Making economics ‘simple’ isn’t necessarily the answer

Last week, us here at Economy, together with Royal Society of Arts’ (the RSA’s) Citizens’ Economic Council, launched a 68-page super-full-colour PDF “toolkit”, designed to get people talking about the economy (complete with a giant map of the economy itself). Titled “Discovering the economy around you” people thought it was going to be full of economics.

It wasn’t.

Since launching almost a year ago, and discovering that only 12% of people find talk of the economy accessible, we’ve been on a mission to learn exactly how people feel about the subject. And we’ve discovered something quite significant: even if you replace the inappropriate jargon with something more palatable, people still don’t want to talk about it — they feel its simply somebody else’s subject.

It’s not that we should avoid explaining frequently used economics terms, or not bother working towards a more jargon-free economics in the media and politics, it’s that those of us that happen to work within the economics profession have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to ensure that we don’t perpetuate a world in which discussing the opportunities, lives and daily realities of all of us, happens in such a way that makes most people feel like they simply don’t belong.

Ali Norrish (Head of Research at Economy) explains the map, with a helping hand from Tony Greenham (Director of Economy, Enterprise and Manufacturing at The RSA)

It’s everyone’s

For whatever reason, we have ended up in a situation where the one subject that affects peoples lives so directly is the very subject they don’t feel able to discuss: they simply don’t identify with it.

In order to right this wrong we have to speak directly with more people in more ways, with one goal in mind: to give them a sense of ownership and confidence that this subject of the economy is theirs.

That’s why the first entire third of our toolkit doesn’t mention economic concepts or jargon whatsoever. It simply gets people talking about the economy in a new way, a conversation we often find that they might never have had before.

Talking to people about how they feel about the economy is vital to us understanding how we can create more accessible conversation in politics, the media, academia, education and the finance industry

User testing is key

The toolkit is just one of the ways that we are engaging with more people about the subject of economics, alongside our news and entertainment platform and the Learn section of our website. Now with our toolkit, and together with the RSA’s Citizens’ Economic Council, we want to bring the conversation to groups and communities throughout the United Kingdom and beyond. In order to create effective tools that work however, we go through a continual process of user-testing, listening to how people feel along the way.

And the process is rewarding — conversations that open most often with eyes that glaze over, or widen with fear 😳 , end with a sense of renewed confidence and perhaps even a ‘slightly smiling’ face 🙂.

We note the bits that don’t work so well, and we look out for the bits that give people a sense of reward or satisfaction. Once again the aim with each tool is simple: make people feel that the economy is theirs.

The design process of the toolkit: user testing, and more user testing

Change begins with conversation

At our launch on 22nd February 2017 at the RSA in London we started a few dozen conversations, ones that we hope will ripple into a wider community and begin new conversations about what our economy is, and what it could be.

Participants at the launch also heard from Chris Peacock, Head of Public Understanding and Content at the Bank of England, as well as from Beatrice Andrews, a spokesperson from the government and Cabinet Office’s Policy Lab, on approaches for building trust with economic institutions.

“Quite often with toolkits you don’t know where to start but [the toolkit] really details every step…the economy as a word feels so abstract but you start to understand the practical reality, that this is about everything I think about every day, it’s about me as well.”- Beatrice Andrews, Senior Policy Advisor, Policy Lab, Cabinet Office

Reema Patel (Programme Manager, Citizens’ Economic Council at the RSA), Joe Richards (Campaigns Director, Economy) and Victoria Waldersee (Commissioning Editor and Co-director, Economy) facilitate discussions about where we fit into the economy, and what’s missing from the map, at the launch of the toolkit at The RSA in London

In order to continue to broaden the conversation to as many people as possible, we are actively seeking to grow our volunteer base and distribute the toolkit as far and wide as possible. The RSA also continues its work (now using the toolkit and map) inviting citizens to identify their role and where they see themselves in the economy as well as encouraging people to actively suggest how things should or could be different.

When the economy is mentioned almost daily in the news or by politicians, it’s crucial for democracy that people are able to engage with what’s being said. Until we live in a world where everybody is able to speak with confidence about what they want from the economy (like they might do about healthcare or education) then we all must continue to talk to more people in more ways about what the economy is, and what we want from it in the future.

Where do you fit in: A preview of the map tool

Say it out loud: Just starting a conversation about the economy can be a completely new experience for someone

Thank you to Delta 7 for their generosity in donating their time to designing our map of the economy. Head over to www.ecnmy.org/toolkit to download the full toolkit in PDF format now.