Rethinking the Economy: What Becomes Visible When We Widen the Frame

​What do we mean when we talk about “the economy”?

For many people, it is understood almost entirely through market-based exchange, a worldview that becomes established early, even in childhood. This narrow framing overlooks critical parts of economic life and the relationships between them, limiting how we understand the possibilities for supporting human flourishing within planetary boundaries.

​This session draws on work to reshape economics education in secondary schools, where a central challenge has been helping curriculum authorities, teachers, and students see the economy through a wider system boundary. The focus is on developing a more complete view of economic relationships that extends beyond markets and prices.

​The session centres on sense-making. It explores the different ways societies organise to meet human needs, along with the tensions, synergies, and gaps that emerge where these systems interact.

Attendees will gain clearer language for distinguishing extractive from regenerative economic arrangements, a framework for seeing economic relationships more fully, and a deeper recognition of how their own work already sits within the economy, even when it is not captured by narrow economic metrics.

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About the presenter:
An expert international educator with almost 30 years of experience in the social sciences, Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann specializes in developing curricula that empower young people to create regenerative societies. Her background in traditional economics and business management education provides her with a clear perspective on the challenges and opportunities of transitioning toward a new, regenerative education paradigm.