With the support of the Practical Wisdom Society and the Hanns-Seidel Foundation, Prof. Dr. André Habisch (Professorship for Christian Social Ethics and Social Policy at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) had initiated an international call for applications for the summer school which counted 35 participants from Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America as well as a delegation from Agadir University. The summer school’s schedule included specialist lectures, student presentations, group discussions, case studies as well as field trips and visits to companies. It invited participants to rediscover the “practical wisdom” of religious, philosophical and spiritual traditions – in particular with regard to their responsibility for civilizing business practices.
“We must not only perceive cultural and normative traditions as a burden of an outdated past. On the contrary, traditional wisdom from tales, sayings and proverbs can serve as an important ‘cultural heritage’ of a society – an asset which contributes to civilizational business practices and provides an orientation in everyday life of future business elites”, explains Professor Habisch. At the beginning, the dual vocational training system in Germany as well as the function of the chambers of industry and commerce as a structural form of collaboration between the public and the private sector (“institutionalized wisdom”) formed core pillars of topics. These were met with great interest due to the alarmingly high youth unemployment rates in many African states. Participants made extensive use of their possibility to discuss directly with the president of the IHK Munich, who was invited to the event as a keynote speaker. Furthermore, they had the chance to speak to the managing director of the chamber of commerce from the Machakos region (Kenya) – a perfect opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge on the differences and similarities of both types of institutions. Many contributions also focused on the economic ethics of Islam, such as the principle of justice (“Zakat”) in business, in barter trades on the market, but also between competitors. “The content of business ethics in monotheistic religions – Christianity, Judaism and Islam – is basically identical”, explains Dr. Abdallah Cherif Quazzani, Moroccan researcher and advisor to King Mohammed V.
Another issue which was addressed at the summer school was the situation of women in the Moroccan labor market. Two female students from the host country shared their perspectives on the status quo (“modern woman” vs. “traditional woman”), followed by an employee of the Hanns-Seidel Foundation who spoke about macroeconomic figures on the precarious situation of women especially in the rural areas (e.g. illiteracy rate of approx. 38 %) which sparked a lively debate in the plenary. Subsequently, the summer school participants visited a women’s cooperative in the rural area of the country and could gather first-hand impressions of the working and living conditions in the villages in the south of Morocco, which are mainly populated by the minority indigenous Berber tribe.
Despite the packed program, there was plenty of room for personal intercultural interaction. Outside the seminar room, participants got to know each other and their respective cultures better. Moroccan students took over the role as tourist guides for their fellow participants and showed them around the famous Marrakech market. Absolvents of the summer school intend to continue their work by developing exchange programs and guest lectures and by initiating follow-up projects. Also representatives from practical fields have expressed their approval, interest and willingness to collaborate in finding new case studies and practice forms of “wise” entrepreneurship. The Hanns-Seidel Foundation in Magreb declared that it was happy to support another summer school project in the following year.
