Economist · Educator · Founder

James Magnus-Johnston

Director, Redekop School of Business — Canadian Mennonite University. Economist, teacher, and builder of places where ideas meet practice.

I teach business, economics, and social science at the intersection of analysis and action, and I've spent much of my career building the kinds of things I teach about — a coffee shop, a co-working lab for student ventures, seven years on a credit union board, and now a health-data company. My research bridges biophysical economics, political economy, and history, asking how debt-driven growth shapes our material world. My classroom asks students to think before they conclude.

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James Magnus-Johnston

I am an Assistant Professor and Director of the Redekop School of Business at Canadian Mennonite University, where I have taught across economics, political studies, business, and communications for nearly fourteen years. I have built courses, founded a coffee shop, sat on the board of a multi-billion-dollar credit union, and spent the last five years writing a doctoral dissertation about what happens when economies grow themselves into debt they cannot repay.

My academic life has always moved across boundaries. I hold an MPhil in Land Economy from Cambridge and a PhD in economics from McGill, where I worked within the Leadership for the Ecozoic partnership, a transdisciplinary collaboration across law, anthropology, communications, and the natural sciences.

Outside the classroom I have co-owned an award-winning coffee shop, served as a board director at Assiniboine Credit Union, founded CMU's Centre for Resilience, a coworking space, and contributed to policy initiatives in Manitoba. I write op-eds and research papers, and believe the world needs more spaces for genuine, rigorous dialogue across ideologies and cultures.

“
My goal is not to produce students who hold the right views, but students who can think rigorously.
— Teaching Statement
Research

Debt and political grievance.

Doctoral Thesis

Mapping Debt's Biophysical Signature: Material Flows and Political Sentiment in Canada and Argentina

The thesis examines the material and energetic consequences of debt-driven growth in two contrasting economies. It tests whether debt shifts resource allocation in ways conventional methods do not capture — bridging biophysical economics, political economy, and history.

PhD, Economics · McGill University · Supervisor: Dr. Gordon Hickey
Current Project

SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant: Changing Nature of Security and Conflict

A Nordic–Canadian synthesis of how material and ecological constraints become political grievance — and how grievance moves between conflict and cooperation.

Principal Investigator (Canada), with Dr. Chiara Valentini, University of Jyväskylä
Nordic–Canadian stream · in preparation, submission December 2026

Research Interests

Biophysical economics Political economy of debt Endogenous money Sociometabolism EROI & energy economics Material flow analysis Political grievance Moral foundations & populism Ecological macroeconomics Human flourishing

Affiliations

Herman Daly Research Fellow (2020) CASSE — Chief Economist (2018–20)

Debt's Biophysical Signature A six-paper series from the doctoral research

Theory, method, two country studies, a comparison, and the politics that follow.

  1. Theory Under review Debt's compounding biophysical claim: Toward a theory of dysregulated economic metabolism Energy Research & Social Science
  2. Method Under review The other decoupling: Debt claims and physical throughput in advanced economies, 1971–2020 Structural Change and Economic Dynamics
  3. Canada In preparation Debt–extraction coupling in Canada: Private credit and fossil fuel throughput, 1980–2019 Studies in Political Economy
  4. Argentina In preparation Debt–extraction coupling in Argentina: Sovereign debt and biomass throughput, 1980–2019 World Development
  5. Comparative Under review Mapping debt's biophysical signature: Material throughput and institutional divergence in Canada and Argentina Cambridge Journal of Economics
  6. Grievance Under review The political grievance of debt stress: Debt, extraction, and political sentiment in Canada and Argentina New Political Economy

Book Chapters

  • Magnus-Johnston, J. (2025). God and the machine: Learning in the metamodern revolution. In P. G. Doerksen (Ed.), A time of reckoning: Telling the Canadian Mennonite University story. CMU Press.
  • Magnus-Johnston, J. (2016). What is the steady state economy? In H. Washington & P. Twomey (Eds.), A future beyond growth: Towards a steady state economy. Routledge.

Selected Writing

  • Magnus-Johnston, J. (March 2025). Requiem for Canada? Regional tensions and changing demographics may fuel Trump's annexation hopes. The Conversation. Also translated into French and republished in The Tyee.
  • Magnus-Johnston, J. (January 2025). Beyond the ideological echo chamber. Resilience.org.
  • Magnus-Johnston, J. (October 2014). Are we hard-wired to think we can grow forever? Resilience.org.

