Prof. Kamran Mofid received his BA and MA in economics from the University of Windsor, Canada and has a doctorate in economics from the University of Birmingham, UK. He has taught economics and business studies at various universities in the United Kingdom and Canada. His writing has been published in leading scholarly journals and he is the author of a number of books. He also gives regular lectures and workshops.
Mofid is the founder of the Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative and co-editor of the Journal of Globalisation for the Common Good, a Patron of the Human Values Foundation and a member of the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) of the World Public Forum – Dialogue of Civilisations.
In his book Promoting the Common Good, Mofid spoke about why he chose to change direction in his career and refocus on the Common Good, and move away from the academic economics which he had taught for many years:
“I told [my students] to create wealth, but I did not tell them for what reason. I told them about scarcity and competition, but not about abundance and co-operation. I told them about free trade, but not about fair trade; about GNP – Gross National Product – but not about GNH – Gross National Happiness. I told them about profit maximisation and cost minimisation, about the highest returns to the shareholders, but not about social awareness, accountability to the community, sustainability and respect for creation and the creator. I did not tell them that, without humanity, economics is a house of cards built on shifting sands.
“These conflicts caused me much frustration and alienation, leading to heartache and despair. I needed to rediscover myself and real-life economics. After a proud twenty-year or so academic career, I became a student all over again. I would study theology, philosophy and ethics, disciplines nobody had taught me when I was a student of economics and I did not teach my own students when I became a teacher of economics.
“It was at this difficult time that I came to understand that I needed to bring spirituality, compassion, ethics and morality back into economics itself, to make this dismal science once again relevant to and concerned with the common good.”
Kamran develops this as he talked about ‘Values-led Education: The Path to Wisdom’ at the Responsible Leadership in Action conference in June 2015.
Kamran has published two books with Shepheard-Walwyn. To read more about them or to order a copy click on the cover images below.
