from multiple sources is pondered and combined). The findings from economics and business studies should combined with those of sociology and philosophy and attempts at knowledge integration by (investigative) journalists. The reports will be published in an on-line book.