Philippa Bonella: reflections on SCIAF and Catholic Social Teaching

Many thanks to Philippa both for a fascinating session on SCIAF's work last night (and for coping so well with a succession of accidents including the Chaplaincy being cordoned off by the emergency services and the dramatic collapse of the projector screen!)

There's far too much to cover in detail, but I was struck in particular by how seriously SCIAF took the dignity of the people it worked with. This respect included great care in trying to avoid abuse of the power imbalance inherent in the relationship of donor and recipient, as well as a deliberate policy to only use publicity images that were respectful of the individuals pictured. It's easy to pay lip service to the idea of human dignity, but it was quite clear by the end of the evening that SCIAF were doing far more than this: there was a genuine sense of the solidarity between SCIAF and those they were working to help, which led to serious and continuing self-questioning about what they did and how they did it.

Don't forget that donations to SCIAF can be made here.

I'll leave you with one of the films Philippa showed: a potted guide to CST!






That was the last session of the Catholic Social Teaching Classes for this term. Our programme for the third term is in draft form: up to date information can be found here. Classes will restart in April.

Class on SCIAF's application of Catholic Social Teaching

11 March Philippa Bonella (Head of Communications and Education, SCIAF) 6pm-7pm
Option for the poor – putting Catholic social teaching into practice. In an interactive workshop, Philippa will share some examples of SCIAF’s work in some of the poorest countries of the world, showing how key principles of Catholic social teaching (human dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity, care for creation) can be put into practice by organisations and by each one of us. She will discuss some of the challenges SCIAF has faced in doing this, and some of the lessons learned.

Usual venue: Library of Catholic Chaplaincy George Square, Edinburgh (Directions: http://scotland.op.org/edinburgh/ )

Time: 6pm-7pm

Any queries? elizdrummondyoung@gmail.com

Economics education

One of the main things that came out of Odile Pinney's session last week was the question of economics education and its current concentration (at least in Anglophone countries) on abstract models which are applied regardless of real world conditions.

Odile has drawn my attention to the following which take this idea forward:

1) A letter to the Economist from Professor Margaret Stevens on the current economics syllabus and its reform. An excerpt:

 I do not agree that the solution to the problem of a narrow orthodoxy in the subject is to broaden the curriculum to cover a wide variety of “schools of thought” [...]. We saw the dangers of that “heterodox” approach when macroeconomics was presented to students as a choice between the beliefs of monetarists and Keynesians, a stand-off reminiscent of the Big-Endians and Little-Endians encountered by Gulliver. I want to teach my students to be economists, not adherents of one or more schools of thought.

[Full letter here.]

2) Professor Stevens' letter refers to the CORE economics curriculum. The website for CORE describes it thus:


The Curriculum Open-access Resources in Economics (CORE) project was set up in October 2013 to propose a new approach to economics teaching for undergraduates. The aim is to update the existing economics curriculum so that it reflects recent developments in economics, the economy and in teaching methods.

Funded by the Institute for New Economic Thinking and based at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at Oxford in the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford, the Project Director is Professor Wendy Carlin of University College London. Azim Premji University in Bangalore, India, is a key partner and responsible for the design and technological development of the CORE course materials.
The CORE website can be found here.


3) The Robin Cosgrove Prize which is awarded to a young person who writes a hitherto unpublished paper on the benefits of ethics in finance. Website here: http://www.robincosgroveprize.org/


Other resources:

Manifesto for finance that serves the common good (academic signatories) -here

Basel Manifesto on the economic enlightenment (Zentrum fur Religion, Wirtschaft und Politik) http://www.zrwp.ch/uploads/basel_manifesto.pdf - 2012

Rethinking economics, a student initiative, - http://www.rethinkeconomics.org/ together with ISIPE (International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics (among Scottish universities, only Glasgow is associated, 60 countries involved) http://www.isipe.net/open-letter/

Academic contributions on new economic thinking http://ineteconomics.org/institute-blog/archive/201502 with reference to new CORE curriculum developed internationally with support University College London (Curriculum Open Access Resources in Economics) (see above).

Beyond the financial crisis - Towards a Christian perspective for action – Simona Beretta and Paul Dembinski - Working paper 4 - The Caritas in Veritate Foundation, Geneva, June 2014
[Online: http://www.obsfin.ch/beyond-the-financial-crisis-towards-a-christian-perspective-for-action-2/

Postal financial services and development – building on the past and looking to the future – Gonzales d’Alcantara, Paul Dembinski, Odile Pilley – Universite de Fribourg – Working Paper - August 2014 - doc.rero.ch/record/211111/files/WP_SES_451.pdf

Pope Francis’s speech at the European Parliament – 25 November 2014 - http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/11/25/pope_francis_address_to_european_parliament/1112318
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Image details: Russian Icon (C15th or C16th of Jesus teaching in the temple. Wikicommons here.)