development-as-freedom

www.un.org/millenniumgoals

www.visva-bharati.ac.in

THINK AND ACT:  Video Channel

3rd International Rice Congress (IRC 2010)

www.nalanda.nitc.ac.in.html

Amartya Kumar Sen, CH (Bengali: , Ômorto Kumar Shen; born 3 November 1933) is an eminent Indian economist and philosopher. He is currently the Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. He is also a senior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he previously served as Master from the years 1998 to 2004.He is the first Asian and the first Indian academic to head an Oxbridge college. He has been called „the Conscience and the Mother Teresa of Economics“for his work on famine, human development theory, welfare economics, the underlying mechanisms of poverty, gender inequality, and political liberalism. However, he refutes the comparison to Mother Teresa by saying that he has never tried to follow a lifestyle of dedicated self-sacrifice. In 1998, Sen won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to work on welfare economics. Amartya Sen’s books have been translated into more than thirty languages. He is a trustee of Economists for Peace and Security. In the year 2006, Time magazine listed him under „60 years of Asian Heroes“and now in 2010 as among the 100 most influential persons in the world.

Sen was born in Santiniketan, West Bengal, the university town established by the poet Rabindranath Tagore, another Indian Nobel Prize winner. His ancestral home was in Wari, Dhaka in modern-day Bangladesh. Rabindranath Tagore is said to have given Amartya Sen his name („Amartya“ meaning „immortal“). Sen hails from a distinguished family: his maternal grandfather Kshitimohan Sen, a close associate of Rabindranath Tagore, was a renowned scholar of medieval Indian literature, an authority on the philosophy of Hinduism, and also the second Vice Chancellor of Visva-Bharati University. Read More HERE

NÄlandÄ (Hindi/Sanskrit/Pali: नालंदा) is the name of an ancient center of higher learning in Bihar, India. The site of Nalanda is located in the Indian state of Bihar, about 55 miles south east of Patna, and was a Buddhist center of learning from 427 to 1197 CE. It has been called „one of the first great universities in recorded history.“ Read More: HERE

Sen starts out addressing the question of whether or not freedom is conducive to development. He feels that such a question is at best defectively formulated, for reasons given below. Sen ponders over how freedom is often dissociated from development, and considered a pleasant consequence thereof. However, Sen counters that freedom in itself should be the goal of development, and it is both constitutive and instrumental to development.

He makes the argument that freedom (political, economic or societal) is central to achieving development; while freedom may result from such development, it would be unwise to ignore the inverse relationship, and true development will only happen through the proliferation of such freedoms. Furthermore, if the definition of development is to move beyond GNP and include freedom, unfree societies aren’t really quite developed.

Sen also argues against the “Lee Hypothesis”, named after the first Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. The idea behind the “Lee Hypothesis” is that democracy and freedom are luxuries that only developed societies can afford, and to become developed, less-developed societies will need to push forth agendas that may be at odds with democracy and freedom. Furthermore, a more ardent view would be that “non-democratic systems are better in bringing about economic development” for such societies.

In the same vein, he also takes to task the interpretation that “Asian Values” are inherently unsuitable and unfit for democracy, where Asia is defined not by region but through culture. The argument goes that discipline and obedience are critical traits to the Asian cultural psyche and as such, democracy is at odds with such a principle. This particular notion has had the unfortunate reputation of being exploited by authoritarian governments across Asia.

Sen counters both the “Lee Hypothesis” and the “Asian Values” argument by offering the example of the biggest democracy in Asia — India. While India has made several economic mistakes through the years, the fact that it continues to be free democracy has helped its economy grow while preserving the freedoms of its citizens. Sen also counters that the “Asian Values” argument isn’t necessarily unique to Asia, and that even within Asia, there have been differing schools of thought, including those that question blind allegiance to the state. And of course, this book also touches upon Sen’s (now-famous) insight on famines and democracies.

He argues that famines are not necessarily caused by lack of declines in food production but rather due to instability in the political, economic, or societal structures that leaves sections of the population unable to fend for themselves.

Sen further proposes that countries that are “free” in the economic sense would have citizenry with a consistent income flow, and this income can be used to borrow or import basic necessities in times of need.

