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The Multiverse of Social Economics Thought

Paper Session

Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM (PST)

The Marker Union Square San Francisco, Archer
Hosted By: Association for Social Economics
  • Chair: Belinda Roman, St. Mary’s University

Social Caste Structure and its Impact on Muslim Backwardness (Pasmandgi) in South Asia

Hassan Mujtaba
,
University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Abstract

The caste or jati is a complex hierarchical social/socio-economic system that has been part of Indian society for at least two-and-a-half millennia (Macdonell 1914). While much is written on the socio-economic impact of this system on people from lower Hindu castes (Banerjee et al. 2013; Borooah 2005; Deshpande 2000; Hasan and Mehta 2006; Madheswaran and Attewell 2007; Mehrotra 2006; Mohanty 2006; Srinivasan and Mohanty 2004; Sukhadeo et al. 2012; Sundaram 2006; Zacharias and Vakulabharanam 2011), there is not enough literature analyzing the link between the caste system and socio-economic outcomes of non-Hindu (e.g., Muslim or Christian) populations of India. This study fills in this gap by analyzing the impact of the Hindu caste system on the socio-economic backwardness or pasmandgi of the poor South Asian Muslims.

Many scholars have made sense of Muslim pasmandgi through a cultural explanation: there are elements within Islamic philosophy & jurisprudence (McCleary and Barro 2006; McCleary 2008) and general Muslim culture (e.g., excessive religiosity or institutions) that hinder their progress (Almond and Mazumder 2011; Almond, Mazumder, and van Ewijk 2014; Majid 2015; Kuran 2018; van Ewijk 2011). Using primary and secondary data sources, I show that the vast majority of Indian Muslims that belong to lower Muslim castes were converted from the lower castes of Hindu jati system, hence implying a conversion that may have happened sometime back. This is supplemented by genetic studies, which confirm that the spread of Islam in South Asia was mainly an endogenous cultural phenomenon and not an exogenous genetic one (Terreros et al. 2007; Eaaswarkhanth et al. 2009).
In this context, then, I use the concept of ‘relative group position’ from Stratification Economics to argue that it is the weak relative position of Muslims vis-à-vis their Hindu, other non-Muslim counterparts, and Muslim elites that primarily explains their pasmandgi within

Revisiting Objectives for Catholic Economists: 80 Years Later

Anita Pena
,
Colorado State University

Abstract

"In December of 1942 in the first article published in the Review of Social Economy (Volume 1, Issue 1, page 1), Rt. Rev. Msgr. John A. Ryan put forth ""Two Objectives for Catholic Economists."" These objectives started with ""to make the ethical aspect of the economic doctrine as prominent as possible"" and ended with ""to study and recommend reforms in our economic institutions."" He went on to summarize ""Both these aims have to do with the common good."" More than 80 years later, where are Catholic economists now? Have decades of economic and political turmoils worldwide and within the United States changed the agenda? This paper will critically review the history of both qualitative and quantitative contributions to the economics literature by Catholic economists within and outside of the Association for Social Economics relative to Msgr. Ryan's original objectives.

Protestant Women and the Settlement House Movement along the Mexico-U.S. Border

Belinda Roman
,
St. Mary’s University

Abstract

One of the least researched and much less understood issues facing Borderlands scholars is the role that secular and religious mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts played in creating cross-border socioeconomic structures that served as the foundations of life along and across the Mexico-U. S. Border (Borderlands). The two means by which Methodist women during this period influenced society and the economy were the Woman’s Missionary Movement (WMM) and Settlement Houses. The WMM involved multitudes of women and reached over 140 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The attention is on the Social Gospel Movements of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, and how they impacted the Mexico-U.S. Borderlands, specifically El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. On one side of the border, these movements were led by liberal Protestant women’s outreach in the late 19th and first two decades of the 20th century that included efforts to use biblical and church historical themes as standards by which to measure modern urban industrial capitalist societies. On the other side, Protestant missionary women and Catholic social activist women in Mexico played important roles, pressing for ever greater freedoms for women within an extremely sexist and socially ridged society. These women listened, learned, and acted on their version of the liberal notions imported from Europe and the United States. The establishment of the Houchen Settlement House and Freeman Clinic (later Newark Maternity Hospital) takes place within a much broader struggle for ideological and economic control. Snippets of economic (pecuniary) data in previous research studies based on archival data help this research estimate the “Halo Effect.” This concept is being developed by Ram Cnaan, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Policy and Practice in collaboration the Partnership for Sacred Places. The idea is that the activities of religious organizations

