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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Transnational monasteries: The economic performance of cloistered women

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Monastery research not only throws light on little-known aspects of Christianity in Africa, but also can make an important contribution to the understanding of the processes of social change and debates on globalization in African societies. The contemplative orders develop alternative economic forms, interact with their local environment, and build transnational networks or integrate into them. They emerge as local and transnational actors, change in the course of these processes, and contribute to the social change in the societies in which they participate. This interaction is the focus of the article, which is based on the analysis of a case study, a Benedictine abbey in Koubri, near the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou.