Multi-Paradigmatic Teaching in the World of Heterodox Economics : The Case of Bretton Woods Institutions

In recent decades, there have been concerns within the economics profession about the narrowness in both graduate and undergraduate economics programs. These concerns have been based on the view that economic phenomena can be the subject of many modes of explanation, each based on a particular worldview. The premise of this paper is that any worldview can be associated with one of the four broad paradigms: functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist, and radical structuralist. This paper takes the case of Bretton Woods institutions and explains it from the four different viewpoints. It emphasizes that the four explanations are equally scientific and informative; they look at the phenomenon from their specific paradigmatic viewpoint; and together they provide both graduate and undergraduate students with a more balanced understanding of the phenomenon under consideration