ECONOMICS IN THE AGE OF THE COMMONS

Jump into the keywords of the first EoF school lessons and find out the next ones

by EoF STAFF

(ENGLISH TEXT ONLY)

“Knowledge, we believe, is one of the most important common goods we should share if we want to improve our lives”

With these words, Paolo Santori – visiting scholar at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam – and Valentina Rotondi – researcher at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science e Nuffield College (University of Oxford) – concluded the invitation to join The Economy of Francesco School – Rethinking Economics starting from the Commons – the online advanced training course on the Economy of Francesco main themes.

with 1,000 registered participants from 85 countries.

After the greetings from Augusto Zampini – Director of Development and Faith at the Dicastery for Integral Human Development of the Vatican – we kicked off the #EoFSchool with the first lesson on Economics in the Age of Commons led by Professor Luigino Bruni. 

The fragility of goodness, reciprocity, and the tragedy of the commons, were among the covered topics on the ‘Oeconomia of the last time’: “With the third millennium, we have now entered the era of common goods: if we continue to think and act like we are the owners and masters of the earth, of the environment, of the oceans, we will only end up destroying them”, Prof. Bruni said to conclude his lesson. We must quickly learn to make use of goods without being their masters, and master the art of using and ‘making use of’ them, without ownership, just like St. Francis. What if the economy of the sine proprio was that of the era of common goods? Will it be the oikonomia of Francis that will save both us and the earth in the end?” To know more The economy of the seventh age.

You can watch it, analyze it, and follow closely this advanced online course: CLICK HERE

was with Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem. He lectured Hebrew at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum. Consultor in the Commission for relations with Judaism of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Unity among Christians.

After the Bishop Sorrentino’s introduction, the session outlined the current context of globalization and the challenges related to it, in the light of the social doctrine of the Church and the magisterium of the recent Popes and in particular of Pope Francis. This was done to develop the themes, closely related to each other, of faith – with particular attention to “integral human development” – of peace, and universal fraternity – especially in the Middle Eastern context where there is a need for interreligious and intercultural dialogue – and of a new economy, invoked by the Pope, based on the traits of the New Adam, Christ. “As Business and Peace villagers of Economy of Francesco, we are quite concerned about businesses as peace promoters” stated Bernat Sellarès, Professor & General Manager of the Facultat de Filosofia de Catalunya and one of the EoF discussants. “Not a ‘secular’ peace, but peace in this sense of sharing God’s life through the spirit. Let’s consider today’s peace, not as a business outcome for the whole society, but as something that emerges, that happens within business, among its workers.”

CLICK HERE to see the video.

on Economics and the Ethics of Care. Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and senior research fellow at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University. Dr. Nelson’s research areas include feminist economics, ecological economics, the philosophy and methodology of economics, ethics and economics, and the teaching of economics.

Her presentation will show how the biased dogmas favored by mainstream economists have distorted our thinking. The neglect of nature, of the care provided to vulnerable humans (mostly, to date, by women), and of the commons in Neoclassical “chalkboard economics” has been deliberate. If we study real-world economies, however, we find that they are complex social, political, and environmentally-embedded systems, and that none could last a day without elements of care and trust. Our first step towards building economies that sustainably provide for the survival and flourishing of life needs to be a re-examination of how we think about “economic actors” and the kind of behavior suitable for the “economic sphere.”