Economic Literacy as a Tool for Advocacy

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ABSTRACT

Learning about how economic well-being—or the lack of well-being—shapes peoples’ lives can enhance social work students’ and professionals’ efforts to “champion social progress powered by science,” a stated aim of the Grand Challenges for Social Work. Yet social work and economics have pursued divergent paths since the late 20th century, inhibiting productive collaboration. Modern, pluralist approaches to economic literacy can restart cross-disciplinary conversations by: (a) encompassing a broad range of economic activity, including nonprofits, household production, and community engagement; (b) framing well-being as the goal of economic institutions; and (c) highlighting economic policy controversies. This article illustrates how this approach informs two Grand Challenges: (a) Reduce extreme economic inequality; and (b) Create social responses to a changing environment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ There is a wrong way to talk about climate change through an economic lens: simply placing a dollar value on the physical destruction and lost work hours. The ultimate problem is not the destruction of economic assets and resources; it is the effect of environmental disasters on people’s functioning.

² Measures of aggregate growth also do not focus on distributional issues such as inequality or poverty. Since the 1980s, much of the income gains from growth went to those already at the top of the income distribution (Boushey & Clemens, 2018).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ellen Mutari

Ellen Mutari is Professor Emerita of Economics at Stockton University. Deborah M. Figart is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Economics at Stockton University.