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Dean's Smart Lab, 4th Floor, SBASSE
Reading Circle II - Fall 2026 | Values in Systems Thinking
Demand and human consumption patterns are usually understood as responses to price and income, yet much resource behaviour is driven by obligation, custom, and belief. What moves people when the price signal does not?
Water and electricity demand in Pakistan shifts predictably during Ramadan without any change in tariff. Religious endowments financed and maintained water infrastructure for centuries under rules that had nothing to do with cost recovery. Customary allocation systems govern irrigation in the absence of formal law. This session treats these as drivers to be examined comparatively alongside price, rather than as the cultural background to the real analysis.
Suggested readings:
- Kuran, T. (2001). The provision of public goods under Islamic law: Origins, impact, and limitations of the waqf system. Law & Society Review, 35(4), 841–898.
- Wescoat, J. L., Jr. (1995). The "right of thirst" for animals in Islamic law: A comparative approach. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 13(6), 637–654.
- Brand-Correa, L. I., & Steinberger, J. K. (2017). A framework for decoupling human need satisfaction from energy use. Ecological Economics, 141, 43–52.
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