Policy Reports

  • Magnus-Johnston, J. (2017). Carbon pricing and competitiveness: Policy options for Manitoba businesses. Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.
  • Fernández, L. (Ed.), Magnus-Johnston, J., & Hudson, M. (2016). An economic analysis of the Energy East pipeline in Manitoba. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
  • Magnus-Johnston, J. (Ed.), & Transition Winnipeg Initiating Committee. (2014). Transition Winnipeg Energy Descent Action Plan: Ideas and actions for a low-carbon, climate-resilient city. Transition Winnipeg.
  • Magnus-Johnston, J. (Ed.), Stevens, H., & Green Economy Working Group. (2012). Response to the Government of Manitoba's green plan. Manitoba Eco-Network.
Teaching

Nineteen courses, nearly fourteen years.

I build courses around discussion because I believe ideas are tested in argument, not in passive reception. The most important habit I try to build in students is the discipline of analysis before conclusion — slowing the move from observation to judgment.

I integrate AI tools into the classroom explicitly rather than treating them as a threat. The goal is students who can work with AI fluently and critically — which is increasingly the condition of serious intellectual and professional work.

19
Distinct courses
59
Course sections
4
Independent studies
2013
Teaching since

Business & Organizational Administration

10 courses · 23 sections
  • Social Entrepreneurship2nd year · 5 sections
  • Innovation Lab4th year · 4 sections
  • Organizational Behaviour2nd year · 3 sections
  • Business & Organizational Communications2nd year · 3 sections
  • Business Ethics2nd year · 2 sections
  • Organizational Leadership3rd year · 2 sections
  • Entrepreneurship & Small Business Management2nd year · 1 section
  • Introduction to Business & Organizational Administration1st year · 1 section
  • Not-for-Profit Management3rd year · 1 section
  • Behavioural Economics2nd year · 1 section

Political Studies

7 courses · 28 sections
  • Democracy & Dissent: An Introduction to Politics1st year · 7 sections
  • Politics, Society & the Mass Media2nd/3rd year · 6 sections
  • Citizenship, Land, Economy2nd/3rd year · 4 sections
  • Social Welfare2nd year · 4 sections
  • Global Politics: An Introduction1st year · 3 sections
  • Social & Political Philosophy1st year · 3 sections
  • Canadian Political Issues: The Culture Wars3rd year · 1 section

Interdisciplinary

2 courses · 8 sections
  • Ecological Economics2nd year · 7 sections
  • Ways of Knowing I1st year · Curricular Commons · 1 section

Supervised Independent Studies

4th year · 4 studies
  • Behavioural EconomicsFall 2018
  • Political TheorySummer 2019
  • Symbols of Canadian IdentitySummer 2022
  • Political Psychology & Social Cohesion2024–25
“
Every business is a small argument about what an economy is for.
— James Magnus-Johnston
Beyond the Academy

Built things. Sat on boards. Made coffee.

Founder, Selfscape

2025–present

A pattern-recognition platform for health data, built for practitioners and their clients. It reads results from any lab or test together, using algorithms and AI side by side to surface the patterns that point toward root causes rather than symptoms — one consolidated reading of the person across all of their testing.

selfscape.io →

Founding Director, CMU Centre for Resilience

2017–2025

Built a co-working lab and experiential learning hub at CMU connecting students to real clients, investor pitches, and ventures that continued well beyond the semester.

Board Director, Assiniboine Credit Union

2016–2023

Seven years on the board of one of Canada's largest independent financial cooperatives — a multi-billion-dollar firm with a triple-bottom-line mandate.

Co-owner, Fools & Horses Coffee

2014–2020

Co-founded and ran a triple-bottom-line coffee shop in downtown Winnipeg. Recognized as Most Innovative Business Model by the Downtown BIZ in 2016.

Founding Co-Chair, Transition Winnipeg

2012–2017

Co-founded the Winnipeg chapter of the international Transition Towns movement. Edited and published the city's Energy Descent Action Plan.

Chief Economist, CASSE

2018–2020

Canadian Director (2010–18) then Chief Economist of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy. Author and frequent contributor.

Research Director, HomeCo

2022

Co-developed a land-trust housing prototype — ground-lease models, a community focus group, and interviews with land trust practitioners.

Current boards Light of the Prairies Retreat Centre (2024–present) · Village Conservatory (2023–present)

Education

Trained across borders.

Get in touch

Always glad for a conversation.

I welcome inquiries from prospective students, collaborators, media, and editors. I am particularly happy to talk about teaching across disciplines, ecological economics, the political economy of debt, or the future of liberal arts education.

jmjo@pm.me The Agora CV (PDF)

Canadian Mennonite University · 500 Shaftesbury Blvd, Winnipeg MB