Challenging the Extractive Economy

SWF is delighted to be organising and hosting an afternoon of conversation and insight entitled ‘Challenging the Extractive Economy: Humanist Economics and Theology in Conversation’ on Thursday November 6th from 13.45 – 17.00.

The afternoon will comprise a hybrid seminar (1.45pm – 3.30pm) and after a refreshment break, an in-person roundtable discussion (3.50pm – 5.00pm).

To confirm your attendance, contact us, noting whether you will be coming in-person (University of Roehampton) or attending online (seminar only). This will enable us to order refreshments and provide directions, or supply a link accordingly.

The focus will be the interrogation of neo-classical economic thinking, looking at how it might be re-imagined through the lens, and language, of theology, understanding the economic system in terms of faith, hope and love to counter the exploitation of human and natural resources inherent in the extractive economy.

In this conversation, Professor Lans Bovenburg, a well-known Dutch economist and former winner of the Spinoza prize, will be talking with Professor Steven van den Heuvel, theological ethicist and Director of the Institute of Leadership & Social Ethics, (ETF, Leuven), who has written extensively on environmental ethics and hope and has been collaborating with Lans. Anupama Ranawana is a political economist and theologian, with experience in both academia and international development, currently thematic research specialist with Christian Aid, and research associate at Durham University. She will be talking about the hidden voices in the extractive economy. We will also hear from the Revd Dr Hector Laporta, theologian and anthropologist who describes himself as ‘working and thinking from a Latin American perspective.’ He will draw on this perspective and his extensive work in various South American contexts to reflect theologically on the issues of racial, climate and economic justice and their inter-relationship.

The event will be facilitated by Hannah Fremont-Brown, formerly of the Joint Public Issues Team at the Methodist Church and the Anti-Poverty Movement’s Methodist Coordinator. She will bring her experience in, and passion for, connecting faith and social justice to draw out the implications of our conversations for how we can live differently.

In September last year (2024), ‘JustMoney Movement’ and USPG hosted a panel discussion at St Paul’s Cathedral entitled, “Money, Race and Climate: Challenging the Extractive Economy”. This spawned a series of events in colleges and universities across the UK. The event at the University of Roehampton, organised by the Susanna Wesley Foundation (SWF), will draw on SWF-sponsored work exploring the relationship between economics and theology, while also building on some of the themes which emerged during the original panel discussion in St Paul’s – around extractivism, solidarity, the intersections of racial, climate and economic justice, and the place of hope. 

Schedule

13.45: Seminar with panel and Q&A – Online and in-person in the Adam Room at Grove House, University of Roehampton

15.30: Coffee/tea

15.50: Roundtable – In-person only – Inputs from members of the SWF and University of Roehampton community, and general discussion

17.00: Close

Book your place