Workshop on Wellbeing in Low Income Communities

[Minna Halme]

Dear All,

a continuum of the Sustainable Innovations at the BOP conference at Helsinki School of Economics will take place on Dec. 15 in Helsinki. This workshop on wellbeing in low income communities will feature professor Martha Nussbaum as the keynote speaker. You are most welcome to join the event. The program is below.

Workshop on Wellbeing in Low Income Communities, December 15, 2008

Helsinki School of Economics, Main Building, C-350 (3rd floor left part of the building) Runeberginkatu 14-16


Program:

10.00-12.00 Prof. Martha Nussbaum (University of Chicago): Capabilities and Disadvantage

12.00-13.30 Lunch break

13.30-14.15 Prof. Prabhu Kandachar (Delft University of Technology): Dilemmas During Design Interventions

14.15-15.00 Prof. Jeroen van den Hoven and PhD student Ilse Oosterlaken (Delft University of Technology): Technology and Human Capabilities.

15.00-15.30 Coffee break

15.30-16.15 PhD Sirpa Tenhunen (University of Helsinki): Mobile Technology and Development

16.15-17.00 PhD student Anni Heikkilä, Research fellow at the Academy of Finland, Adjunct prof.,Panu Kalmi and PhD Olli-Pekka Ruuskanen (Helsinki School of Economics): Social Capital and Financial Access: Evidence from Uganda

Closing of the Workshop.

19.00 Dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Organized by the Globalization and Competitiveness Research Programme at HSE together with the Corporate Environmental and Social Responsibility Research Group

If you have questions, please contact [e-mail]

Hoping to see many of you there!

Minna

[Jenara Nerenberg]

This sounds great! It's an interesting topic to discuss, as "wellbeing" is so personal in nature. We usually talk about structural and economic aspects of the BoP, but not so much the personal and psychological aspects of living on less than $1-$3 per day. I look forward to seeing your coverage of the conference, as I live in Nepal and probably won't be able to make it to Helsinki. Best of luck!

[Minna Halme]

Thanks for a good comment, Jenara! We should think about ways with which to share best the thoughts and ideas from the workshop with those that cannot participate. We will of course put the presentations in the website, but they never capture nearly all.

[Kara Pecknold]

I am looking at these ideas in my graduate thesis and would also love to see the outcomes as I wasn't able to be in Finland either. Where can one find out more?

[Ilona de Jongh]

Attached are the documents from the workshop, for more info, see http://www.hse.fi/EN/research/programs/globalization/events/bop/


The Central Human Capabilities
Martha Nussbaum

1. Life. Being able to live to the end of a human life of normal length; not dying prematurely, or before one's life is so reduced as to be not worth living.

2. Bodily Health. Being able to have good health, including reproductive health; to be adequately nourished; to have adequate shelter.

3. Bodily Integrity. Being able to move freely from place to place; to be secure against violent assault, including sexual assault and domestic violence; having opportunities for sexual satisfaction and for choice in matters of reproduction.

4. Senses, Imagination, and Thought. Being able to use the senses, to imagine, think, and reason -- and to do these things in a "truly human" way, a way informed and cultivated by an adequate education, including, but by no means limited to, literacy and basic mathematical and scientific training. Being able to use imagination and thought in connection with experiencing and producing works and events of one's own choice, religious, literary, musical, and so forth. Being able to use one's mind in ways protected by guarantees of freedom of expression with respect to both political and artistic speech, and freedom of religious exercise. Being able to have pleasurable experiences and to avoid non-beneficial pain.

5. Emotions. Being able to have attachments to things and people outside ourselves; to love those who love and care for us, to grieve at their absence; in general, to love, to grieve, to experience longing, gratitude, and justified anger. Not having one's emotional development blighted by fear and anxiety. (Supporting this capability means supporting forms of human association that can be shown to be crucial in their development.)

6. Practical Reason. Being able to form a conception of the good and to engage in critical reflection about the planning of one's life. (This entails protection for the liberty of conscience and religious observance.)

7. Affiliation. A. Being able to live with and toward others, to recognize and show concern for other human beings, to engage in various forms of social interaction; to be able to imagine the situation of another. (Protecting this capability means protecting institutions that constitute and nourish such forms of affiliation, and also protecting the freedom of assembly and political speech.)
B. Having the social bases of self-respect and non-humiliation; being able to be treated as a dignified being whose worth is equal to that of others. This entails provisions of non-discrimination on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, caste, religion, national origin.

8. Other Species. Being able to live with concern for and in relation to animals, plants, and the world of nature.

9. Play. Being able to laugh, to play, to enjoy recreational activities.

10. Control over one's Environment.
A. Political. Being able to participate effectively in political choices that govern one's life; having the right of political participation, protections of free speech and association.
B. Material. Being able to hold property (both land and movable goods), and having property rights on an equal basis with others; having the right to seek employment on an equal basis with others; having the freedom from unwarranted search and seizure. In work, being able to work as a human being, exercising practical reason and entering into meaningful relationships of mutual recognition with other workers.