Why economic education?

In the last six months, I have approached the theme of economic education, new for me but very close to my constant interest in economic anthropology. I’m doing that within the framework of ActionAid’s territorial development programme in Piemonte, which I’m leading.

I contributed to the design of the project New poverty and participation, which intertwines the fight against poverty through economic education, the request for accountability to local institutions, and therefore a process of advocacy from below. I also contributed to the “Economic and Financial Literacy / Public Expenditure and Family Budgets. Experimentation of the ELBAG methodology” training seminar, held in Bologna May the 5th to 7th, 2012. I then participated in the draft of the seminar proceedings. Finally, I helped design several projects related to the economic education of vulnerable sections of the population.

Reflecting on these issues, I often go back to the years I worked closely with the Amazon o Vale do Ribeira peasants. I think there is symmetry between what is happening among these peasants and the people in poverty in Italy. The peasants I have known, especially those between 25 and 45, are engaged in a cognitive effort. They try to figure out which goods advertised on TV are worth changing their work and life habits to have the financial resources to buy them. Here the issue is understanding which goods or services you can do without and which ones you can’t. From a cognitive point of view, the game is specular, although acquiring is always more joyful than losing.

I do not believe dividing the necessary goods from the superfluous ones is possible. Each of us creates a multidimensional map in this respect: at the centre, we put what we deem indispensable, at the extreme periphery, what does not interest us. There is a pretty significant agreement concerning the place of many items, while many others are in very different positions, depending on the person. This multidimensional map is not static: objects move, slowly or suddenly, depending on the case; these movements are both personal and social. 

Matching this mental map with purchasing power is a complex and sometimes painful exercise. Toward the bottom of the economic distribution, it is difficult to change the available income easily. However, I assume that the map could have a remarkable influence on households’ choices regarding work and occupation. 

A further distinguishing factor in the map is separating what we want to enjoy by owning it and what we prefer to share with others. In this case, too, placing a good /service in one or the other category makes the difference; similarly, there are limits dictated from the outside: not everything is privatizable, not everything can be made public (or communitarian), some goods/ services if enjoyed in the community have some value, if enjoyed privately, they have another one. Moving something from the public sphere to the community one and the private one implies moving the line between rights and duties ¹.

Updated in January the 8th, 2022.