The Mediterranean: a hub of Religions, Economies and Cultures
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Full programme
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
Attendance at previous economics courses is recommended, but not mandatory. Equally useful are the basic notions given during the classes of Religions and rights and Comparative religious laws.
Discussion on a paper prepared by the student.
The course aims to offer a historical-geopolitical and economic overview of the Mediterranean space, highlighting the influence of religions and cultures on economic development and exchanges between the two shores of the Mediterranean.
The course will be divided into two parts, carried out jointly between them. The first part will provide the basis for covering the historical, political and legal development of the southern Mediterranean states with particular attention to the role played by religion in the institutional configuration of this geopolitical space.
The second part of the course will focus on the economic and financial development of Islam, with the aim of understanding the complexity and peculiarities of a system different from the Western model, with which the economic operators of the "global" world today constantly interact.
The course aims to provide students with the keys to understanding the contemporary Mediterranean scenario with particular attention to the relationships between economics, politics and religion.
The student will have to become aware of the complexity and mutual inter-dependence of the factors involved as well as of the plural and constantly changing nature of the geopolitical space considered.
The focus of the Part One will be the bases of Muslim law and the modalities of transition from religious legal systems to the secular ones, typical of the modern states. The Constitutions of the States of the region with greater impact on the Italian reality will be examined, trying to identify the space left by them to the individual and associative agencies.
In the Second Part we will illustrate the main economic-financial differences that characterize the economies of the Islamic countries compared to the western ones. Particular relevance will be given to Islam and economic and financial development; to the Islamic bank and the Islamic capital market; to microcredit.
-Islam in the Mediterranean area
-notions about Islamic Law
-Islamic States and the role of Sharia
- Analysis of the Arab springs
- situations of Mediterranean States, from a political and economic point of view; the role of Islam in political, economic and social changes in the area.
- Islam and economic and financial development
- Islamic bank and the Islamic capital market; microcredit
Classes will be held through lectures (giving the overall framework on the different subjects). Besides lessons, students will find documents and reading materials, and the teachers will assign also readings and documents on specific topics, in order to discuss some specific issues with the students.
Teachers will receive students by appointment (contact through email: stella.coglievina@uninsubria.it; flavia.cortelezzi@uninsubria.it).