Values human beings give to goods and services, and the economy of communion

The purpose of this paper is to propose a typology of the values that human beings give to goods and services and use this typology to represent the project of the Economy of Communion as an organized effort to make firms operating in a market economy to go beyond the types of values promoted in this kind of economy. The other values which the market economy has more difficulty to promote are what is called in the paper the “symbolic exchange values” (values involved in the acts of giving and in interpersonal relationships), “identitary values” (values given to goods and services which are part of the identity of someone) and “sacred values” (values given to goods and services which are part of a relationship with some divinity). It is because the market economy doesn’t tend to promote these types of values that an organized effort has to be made so that they can flourish in contexts where markets prevail. The Economy of Communion is represented here as an organized effort of this kind.