While much attention has been given to the abolition of interest in Islamic economics, there has been little attention given to the ethical framework on which it is based. Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi in Islam, Economics and Society (1994), presents an axiomatic approach to generating an Islamic economic theory from the ground up. Chapter one considers Naqvi's argument for a distinct Islamic economic system. Chapter two examines Naqvi's theoretical framework and the Islamic economic system which he derives from it. The chapter compares Naqvi's approach with that of M. Umer Chapra, who also adopts an ethical framework for the foundation of an Islamic economic theory. Chapter three examines the debate surrounding the definition of riba and the importance of riba in Islamic economics. This study concludes with a recommendation for a more systematic approach in interpreting the Qur'an, which is the source of Naqvi's economic axioms.

In this thesis I explain how Western art music gained a political, social and cultural role in Colombia during the decades that spanned from 1848 to 1910. This analysis engages the different attributes that Colombian political and cultural leaders of the time ascribed to art music in order to integrate it as part of their projects of Nation and confronts them with what is known about traditional music practices. In doing so, I explain discourses and social practices that developed around and because of the integration of art music to urban life in Colombia during the period of research. The purpose of this analysis is to elucidate the processes and contradictions that characterized the social practice of art music in Colombia as well as the limitations of the implementation of art music as an inclusive practice during the second half of the nineteenth century. This last notion underlies cultural policies implemented during present times and highlights the contradiction between art music as an exclusive social practice and the political discourse about art music as a space for learning democratic republican values.

No description available.

Dominant market theories analyze markets as ahistorical entities without the need for professional groups that manage crucial functions within them. This thesis, in contrast, approaches markets as historical systems that develop over time and that can be constituted in many different ways because of different historical trajectories. Different professional groups managing market routines, further, are seen as a crucial part of markets. Two concepts are introduced: “market architecture”, the specific way a market is constituted at a given time; and “market technocrats”, the seemingly disinterested third party functionaries that manage routines in markets and advocate changes in market architecture. The thesis argues that market technocrats exist because of uncertainty and lack of trust between market actors, and that they are an important part of how market architectures develop over time. It presents an analytical framework for understanding market technocrats and how they interact with and develop markets. Four different aspects of market technocrats are explored: the process of establishing market technocrats in market routines; the capture of the authority of market technocrats by other market actors; the expansionistic behavior of market technocrats; and the way changes in economic theory, as an important part of how economists with technocratic authority advocate market change, can help to explain changes in markets. These aspects are explored through four empirical papers: The Market Technocracy of Import Substitution: The Role of Asymmetric Information and The Swedish Seed Association 1880–1935; Limits of Market Technocracy: Swedish Fertilizer Research and the Crisis of Objectivity 1945–1960; Central Banks, and the Pursuit of Influence, Prestige, and Legitimacy: The Creation of the Nobel Memorial Prize; and From Market Engineering to Institutional Engineering: Reform Economics in Sweden 1950–2000. The results of the papers form the basis of a hypothetical narrative of how the role of market technocrats has changed during the 20th century. This provides a roadmap for further research in the development of markets and the role of market technocrats.