In Development as Freedom Amartya Sen explains how in a world of unprecedented increase in overall opulence millions of people living in the Third World are still unfree. Even if they are not technically slaves, they are denied elementary freedoms and remain imprisoned in one way or another byeconomic poverty, social deprivation, political tyranny or cultural authoritarianism. The main purpose of development is to spread freedom and its ‚thousand charms‘ to the unfree citizens. Freedom, Sen persuasively argues, is at once the ultimate goal of social and economic arrangements and the most efficient means of realizing general welfare.

Social institutions like markets, political parties, legislatures, the judiciary, and the media contribute to development by enhancingindividual freedom and are in turn sustained by social values. Values, institutions, development, and freedom are all closely interrelated, and Sen links them together in an elegant analytical framework. By asking ‚What is the relation between our collective economic wealth and our individualability to live as we would like?‘ and by incorporating individual freedom as a social commitment into his analysis Sen allows economics once again, as it did in the time of Adam Smith, to address the social basis of individual well-being and freedom. But at the end of the day, Sen concludes that true development cannot be measured through mere tangibles (e.g. GNP). Freedom remains the only true measure of development, and when there is freedom, development will follow.

  

„Poverty is perpetuated by our Institutions“ http://wn.com/amartya_sen_think_and_act  http://www.theendofpoverty.com

Amartya Sen, Born in West Bengal, India, he has a patrician style: occasionally loquacious, often ironic, usually genial, always brilliant. Crucially, at the other, older Cambridge, Sen studied philosophy and economics. He has always concerned himself as much with moral as material problems. In his most famous book, Poverty and Famines — inspired by the Bengal famine of 1943, which he witnessed as a boy — he asked how people could starve when food was available. The answer was that the poor simply lacked the capability to buy it. On these and other issues, the argumentative Indian has persuaded.

His notion of measuring human development is now central to the work of the U.N. and the World Bank. As a result, Sen’s influence extends all the way down to what another great economist has called „the bottom billion.“  http://www.time.com/time/specials.html

Amartya Sen, the World Bank, and the Redress of Urban Poverty: A Brazilian Case Study – While there is some suggestion of a re-orientation in the World Bank’s income-cantered conceptualization of poverty to one based on Amartya Sen’s concept of ‚development as freedom‘, it is hard to uncover definitive evidence of such a re-orientation from a study of the Bank’s urban programmes in Brazil. This paper attempts an application of Sen’s capability approach to the problem of improving the urban quality of life, and contrasts it with the World Bank’s approach, with specific reference to a typical squatter upgrading project in Novos Alagados in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. Click here

A GLOBAL EDUCATION PROGRAM – THE CASE OF NOVOS ALAGADOS, Salvador Bahia, Brazil – In development programs it is fundamental to set upmalliances finalised towards the common objective: a partnership between subjects to set synergies and large amounts of resources into motion. The role of AVSI was exactly the one of aggregating and involving local administrations, social forces, international institutions, according to their respective roles, to meet the needs confronting them, for the common good.

The program had the peculiarity to have a large wealth of resources converge on the territory, through the partnership network, thus opening up the area towards the world and the world towards the area.

India’s lost Buddhist university to rise from ashes – Indian academics have long dreamt of resurrecting Nalanda University, one of the world’s oldest seats of learning which has lain in ruins for 800 years since being razed by foreign invaders.

Now the chance of intellectual life returning to Nalanda has come one step closer after the parliament in New Delhi last month passed a bill approving plans to re-build the campus as a symbol of India’s global ambitions.

Historians believe that the university, in the eastern state of Bihar, once catered for 10,000 students and scholars from across Asia, studying subjects ranging from science and philosophy to literature and mathematics.

Founded in the third century, it gained an international reputation before being sacked by Turkic soldiers and its vast library burnt down in 1193 — when Oxford University was only just coming into existence.

Piles of red bricks and some marble carvings are all that remain at the site, 55 miles (90 kilometres) from Bihar’s state capital of Patna.

„Nalanda was one of the highest intellectual achievements in the history of the world and we are committed to revive it,“ said Amartya Sen, the renowned economist and Nobel laureate who is championing the project.

