Education and Science for a Sustainable Economy

“To make abstractions hold in reality is to destroy reality.” (G.W.F. Hegel, Lectures on the History of Philosophy)

The problem: a legitimacy crisis

Since 2008, the discipline of economics has been facing an ongoing crisis of legitimacy. Only a small number of economists foresaw the impending collapse of the international financial markets, and the retrospective analyses of the crisis's causes were often contradictory. Since then, the reputation of the leading economic advisory institutions has noticeably declined. This loss of influence in political consulting, along with the broader loss of legitimacy in the media and civil society, has led to a defensive posture among mainstream economists, leaving little room for critical self-reflection.

Representatives of pluralist or heterodox economics highlight the following points of critique: abstract models rooted in neoclassical equilibrium theory are applied to real-world situations without adequately considering the societal context in which economic activity takes place. As such, sustainable economic practices are inconceivable within this framework. Orthodox economics often relies on a hermetically sealed technical language that fails to reach key audiences in politics, media, and civil society. Meanwhile, related fields such as economic history, philosophy of science, and ethics are increasingly marginalized within academic economics. The result is a growing lack of dialogue—precisely where an intensive exchange of arguments is needed. Empirically and mathematically oriented economists remain in insular circles, and the divide between them and their non-mainstream colleagues—much like the divide within society at large—is growing ever wider: people talk about each other, but rarely with each other.

Since 2015, the Canopus Foundation has promoted the development of the Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung (HfGG) in Koblenz/Germany.

Since 2019, the foundation has funded the Forum for a New Economy in Berlin and the Netzwerk Plurale Ökonomik (Network for Pluralist Economics).

Since 2023, the foundation has supported the Thales Akademie in Freiburg i.Br.

Conferences and Symposia supported by Canopus Foundation

• Three „Trialogues“ on Economics in cooperation with Humboldt Viadrina Governance Platform gGmbH, Berlin:

1. Trialog „Unterschiedliche wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Ansätze im Gespräch“ on 16.5.2015
2. Trialog „Leitbild Wettbewerbsfähigkeit“ on 6.3.2017
3. Trialog „Welche Fiskalpolitik in der Krise?“ on 3.7.2017

• Symposium „Konvivialismus“ on 4./5.4.2019 in Hamburg in cooperation with the Department of Socioeconomics at the University of Hamburg and the Maecenata Institute for Philanthropy and Civil Society, Berlin

• Conference „Der nächste Crash als Chance: Szenarien und Reformpotentiale“ on 7.2.2020 in Berlin, organised by the Network for Pluralist Economics e.V.