Reports on Past REC Conferences
2006 Conference on Religion, Economics, and
Culture
[Conference
Program and Papers]
Portland, Oregon
The 2006 ASREC conference was a success! This year’s conference was held in Portland, Oregon, October 19-21. Highlights of the conference include a keynote address by Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith, a Spiritual Capital debate, and the first ASREC planning meeting.
Well-attended sessions included presentations by Robert Woodberry on Institutions and Religion, Evelyn Lehrer on Religiosity and Dating Violence, Scott Thumma on Megachurches, and Daniel Hungerman on Religion vs. Secular Competition. Several graduate students presented papers at this year’s conference, including 8 papers presented by George Mason University students.
One of the most well-attended sessions of the conference was the Spiritual Capital Debate. Scholars Larry Iannaccone (economics), Carrie Miles (psychology), Bradford Verter (history), and David Swartz (sociology) all gave their ideas about what the term “spiritual capital” really means. Four very different views of the subject were presented, and the audience came away with a deeper understanding of how spiritual capital could be interpreted.
Keynote speaker Robert Putnam unfortunately cancelled at the last minute because of illness (he is recovering well). This opening gave ASREC the perfect opportunity to hold its first open-invitation planning meeting. The well-attended session was organized and run by ASREC Executive Director Carrie Miles. The meeting was held to ask what attendees of the ASREC conference thought could be better about the conferences, what other types of attendees should we be inviting and how we should recruit them, and what superstar keynote speakers we could invite. Overall, attendees provided several great ideas for the future of ASREC during the brainstorming session. The session closed with Roger Finke and Larry Iannaccone introducing a new ASREC-ARDA working paper series.
At the TANSTAAFL luncheon (There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch), Larry Iannaccone thanked out-going SSSR Executive Director Larry Greil for all of his work every year with helping ASREC put on the conference. Then Larry Iannaccone was surprised by the ASREC board taking the time to thank him for all of his hard work over the years with creating ASREC, running the conferences, and all of his academic contributions to the field of economics of religion. Iannaccone received a much-deserved standing ovation from the crowd for all of his efforts year after year.
An ASREC tradition, the Rational Choice Salon, was another hit.
Next year’s conference will be held in Tampa, Florida.
Krystal Brand Slivinski
2005 Conference on Religion, Economics, and
Culture
[Conference
Program and Papers]
Rochester, New York
2004 Conference on Religion, Economics, and
Culture
[Conference
Program and Papers]
Kansas City, Missouri
The conference was a great success! Thanks to all participants, both for the papers and for being an engaged and enthusiastic audience. If you weren't able to join us this year, we hope you will be able to come next October when REC-2005 is scheduled to meet in Rochester NY.
REC-2004 featured 55 papers. 65 people attended the association TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch) luncheon, both of the REC meetings rooms were full to over-crowding, and 95 people attended the Keynote Address by ASREC president Laurence R. Iannaccone. Iannaccone noted the rapid growth of both the REC conference and the field of the economics of religion, forecasting continued growth and enthusiasm for this area of study.
This conference was made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, to whom we offer our gratitude.
2003 Conference on Religion, Economics, and Culture:
Norfolk, Virginia
The John Templeton Foundation and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University each made grants to support the Second Annual Conference on Religion, Economics, and Culture, organized by the Consortium for the Economic Study of Religion (CESR) at George Mason University, and held October 24-26, 2003, in Norfolk Virginia. CESR’s goal is to establish economic methodology as a recognized and respected approach to the study of religion and spirituality, and at the same time to encourage economists to appreciate the importance of spiritual issues in their research, teaching, and practical applications. Bringing together scholars from around the country and the world, the annual Conference on Religion, Economics, and Culture is a critical means of reaching those goals.
The John Templeton Foundation’s grant helped support the conference participation of 60-plus scholars and students, including many from outside the United States. Ten multi-paper sessions presented research on topics such as the rise of Pentecostalism in the former Soviet Union and Latin America; the origins of religious liberty in Britain and the U.S; the impact of religion on education in rural India; and a study of factors that make religious kibbutzim more stable than secular ones. All the sessions were well-attended and produced vigorous discussion. Most of these papers are being submitted for publication in academic journals, and many will soon be available at [Archives/Working Papers].
Noted economist Deirdre McCloskey gave a keynote address on “The Bourgeois Virtues.” In her talk, Professor McCloskey equated the virtue of “prudence” with the economic notion of utility maximization. Concluding that prudence alone cannot adequately describe the human experience, she urged economists studying religion and spirituality to consider in their research the other virtues – love, faith, hope, courage, justice, and mercy – as well.
A highlight of each evening was an informal “salon” designed to encourage mutual support and understanding among the conference’s geographically far-flung scholars.
Click here to see the full program for the 2003 REC.
2002 Conference on Religion, Economics, and Culture
Funded by grants from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and Santa Clara University, the first conference on Religion, Economics, and Culture was held in Salt Lake City, Utah. A highlight was the keynote session by Noble-laureate Gary S. Becker, whose work applying economic principles to non-market behavior made the economic study of religion possible.
As the first conference of its kind, REC-2002 allowed scholars doing work in the economic or rational choice study of religion to meet each other for the first time.
Click here for the full program of the 2002 REC.