J. Phillip Thompson
Urban planner and political scientisty
11.405x
Just Money: Banking as if Society Mattered
This course is currently running as self-paced on MITx Online. Certificate enrollment is open.
About this course
Do you know what your bank does with your money? What is the role of a bank in producing societal well-being?
This course looks into banks that operate differently, namely, “just banks" that use capital and finance as a tool to address social and ecological challenges.
This course is for anyone who wants to understand the unique role banks play as intermediaries in our economy and how they can leverage that position to produce positive social, environmental, and economic change.
The instructors of this course have worked for over 15 years with just banks from around the world, as well as in the fields of community development, economic democracy, and social change.
No previous knowledge of finance or banking is needed to take this course.
What you'll learn
- The core principles of just banking
- How finance can be used as a tool for social and environmental change
- The impact of different forms of banking on societal well-being
- Ongoing challenges for just banks
- The future of just banking and financial technologies
Course staff
Katrin Kaeufer
Research Fellow, MIT Community Innovators Lab MIT
Lily Steponaitis
Post-Graduate Fellow, MIT Community Innovators Lab MIT
Calvin Thompson
Strategic Development at Presencing Institute/Innovation Fellow Massachusetts Institute of Technology