Just Money: Banking as if Society Mattered
Learn how banks can use capital as a tool to promote social and environmental wellbeing.
Course Information
Certificate Track
Learn for Free
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
Meet your instructors
J. Phillip Thompson
Urban planner and political scientist
Phil Thompson is an urban planner and political scientist. He received a B.A. in Sociology from Harvard University in 1977, a M.U.P from Hunter College in 1986, and a PhD in Politic Science from the City University of New York Graduate Center in 1990. Phil worked as Deputy General Manager of the New York Housing Authority, and as Director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing Coordination. Phil is a frequent advisor to trade unions in their efforts to work with immigrant and community groups across the United States.
