DISTINGUISHING "RELIGIOUS" FROM "ECONOMIC"
Academic workshop at the British Academy, London
9.45 am - 5.15 pm
Thursday 26th November, 2009
Register at http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2009/religious-economic/
Academic convenor: Trevor Stack ([log in to unmask])
Sponsored by CINEFOGO Network of Excellence
Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society
and Rule of Law, University of Aberdeen
Administered by British Academy events staff ([log in to unmask])
How does "religious" get distinguished from "economic" in historical and
contemporary contexts, and to what effect? The distinction is far from
obvious. It could be argued, for example, that capital itself is a
'god': an invisible, transcendental entity signified by the Bull, whose
workings are mysterious, bringing prosperity but also famine, and
sustained by collective acts of faith and a sacrificial cult at its
heart. However, economists, businesses, workers, consumers, politicians
and lawyers all continually distinguish "economic" issues from
"religious" ones (just as from other spheres such as "politics" and
"civil society"). How and why do they do that, and with what
consequences? It was proposed in a previous conference, for example,
that the category of "religion" understood as other-worldly faith has
served historically to set in relief the "secular" rationality of
individual self-interest, commodity exchange and capital accumulation.
"Religion" is often expected to be charitable, concerned with building
credit in heaven, shunning this-worldly economic gain, and if it is felt
to seek its own economic gain then it is considered a perversion (and
sometimes repressed). But different people make different
religious-economic distinctions in different contexts and to different
effects. The panel will examine a range of contexts in which "economics"
gets marked off from "religion" (including in the history of the
discipline of Economics).
Please register for the workshop at
http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2009/religious-economic/
The workshop is to prepare for the Religious-Economics panel of a major
conference on 14-16 January, also at the British Academy. Please sign up
to http://religioussecular.ning.com to receive information about the
January conference.
Please forward this email to anyone who you think might be interested!
Dr Trevor Stack
Department of Hispanic Studies
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen AB24 3UB.
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/spanish/staff/details.php?id=t.stack
The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No
SC013683.
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