Economics shapes many aspects of our daily lives, from the prices we pay to the policies governments adopt. Yet many of the ideas taught as universal principles of economics emerged from a narrow historical context and have rarely been examined through a decolonial lens.

A recently published book, Decolonizing Economics, argues that economics is long overdue for decolonization. Its authors contend that the discipline has largely overlooked how colonialism, empire and unequal power shaped the development of modern economies and the economic theories used to explain them.

Decolonizing economics means rethinking how we understand economic development and inequality. Rather than explaining prosperity through technology, markets and scientific progress, it examines how colonization, resource extraction and exploited labour shaped today’s wealthy economies while contributing to underdevelopment elsewhere.

At its core, it’s about shifting away from an economy that benefits the elite to one that builds people’s capabilities.

As an economics professor, I’ve been restructuring my teaching based on my scholarship on critical microeconomics, critical macroeconomics and alternative ways to build the economy.

Read more: An economist explains: Textbook economics is badly flawed when it comes to climate change

Questioning Eurocentric assumptions

Many foundational economic theories were developed by wealthy European men during periods of colonial expansion. Yet these ideas are often treated as universal principles rather than products of a particular historical context.

Eurocentric economic........

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