The purpose of this paper is to provide a gender-sensitive analysis of economic agency in Islamic economic philosophy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a gender-sensitive analysis of economic agency in Islamic economic philosophy.
Design/methodology/approach
A critical review of classical ethics literature and the concept of khilafah is undertaken and discussed in conjunction with the current understanding of homo Islamicus.
Findings
Building on the principles of khilafah, the concept of homo Islamicus is a pious stand-in for the flawed homo economicus. Among its flaws is the complete absence of a discussion of women as economic agents. To remedy this the discipline must acknowledge explicitly the denial of women and gender from the discussion of moral agency and include gender as a category of analysis for economic agency. This is only possible by: (1) introducing a non-patriarchal reading of khilafah as the model of agency and (2) by operationalising taqwa as the cardinal virtue of the economic agent instead of neoliberal rationality.
Research limitations/implications
If Islamic economic philosophy is to contend as an alternative mode of economics, it must consider gender and class dimensions in its micro-foundation discussion, economic agency is one of them.
Originality/value
This study reveals the patriarchal readings that are part of the foundation of the concept of the economic agent in Islamic economics, problematising it and providing a gender-sensitive concept of economic agency.
Details
Keywords
Concentrates on identifying the mechanisms by which foreign investment affects productivity in recipient countries. Conducts a firm‐level study of manufacturing plants in Mexico…
Abstract
Concentrates on identifying the mechanisms by which foreign investment affects productivity in recipient countries. Conducts a firm‐level study of manufacturing plants in Mexico and test for performance differences embodied in factor productivity between domestic and foreign (majority and minority) owned plants. In addition checks for the existence of spillovers at the industry level due to the presence of multinational corporations. In contrast to earlier studies finds no evidence of spillovers but does find a strong direct effect in the form of higher levels of productivity in firms with foreign ownership.