Free Enterprise: Values In Action
Funded by a Major Grant from the John Templeton Foundation
The Gruter Institute research initiative on “Free Enterprise: Values in Action ” is well under way. A major grant from the John Templeton Foundation, along with additional support from the Sloan Foundation have already provided support for several major interdisciplinary meetings focusing on the role of values in a free economic system.
Free Enterprise: Values in Action - Project Overview
This program is aimed at exploring the role of values in a free economic system. The program is an extensive one, and has included six conferences, a dedicated volume (Moral Markets: The Critical Role of Values in Free Enterprise) to be published by Princeton University Press, a popular book (The Mind of the Market) and two debates.
"Free Enterprise: Values in Action" - Disseminating the message
The research collaborations and conclusions have proven very fruitful for the participants of the "Free Enterprise: Values in Action" initiative. In addition to a scholarly book to be published in late 2007, a popular book is also in the works, and a variety of articles in the press have helped to stimulate thinking people outside the academy to pursue the more in-depth materials. Participants of this research program have been provided support to make presentations drawing on the work of the Values program at a variety of venues with the expectation that this will stimulate further papers, chapters, books and other scholarly output. The relatively inexpensive element of the program continues to prove successful in stimulating presentations in contexts.
Debate: Are Markets Moral?
Are Markets Moral?
A debate chaired by Brigitte Granville
Professor of International Economics and Economic Policy
School of Business and Management
Queen Mary, University of London
Tuesday 24 April 2007 at 6pm
Mason Lecture Theatre
The Francis Bancroft Building,
Queen Mary, University of London
Panelists -
Dr. Sarah Brosnan, a primatologist at the Department of Anthropology, Emory University in Atlanta
The RH Charles Clarke, MP
Dr. Oliver Curry, Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics
Professor Oliver Goodenough, of the Vermont Law School and Dartmouth College
Lord Robert Skidelsky, Professor, University of Warwick and Honorary Fellow, Jesus College, Oxford
"Free Enterprise: Values in Action" Project featured in LA Times Article
An article entitled Testing the role of trust and values in financial decisions appeared on the front page of the LA Times business section on January 21, 2007. The article describes the work and goals of the "Free Enterprise: Values in Action" project sponsored by the Gruter Institute, the Templeton Foundation, and the UCLA-Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Program on Business Organizations. According to the article, "[i]n exploring the morality of economic behavior, [project participants] aim to put a more positive spin on Western-style capitalism. They want to demonstrate, in a post-Enron world, that markets are driven not by greed but by positive behavior." While oversimplifying the thinking behind and goals of the project, the article provides a good broad overview of the work of several project researchers and is worth a read.
Character, Business and the Forgotten Adam Smith
In conjunction with the "Free Enterprise: Values in Action" project, Gruter Institute Research Fellow Oliver Goodenough, has written an op-ed piece entitled "Character, Business and the Forgotten Adam Smith" which has been published in the Rutland Herald , The Providence Journal, The Vindicator (Youngstown, Ohio), The Knoxville Sentinel, the Scripts News Service, and the Nashua Telegraph. In the article, Goodenough discusses the dangers of the "self-interest is all" myth and the important role ethics and values such as honesty, trustworthiness, and fairness should and do play in business and economic life. Goodenough contends that "[a] business culture explicitly modeled on character, in balance with selfishness, will capture more of the gains of trade and specialization that are at the heart of this prosperity."
