Decolonizing economics means questioning where its ideas came from — and imagining new ones
Statue of Adam Smith, widely considered to be the father of economics and capitalism, in front of St. Giles Cathedral in Old Town Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2021. (Unsplash) 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…
Places named in this report: Pakistan, Canada
Exact coordinates
pakistan: 30.380, 69.350
canada: 56.130, -106.350
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What might happen next? AI-generated
These scenarios are written by an AI language model from the headline and summary above. They are not predictions from the newsroom, and they are not evidence of anything. Every one is given a deadline and checked against later coverage, and the score is published on the ledger — including the ones that miss.
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Unresolved 35% Mainstream Institutional Adoption
Major international bodies, such as the IMF or World Bank, begin integrating 'decolonial' language and frameworks into their official policy papers, signaling a slow but formal shift in discourse. Academic institutions begin revising core curricula, though practical economic policy changes remain incremental.
Watch for: The World Bank releases a major report framing Global South economic resilience through a 'decolonial lens' · A major university announces a fully funded 'Center for Critical Economics' endowed by a philanthropic foundation
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Unresolved 30% Localized Policy Experimentation
Smaller, progressive municipal or regional governments adopt radical, alternative economic models discussed in the article, such as participatory budgeting or local job guarantees, bypassing national regulatory inertia. These successes gain moderate international media attention.
Watch for: The city council of a mid-sized North American or European city passes a binding participatory budgeting ordinance covering 15% of its municipal budget · A national government pilot program launches a 'Worker Cooperative Subsidy Scheme' for local businesses
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Unresolved 25% The 'Backlash' Reassertion
Established financial institutions and lobbying groups successfully frame the decolonial critique as ideological radicalism that threatens global market stability. This leads to counter-regulatory moves designed to enforce adherence to neoliberal frameworks.
Watch for: A major global financial news outlet publishes a front-page editorial warning against 'ideologically driven economic risk' · The G7 nations issue a joint statement emphasizing the 'universality and necessity' of current free-market principles
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Unresolved 10% Paradigm Shift Through Resource Conflict
A major global supply chain crisis, perhaps related to critical minerals (like cobalt), forces multinational corporations to publicly acknowledge the structural inequalities of extraction, leading to rapid, externally driven adoption of alternative sourcing and economic valuation models.
Watch for: A multinational tech company publicly announces a shift to a fully transparent, community-governed supply chain for a major battery component · The UN Security Council passes a resolution directly linking resource extraction practices in a specific nation to documented human rights violations and economic destabilization
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on 2026-08-04. Checked against later coverage after 2026-08-18.
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