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    Published: 2026-09-12
    Vol. 47 (2026)

    The Economy of Francesco as a Formative Environment for Responsible Economic Agency among Young People

    Jerzy Gocko Profil ORCID autora Jerzy Gocko
    Seminare
    Section: Articles
    DOI https://doi.org/10.21852/sem.1900

    Abstract

    This article interprets The Economy of Francesco (EoF) as a setting in which young people may develop responsible economic agency. Scholarship to date has described EoF as a continuing process, an expression of Catholic social thought, and a research agenda linking economics, management, spirituality, and religion. Its formative logic, however, has received less sustained attention. I ask how participation in the movement may shape young people's ability to read economic institutions critically, judge their purposes, and act with others to change them. The study combines qualitative content analysis with normative reconstruction. Its primary corpus consists of Pope Francis’s 2019 letter launching EoF, three subsequent messages and addresses to its participants, and The Economy of Francesco: Un glossario per riparare il linguaggio dell’economia. The discussion draws on theories of human agency, the capability approach, transformative learning, and communities of practice. I use responsible economic agency to mean more than the capacity to make effective economic choices. It involves recognising how institutions shape people’s options, judging those institutions against defensible social purposes, organising collective action, and remaining answerable for social, ecological, and intergenerational consequences. On this basis, I propose a six-stage analytical model: sensitisation to injustice, critical reframing of economic language, normative discernment, participation in communities of practice, designing institutional responses, and reflective evaluation of outcomes. This is a heuristic reconstruction, not an official pedagogical theory of EoF. The article closes by considering the movement’s promise and its main limitations, including participant self-selection, uneven engagement, the distance between personal formation and structural change, and the absence of longitudinal evidence.

    Keywords:

    The Economy of Francesco, responsible economic agency, collective agency, transformative learning, communities of practice, capability approach, youth formation, Catholic Social Teaching, common good

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    Gocko, J. (2026). The Economy of Francesco as a Formative Environment for Responsible Economic Agency among Young People. Seminare, 47(Online First). https://doi.org/10.21852/sem.1900

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