Editor’s Introduction: Catholic Social Thought and Work

• Published date: 01 September 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12360
• Date: 01 September 2020
• Author: Charles M. A. Clark

Editor’s Introduction: Catholic Social

Thought and Work

By Charles M. a. Clark*

A 2019 issue of this journal that I edited (AJES 78: 4) on Catholic

social thought and economics looked at Pope Francis and the concept

of the “economy of exclusion.” We saw that Catholic social thought

brings up many issues that the narrow perspective of neoclassical

economics often ignores. Specifically, many people do not have a

market voice and thus are excluded from markets (the primary focus

of neoclassical economics). In addition, the existence of economic

power, which is usually assumed away with the assumption of per-

fect competition, also structures markets to create artificial barriers

to inclusion. The biggest gap in neoclassical economics that Catholic

social thought highlights is that humans have noneconomic values

that shape their economic behavior. The exclusion of these values

harms social well-being.

In this issue, we focus on “human work” with an emphasis on the

“human” or subjective aspects of labor. As with the previous issue,

the goal is to bring economics and Catholic social thought into dia-

logue. The Church is not proposing an alternative economic theory

or economic system but instead suggests that Catholic social thought

provides some insights into what it means to be human that can add

to our understanding of economic activities and outcomes. This is

especially the case for the categories of work and labor.

There are few activities that are more quintessentially human than

work. Work is the foundation upon which the human species has

survived and thrived. If humans did not work, at least as a collective

whole, they would not survive very long. Work is not only the basis

of all economic activity, it is also a social, political, cultural, and even

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 79, No. 4 (September, 2020).

DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12360

© 2020 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc

*Senior Fellow, Vincentian Center for Church and Society. Research Fellow, Center for

Global Business Stewardship. Professor of Economics, Tobin College of Business, St.

John’s University (NY). Email: clarkc@stjohns.edu