Health Equity: 02/25/11

Friday, February 25, 2011

[EQ] The Two Poverty Enlightenments: Historical Insights from Digitized Books

The Two Poverty Enlightenments:
Historical Insights from Digitized Books Spanning Three Centuries

Martin Ravallion, Development Research Group, World Bank
Washington DC, USA – Policy Research Working Paper 5549- 2011

Available online PDF [52p.] at: http://bit.ly/i8VrJ1

“…Word searches of Google's library of digitized books suggest that two Poverty Enlightenments have occurred since 1700, one near the end of the 18th century and the other 200 years later.

The historical literature suggests that only the second enlightenment came with a widespread belief that poverty could, and should, be eliminated. After the first Poverty Enlightenment, references to "poverty" as a percentage of all words declined until 1960, after which a striking resurgence of interest occurred.

That came with rising attention to economics and more frequent references to poverty policies. Developing countries also became more prominent in the literature. Both enlightenments came with greater attention to human rights.

The written record reflects the push back against government intervention, as well as the retreat from leftist economics and politics since the late 1970s. Although many debates from 200 years ago continue today, there is little evidence that the modern revival of the classical 19th century views on the limitations of government has come with a repeat of the complacency about poverty that was common back then. ….”

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[EQ] HDCA conference: Innovation, Development & Human Capabilities - The Hague The Netherlands - September 6-8, 2011

HDCA conference:
Innovation, Development & Human Capabilities

The Hague, The Netherlands - Main conference: September 6-8th, 2011

Website: http://bit.ly/gz5Y4j

Call for papers - Submission of proposals - dateline: March 15^th 2011

Bringing about human development for all is a challenge. It is not sufficient to investigate how human capabilities are expanded or diminished by our current policies, institutional arrangements, incentive structures, social practices, infrastructures and technologies. Grounded in our understanding of these realities, we also need to be creative and innovative in order to bring about change.

The 2011 conference theme Innovation, Development and Human Capabilities is an invitation to discuss and reflect on this. Whether it concerns social or technological innovation, grassroots innovation or innovation policy – to make innovation truly work for human development, input from different angles is needed. We thus expect speakers and papers from a wide variety of disciplines.

Evening of Monday, September 5^th, 2011, the 1st Annual Amartya Sen Lecture will be held.
This new lecture series celebrates Amartya Sen‘s important contributions to the fields of human development and capability. It will focus on themes from Sen’s wide ranging contributions to these areas, ranging from his work on capability and freedom to his related works in areas such as democracy, development, gender, liberty, welfare, poverty, famines and social choice.

The 2011 Amartya Sen Lecture will be held by Prof. Tony Atkinson currently professor of economics at the University of Oxford. During his career he has made many contributions in the areas of economics of income distribution, microeconomics, public economics, and poverty and security. There is an inequality measure named after him: the Atkinson index.

Haq Memorial Lecture -Opening lecture of the conference (September 6^th 2011)
The biennial Mahbub-ul-Haq Memorial Lecture is given by a leading academic or practitioner who has made important contributions to the field of Human Development, broadly understood. The lecture commemorates the contribution of Mahbub-ul-Haq to this field.

The 2011 Haq Memorial Lecture will be given by Fazle Hasan Abed. He is founder and chairperson of BRAC, currently the world’s largest non-governmental development organization. For his outstanding contributions to social improvement, Abed has received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the UNDP Mahbub Ul Haq Award and the inaugural Clinton Global Citizen Award. Innovation is one of the four key values of BRAC.

Conference program, The exact program for the conference will be published a couple of weeks before the conference takes place.

Pre-confer. Events A number of related events will take place before HDCA conference. Participants of the HDCA conference may be interested in registering for one of those events as well. These are:

· Summer school on Capability and Multidimensional Poverty
Mon. Aug. 22^th - Fri. Sept. 2^th. Location: Delft University of Technology.
Organized by OPHI (Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative)..

· Introduction course on the Capability Approach
Mon. Aug. 29^th - Fri. Sept. 2^nd. Location: t.b.a.
Organized by Ingrid Robeyns, Erasmus University Rotterdam.

· Seminar “The Offensive Internet - Speech, Privacy and Reputation”
Sat. Sept. 3, afternoon. Location: Delft
Seminar with Martha Nussbaum on her new edited volume The Offensive Internet - Speech, Privacy and Reputation
(co-editor: Saul Levmore). Organized by Jeroen van den Hoven and Job Timmermans, TU Delft

· HDCA pre-conference public lecture by Martha Nussbaum
Mon. Sept. 5^th, morning. Location: the ISS, The Hague
Martha Nussbaum will speak about her new book ”Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach”.
Organized by Lalaine Siruno, 3TU.Ethics, in collaboration with the ISS. Participation is for free..

· Workshop ‘Teaching Human Development’
Mon. Sept. 5^th, 9 am - 5 pm. Location: TU Delft
Organized by Severine Deneulin, University of Bath.

Conference aims & topics - http://bit.ly/e9Rzr6

Papers on the 2011 conference theme ‘innovation, development & human capabilities’ may explore, amongst others, the following topics:

· Institutional, social & technological innovation for human development

· Innovation & inclusion, social justice, etc.

· Grassroots innovation

· Designing for the expansion of human capabilities

· Human development and participatory technology assessment

· Innovation & sustainability

In addition to papers on the 2011 conference theme, the HDCA invites you to submit proposals on all core HDCA topics, including but not limited to:

· philosophical and ethical foundations;

· ethics and development

· issues in operationalizing the capability approach;

· capability measurement and empirical analysis;

· human rights;

· sustainability;

· participation and public deliberation;

· civil society;

· health and disability;

· education;

· economics and human development;

· formal and informal institutions & practices

· poverty and inequality;

· gender;

· values, religion, culture and freedom;

· inclusion & exclusion/discrimination;

· justice