To what extent is economic prosperity related to religious social standards? Can the enormous growth of Asian economies be attributed to a certain ideology? Is the Islamic interest-free variety of capitalism crisis proof? What can our society learn from gift economies and other alternative concepts stemming from the economical anthropology?

For our fifth Capitalism Catch-22 themed on 2 July, economists and anthropologists elaborate on the possible relations between religion and economical growth, in order to explore whether an economy founded on different moral values could be more durable than the current financial system.

With presentations by:

Eelke de Jong

Eelke de Jong is professor of International Economics at Radboud University Nijmegen. De Jong’s research interests involve several aspects of international monetary and financial economics: exchange rate determination, imbalances on the balance of payments, EMU, and the debt problem of developing countries.

During recent years, Eelke de Jong has shifted his attention towards the relation between national systems of norms and values on the one hand and economic institutions and development on the other hand. On this topic he wrote the book Culture and Economics: On values, economics and international business.

David Bassens

David Bassens is assistant professor at the University of Brussels. His research interests lie in two broad areas: Geographies of globalized urbanization: world-city formation and world-city-networks, urban political economies, post-colonial urban critiques, mobility of urban policies, and geographies of finance and financialization: financial geography, economic geography, varieties of capitalism, and the sociology of finance.

His current research delves focusses on the discursive and material construction of emerging markets and actor-centered and institutional geographies of (Islamic) finance among other topics.

During his talk Bassens will elaborate on the extent to which the theory of Islamic economics is in contrast with the pratice of Islamic finance.

Sabine Luning

Sabine Luning’s PhD research dealt with the social dynamics of ritual practices in Burkina Faso, a topic at the crossroads of religious ideas, politics and social identities. She continued studying the contemporary situation of chiefs as well as local perceptions of the natural environment In particular how these are shaped in wider social arenas such as national elections and development projects.

Her current research focuses on economic anthropology, in particular the booming business of goldmining in West Africa. Sabine Luning investigates interactions between (representatives of) multilateral organizations, the state, international companies, national entrepreneurs, artisanal miners and local communities as well as the moral discourses that accompany and shape these interactions.