Building a Social Science: Themes from 19th Century British Cooperative Thought

Kirsten Madden
,
Millersville University
Joseph Persky
,
University of Illinois-Chicago

Abstract

Our forthcoming book sketches a reconstruction of the social science built by British cooperative thinkers in the 19th century. Starting with Robert Owen these theorists took exception to the narrow social psychology that characterized classical political economy. Where Adam Smith’s followers postulated a simplified, selfish human animal living in a world of scarcity, the cooperative writers postulated highly plastic human beings living in a world rich with possibilities, possibilities opened by the Industrial Revolution. People are capable of an enlarged self-interest that considers consequences not only for oneself, but also for others. The cooperative theorists make a convincing argument that a rational-ethical education can lay the foundations for such a world view. But to maintain this psychology and achieve its promise requires that the institutions of the economy be built on deep cooperative principles, principles of equality, liberty, social responsibility, and fellowship. The argument can be summarized as a fundamental theorem of cooperation in two parts: 1. when an enlarged self-interest interacts with the structure of cooperative institutions, the result is a range of impressive outcomes: material superabundance, widespread happiness and human development; 2. the resulting system is self-reinforcing as its outcomes further strengthen the rational-ethical base of its social psychology. In putting forward their new social science, the cooperative theorists do not fall back on wishful Utopianism. Rather they propound a serious materialism that anticipates a historical transition from capitalist economies to cooperative economies. The work of John Stuart Mill on the falling rate of profit stands out here. Yet, the counter-tendencies to such a mechanism have proven substantial. In much the same vein, GDH Cole’s transitional logic of unions achieving encroaching control has for the most part failed to materialize. In the end we

Quest for Self-Reliance and Human Rights

Yatan Sharma
,
University of Delaware

Abstract

With the advent of globalization, self-reliance seemed like a relic of the past, overshadowed by the interconnectedness of the global economy. However, the cascading effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic growth and development have revitalized the concept. The Indian government took the first step in this direction, announcing its ambition for self-reliance. Countries like the US, France, and Australia followed suit. This study focuses on the state-level dimension of self-reliance, where states aim to achieve two primary objectives. First, they strive to strike a fine balance between economic interdependence with other countries and political independence. This means ensuring that their economic ties to other nations do not compromise their political sovereignty or ability to make independent decisions. Second, to ensure the effective and efficient employment of locally available factors of production. A push towards domestic manufacturing is a foremost step towards self-reliance. However, industrialization and workers’ exploitation has often assumed complementary to each other. In this paper, I will argue that this is not a necessary consequence. A positive relationship exists between the protection of the right to development and a country's economic development. By upholding fair labor practices and worker protections, countries can ensure that economic growth is accompanied by improvements in workers’ living standards and well-being. This paper argues that by respecting the right to development, countries can transform their human resources into an asset – human capital. This, in turn, allows for their effective utilization within the production process. The paper will then draw on various research studies to demonstrate the positive correlation between upholding labor rights and a nation's gross domestic product. This exploratory paper aims to establish a positive relationship between human rights and countries’ quest to achieve self-reliance in this contemporary globalized era, where former complements the latter, instead of standing at the
JEL Classifications
  • B1 - History of Economic Thought through 1925
  • P5 - Comparative Economic Systems