ABSTRACT
This chapter emphasizes the internal pluralism of Catholic conceptions of the economy and of enterprise. Drawing on a Weberian perspective intended to show the relationship between religious belief and economic ethics, this chapter is at pains to bring out how these plural linkages are expressed in the regions. Comparison refocuses on the Spanish Basque Country and on the Italian province of Brescia, two regions which have long constituted bastions of regional Catholicism, two highly industrialized areas presenting a high level of social capital. The chapter first analyzes the contrasting narratives of the role played by the Catholic matrix on regional development in both cases. Next, light is shed on four Catholic approaches to the economy and to entrepreneurship which are present in both regions: the liberal-conservative, communitarian, liberationist and Economy of Communion approaches. Finally, analysis shifts to the individual scale with a comparison of five entrepreneurial itineraries, those of entrepreneurs and/or Catholic activists engaged in economic activities, an observational scale which serves to relativize cleavages which may appear too schematic and also to observe how socializations are interwoven.
