Skip to main content
European Commission logo print header

The Economics of Frugality Between Ancient Rome and Contemporary Western Society

Obiettivo

"The ECOFRUGAL project explores the relationship between ancient Roman values, behaviours, and laws regarding “material sobriety” and modern conceptions of such that have emerged in conjunction with the crisis now facing advanced capitalism. Using an interdisciplinary, comparative framework that draws on economic anthropology and cultural history, the project aims at a better understanding of Roman culture’s native concepts of frugality and a contextualization of “frugal” theories and practices now developing in Western political, economic, and social thought.
Beginning with a lexicographic analysis of Roman concepts of “frugality” and an assessment of the impact of normative “frugal” values on the economic and cultural history of Rome (from the archaic age to the early empire), ECOFRUGAL goes on to articulate a more precise definition of the notions of frugality that have, in recent years, been at the centre of cultural and economic debate, especially in Western Europe. Through a cultural comparison between Roman models of behaviour concerning the limitation of material needs and desires – including their historical transformation – and contemporary Western notions of frugality, the project aims, in particular, to:
First, increase significantly the field’s knowledge of the cultural codes according to which the Romans elaborated their conceptions of economy and of the historical dynamics of these conceptions;
Second, better understand the relationship between Roman forms of materials sobriety and ideas of frugality that have emerged in the economic and socio-political thought of contemporary society;
Third, re-evaluate Roman economic culture as a “resource of experience” for rethinking and thus understanding how the modern world can usefully re-appropriate ancient experience to resolve certain existing problems, and;
Finally, to contribute to the intellectual profile of the European Research Area by engaging with a topic of such immediate societal relevance."

Invito a presentare proposte

FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF
Vedi altri progetti per questo bando

Coordinatore

THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Contributo UE
€ 209 033,40
Indirizzo
TRINITY LANE THE OLD SCHOOLS
CB2 1TN Cambridge
Regno Unito

Mostra sulla mappa

Regione
East of England East Anglia Cambridgeshire CC
Tipo di attività
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Contatto amministrativo
Renata Schaeffer (Ms.)
Collegamenti
Costo totale
Nessun dato