„The university had 2,000 faculty members offering a number of subjects in the Buddhist tradition, in a similar way that Oxford offered in the Christian tradition,“ he said at a promotional event in New Delhi.

The new Nalanda University has been allocated 500 acres (200 hectares) of land near its original location, but supporters who have lobbied for the cause for several years admit that major funds are needed if Nalanda is to rise from the ashes.

„Income from a number of villages, and funds from kings, supported the ancient Nalanda. Now we have to look for donations from governments, private individuals and religious groups,“ said Sen. Whatever the financial position, the need for more high-level educational institutes in India is clear. Click HERE

nalanda universitynalanda university I

 

journal of Human Capabilities

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.informaworld.com/ 

Keywords: Amartya Sen; World Bank; Poverty alleviation; Squatter settlements

The capability approach (aka capabilities approach) began life in the 1980s as an approach to welfare economics. In this approach, Amartya Sen brought together a range of ideas that were hitherto excluded from (or inadequately formulated in) traditional approaches to the economics of welfare.

Initially Sen argued for:

  • the importance of real freedoms in the assessment of a person’s advantage,
  • individual differences in the ability to transform resources into valuable activities,
  • the centrality of the distribution of welfare within society,
  • the multi-variate nature of activities that give rise to happiness,
  • against excessive materialism in the evaluation of human welfare.

Subsequently, and in collaboration particularly with political philosopher Martha Nussbaum, development economist Sudhir Anand and economic theorist James Foster, Sen has helped to make the capabilities approach predominant as a paradigm for policy debate in human development where it inspired the creation of the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI is a popular measure for capturing the multidimensionality of human development, as it also accounts for health and education. Furthermore, since the creation of the Human Development and Capability Association in the early 2000s, the approach has been much discussed by political theorists, philosophers and a range of social sciences, including those with a particular interest in human health.

The approach emphasizes functional capabilities („substantive freedoms“, such as the ability to live to old age, engage in economic transactions, or participate in political activities); these are construed in terms of the substantive freedoms people have reason to value, instead of utility (happiness, desire-fulfilment or choice) or access to resources (income, commodities, assets). Poverty is understood as capability-deprivation.

It is noteworthy that the emphasis is not only on how human beings actually function but on their having the capability, which is a practical choice, to function in important ways if they so wish. Someone could be deprived of such capabilities in many ways, e.g. by ignorance, government oppression, lack of financial resources, or false consciousness. Read more: HERE

The Bengal famine of 1943 is one among several famines that occurred in British-administered Bengal. It is estimated that around 3 million people died from starvation and malnutrition during the period. Large amounts of rice continued to be exported to the Middle East to feed British and Indian troops there and locally recruited labour corps, and to Ceylon, which had been heavily dependent on Burmese rice before the war, and where large military establishments were being created as it was feared that the Japanese might invade the island.

On 16 October 1942 the whole east coast of Bengal and Orissa was hit by a cyclone. A huge area of rice cultivation up to forty miles inland was flooded, causing the autumn crop in these areas to fail. This was exacerbated by exports of food and appropriation of arable land. Citing the Bengal Famine and other examples from the world, Amartya Sen argues that famines do not occur in functioning democracies.

 

http://worldlearningnow.wordpress.com/category/film

In fall 2007, World Learning President and CEO Carol Bellamy was interviewed for one of several trailers that were intended to run in advance of the Hollywood film, “Lions for Lambs.” The film, which hit theaters in November 2007, was directed by and starred Robert Redford (along with Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise) and dealt with the war in Afghanistan and other contemporary political themes. To underscore the film’s theme, “If you don’t stand for something, you might fall for anything,” the producers commissioned a series of short trailers featuring world leaders speaking out about global issues that stir their passions and merit our attention.

Other luminaries profiled included SIT alumna and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Jody Williams, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ralph Nader, Mohamed El Baradei, and Amartya Sen. Unfortunately, we were never told when the trailers were completed nor where they ran, but Carol’s nevertheless stands as a powerful statement of the need for world leaders to make the hard choices necessary on issues affecting the future of children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_Make_Money

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man