Founded in early 2014, the Initiative brings together various groups that had previously operated at a local or national level such as Rethinking Economics.
It argues for a reorientation of the discipline toward pluralism in university curricula as well as research activity, involving the inclusion and equal treatment of heterodox approaches, greater interdisciplinarity, as well as increased awareness of methodological issues, the history of economic thought, and economic history.
The case for pluralism in economics had previously been made by similar initiatives such as the '1992 Plea' organised by FEED.
[2] In May 2014, The Guardian reported that in nineteen countries students criticised economics courses for falling wider society.
Various groups have called for the inclusion of both Marxian and Austrian Schools of thought in the economics curriculum, representing almost polar opposites of the political spectrum.