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Call for Papers Theme: Challenging Inequalities Subtitle: Human Development and Social Change Type: 2017 HDCA Conference Institution: Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA) University of Cape Town University of the Free State University of the Western Cape Human Sciences Research Council Location: Cape Town (South Africa) Date: 6.–8.9.2017 Deadline: 17.3.2017 __________________________________________________ Economic inequality is bad for political equality and political freedoms which are key conditions for the expansion and securing of human capabilities and the building of decent and inclusive societies. The conference theme explores this as a dynamic challenge of human development and social change, together with the potential of the capability approach to offer a powerful normative framework to advance justice in unequal societies. The capability approach is now a widely-used framework for evaluating equality and justice in terms of human well-being, freedom, and development. It has been developed partly because traditional approaches focusing only on income or utility do not adequately capture the diverse, plural, and multidimensional nature of human lives and development experiences, nor provide the informational basis of justice in policy making and implementation. As a concept originally developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, capability works to understand and explain inequalities and injustices in the social, political, economic and historical arrangements that shape human experiences, and the valuable functionings that people have reason to choose for flourishing lives. The capabilities emphasis on plural human freedoms allows us both to examine the experiences of real lives but also to develop methodologies to aggregate and index multiple aspects of human development and capabilities across significant in/equality dimensions (for example, youth, cities, education and social cohesion), viewed and researched from multiple disciplinary perspectives. One of the main goals of the HDCA 2017 Conference will be to assemble and compare a variety of research approaches – theoretical, conceptual, philosophical, methodological, empirical – in global South and global North contexts in order to shed light on the benefits of, and challenges human development and capability expansion confronts. By selecting ‘challenging inequalities’ and also ‘social change’ as an overall theme for the HDCA 2017 Conference, we want to explore the normative and empirical power and scope of the capability approach to describe, assess, and promote change in the direction of human development and social justice in an increasingly globalized world where people’s circumstances and values are vastly different and in which inequality is rising within and across countries. The capability approach itself is evolving and open to extensions, modifications, criticisms, and revisions. We would like to invite scholars, policy-makers, practitioners, and students who are working at the frontiers of this expanding field of research. Anyone new to HDCA is of course more than welcome, as we appreciate diversity of participants in terms of research topics and methods, professions, and regions. This conference is being held at a key and historic moment for the continent and for South Africa – economically, socially and politically – offering the possibility to bring the approach to the attention of wider audiences of researchers, young scholars, practitioners, and policy makers and brokers. It will be an exciting opportunity for all of us to meet for the first time on the African continent. Conference Aims and Topics The HDCA conference aims to bring together people from all over the world and from different disciplines and fields interested in the capability approach and human development. Papers on the 2017 conference theme ‘Challenging Inequalities: Human Development and Social Change’ may explore, amongst others, the following topics: - Inequalities, capability indexes and lists of functionings - Just societies, inequalities and agency freedoms: operationalising a capabilities approach - Intergenerational inequalities and challenges for social change - Horizontal inequalities: for example, race, gender, social class, indigenous groups - Intersectionality and multidimensional inequalities - The decolonial turn – knowledge production across unequal global contexts – imagining alternatives in education and elsewhere - Educating for social change and overcoming inequalities: promoting critical reflexivity amongst staff and students; student movements for change; youth agency; the challenge of change in racialized societies; migrant and refugee participation in education - Empowerment for social change - Human security, human rights and capabilities - Health, disability and inequalities: inclusive approaches to redress - Inequalities, the labour market and the workplace: measuring changes in capabilities - Economic policies: imagining alternatives as catalysts for social change and well-being - Sustainable development – imagining and living alternatives; building interdisciplinary capabilities - Philosophical and ethical foundations and implications of the capability approach related to a variety of methods (e.g. participatory, quantitative, qualitative, mixed) - Methodological issues in operationalizing the capability approach - Capability measurement and empirical analysis - Policy analysis and evaluation by reference to capabilities and agency In addition to papers on the conference theme, papers on all core HDCA themes (as well as Thematic Group interests not mentioned above) are welcome, including but not limited to: - Philosophical and ethical foundations and implications of the capability approach - Methodological issues in operationalizing the capability approach - Capability measurement and empirical analysis - Human rights and development - Policy analysis and evaluation by reference to capabilities and agency Submissions Please submit your proposed poster, paper, or panel, via the submission site using the appropriate form: https://www.conftool.pro/hdca2017/ If you encounter problems with the online submissions system, please email the conference organizers at: hdca.confere...@uct.ac.za In order to ensure academic quality, all submissions will be reviewed by two reviewers, at least one of whom is an HDCA Fellow or a senior researcher in the field. Important Dates March 17, 2017 – Deadline to submit proposals (Those concerned with obtaining visas to travel to South Africa should submit as soon as possible.) April 15, 2017 – Announcement of acceptance/rejection June 15, 2017 – Deadline for conference registration at early-bird rates July 15, 2017 – Submission of full papers/posters August 15, 2017 – Final deadline for conference registration at standard rates Keynote Speakers Martha Nussbaum (University of Chicago) Ifeanyi Menkiti (Wellesley College) Martha Nussbaum lecture Thandika Mkandawire (London School of Economics) Amartya Sen lecture (tbc) Tereza Campello, (former Minister of Social Development and Hunger Eradication, Brazil), Mahbub ul Haq lecture Conference website: https://hd-ca.org/conferences/ __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/interphil@list.polylog.org/ __________________________________________________
