Abstract
Demands for the ‘decolonisation’ of universities and curricula in South Africa raise important questions as to how economics should be taught in South African economics departments. Internationally, other student movements have called for an overhaul of economics curricula, particularly after the Financial Crisis of 2009. The objective of the paper is to examine what decolonisation might mean for the South African economics curriculum. Five dimensions of decolonisation are identified and provide the backdrop for the analysis. It is critical to understand the status quo of the discipline in South Africa in order to establish where decolonisation critiques are most pertinent and why that is the case. This requires consideration not only of the curriculum, but also academic staffing and research. The overall diagnosis is that the South African economic curriculum aspires to be a standard neoclassical one, largely based on North American content, but often falls short even in that narrower objective. One notable problem is that the expanding use of quantitative methods and content is not necessarily matched by corresponding competence among faculty or students. With that in mind, the paper then considers alternatives. I reject suggestions that the solution is to merely replace ‘orthodox’ (neoclassical) economics with ‘heterodox’ economics; instead I argue for a pluralist approach that incorporates both. As a cautionary aside, I note that various, valuable, topics which have been proposed for inclusion in a decolonised curriculum would not satisfy narrow conceptions of decolonisation. A very brief outline is provided of what an ideal curriculum might look like. Various practical obstacles to development and implementation are then considered. Given the significant disjuncture between the ideal and the possible, the priority – once there is some agreement on an ideal curriculum – is to come to a consensus on second- or third-best alternatives.