The Susanna Wesley Foundation at Roehampton University is organizing a Hybrid Seminar, 6 November 2025, on the theme “Challenging the Extractive Economy: Humanist Economics and Theology in Conversation.” The event is scheduled for 13.45-15.30 British Time. The focus of the seminar will be the interrogation of neo-classical economic thinking, looking at how it might be re-imagined through the lens and language of theology, and understanding the economic system in terms of faith, hope and love to counter the exploitation of human and natural resources inherent in the extractive economy. You can join online via the following link.
The seminar speakers represent different contexts and will provide contributions based on different experiences, always focusing on the theme “Challenging the Extractive Economy.”
- Lans Bovenburg, a well-known Dutch economist and former winner of the Spinoza prize, will be talking with Steven van den Heuvel, theological ethicist and Director of the Institute of Leadership & Social Ethics, (ETF, Leuven), who has written extensively on environmental ethics and hope and has been collaborating with Lans.
- Anupama Ranawana is a political economist and theologian, with experience in both academia and international development, currently thematic research specialist with Christian Aid, and research associate at Durham University, will be talking about the hidden voices in the extractive economy.
- Hector Laporta is a theologian and anthropologist who describes himself as ‘working and thinking from a Latin American perspective.’ He will draw on this perspective and his extensive work in various South American contexts to reflect theologically on the issues of racial, climate and economic justice and their inter-relationship.
The event will be facilitated by Hannah Fremont-Brown, formerly of the Joint Public Issues Team at the Methodist Church and the Anti-Poverty Movement’s Methodist Coordinator. She will bring her experience in, and passion for, connecting faith and social justice to draw out the implications of our conversations for how we can live differently. For more details, contact the Susanna Wesley Foundation at https://susannawesleyfoundation.org/