Panel 122: Transformative Values? Religion and Capitalism and the New Development Discourse in Eastern Africa

Like any other ideological apparatus, religion has the capacity to either transform old values or create new values upon its adherents. In this sense religion can be described as a transformative value system. Max Weber’s study on the impact of religion in the development of the West European capitalist system (dated and highly criticized) still continues to exert some explanatory value. In sub-Saharan Africa the history of Christian missionary activities was permeated with the power/role of religion as a transformative value system. Likewise capitalism, broadly defined as an economic system based on the accumulation and reinvestment of exchangeable resources (commodities and capital), demands the acquisition of an appropriate value system.

We have enough knowledge of how Charismatic Christianity is quickly and dramatically changing the religious landscape of the Eastern African societies. But how does this dramatic growth of the new Christian religious movements impact the development discourse? More than half a century after the end of the European colonization, our knowledge about capitalism in Africa in general and in the separate countries in particular is quite sketchy and highly inadequate. What are the current conditions for the growth of capitalism in Eastern Africa?

The panel invites scholars to present research ideas and ongoing research on religion and capitalism as value transformers as well as how these two ideologies impact (if any) the development discourse in the broad sense of the term within the context of Eastern African political, social and economic formations.