The Protestant ethic which, according to Weber, contributed to economic development in the West is only one of a variety of work ethics that can be identified and studied. In the Bahamas, for instance, a definite Junkanoo ethic colors economic life. Junkanoo is a semiannual carnival-like...

1. Can Markets Be Moral? -- 2. Markets as Monsters -- 3. Markets as Unintentionally Moral Wealth Creators -- 4. People Can Improve Their Lives Through Markets -- 5. Markets Are Moral Spaces -- 6. Markets Are Moral Training Grounds -- 7. What If Markets Are Really Moral?

Since at least Max Weber, social scientists have looked closely at the nexus between markets and cities. Weber believed that cities and markets were inextricably linked. In his seminal work Economy & Society, for instance, Weber ([1921] 1978, p. 1213) describes the city as a market settlement....

Market supporters have consistently emphasized that markets make it so that self-interested or even greedy individuals can only help themselves by serving their fellow men and women. This channeling of self-interest away from predation and toward profit seeking explains why market economies tend...