Over the past century, the capitalist model of the free market economy has demonstrated to be an effective vehicle to create wealth. However, in today’s globalised world, the downsides of this model have become more and more obvious: ecological decay, increasing inequality worldwide, financialisation, inadequate resource allocations and a new geopolitical power balance. The credit crisis of 2008, and more recently, the coronacrisis, have further exposed these issues.
To create an innovative, inclusive and sustainable market economy for generations to come, we need new values, new structures and new practices. We need to connect existing innovative ideas with newly formulated ones and bring theory into reality. Through a series of ten public online dialogues with visionary economists including Mohammed Yunus and Paul Collier, VU Amsterdam aims to offer solutions and bring together researchers from around the world to rethink capitalism. How can the freedom and innovative potential of free markets be squared with the requirements of ecological sustainability and social justice and inclusivity?
image: Dan Burton via Unsplash.
