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Conference Announcement

Theme: Justice and Development
Type: International Workshop
Institution: Centre of Advanced Studies "Justitia Amplificata",
Goethe University Frankfurt
Location: Frankfurt/Main (Germany)
Date: 13.–14.12.2012

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Workshop description

The ‘Beyond-GDP’ discourse as to how to understand and measure social
progress is no longer confined to social-scientific development
researchers or other academics. Policy makers and civil society at
national, inter- and transnational levels are engaged in discussing
and devising concepts and indicators that would facilitate assessing
social progress domestically and globally. Examples include the
‘Sarkozy-Commission’ on the Measurement of Economic Performance and
Social Progress, the study commission on Growth, Wellbeing and
Quality of Life of the German parliament and the European Framework
for Measuring Progress of the EU.

In addition, the expiring of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015
currently provokes members of development institutions to reflect
upon and search for a post-2015 normative framework for orienting
international development policy. Several non-governmental
organizations are deliberating about how to re-think development, for
instance, the Beyond2015 campaign. And in the aftermath of the
‘Rio+20’ UN Conference on Sustainable Development the UN already
actively promotes ‘Sustainable Development Goals’.

What is striking about these processes of opinion and will formation
is how little attention they pay to theories of (global) justice.
This is perplexing not only because theorizing justice has played
such an important role in political philosophy and theory throughout
the last decades but also because according to a very influential
understanding justice is the ‘first virtue of social institutions’.
Accordingly, one should expect that the various processes of opinion
and will formation would be far more sensitive to the question as to
what social progress and sound development policy would mean from the
point of view of (global) justice.

This neglect is even more curious in light of the fact that the
concepts of justice and development are often employed in very
similar ways. Conceptions of both of these concepts usually outline a
social ideal or provide a normative source of critique of existing
social relations. Theories of justice ask both what an ideally just
society would involve and what would effectively contribute to less
injustice today. Likewise, theories of development in the social
sciences also consider what would be the ultimate goal of social
change and criticize actual social conditions for reflecting an
underdeveloped state of affairs. Despite of these similarities of the
aims and critical functions of the usage of the two concepts, few
attempts have been made so far to clarify the conceptual relation and
tensions between them.

The workshop aims at filling this gap by bringing together political
philosophers and theorists as well as scholars working in development
economics and social-scientific development research so as to
exchange their understandings of both justice and development. The
workshop thereby provides a dialogue platform that could enable
enriching both theories of justice and of development. Eventually it
will also make more intelligible as to why the conceptions of
(global) justice have failed to attract more attention in the ongoing
debates about social progress and development policy.


Programme

Thursday, 13th of December 2012

2-4 pm
Panel 1: Justice and Development – The Contributions of Economics

Ingrid Robeyns (Erasmus University Rotterdam): "Justice, Development
and the Assessment of Economic Policies, Institutions and Systems"

Sanjay Reddy (The New School, NY): TBA

4-4:30 pm
Coffee Break

4:30-6:30 pm
Panel 2: Theories of Development – Post-Development and Justice-Based
Perspectives

Aram Ziai, Center for Development Research at the University of Bonn:
"Some Reflections on the Concept of Development"

Julian Culp (Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M.), "Justice-Based
Development – A Discourse-Theoretic Approach"

7:15 pm
Public Lecture

Martha Nussbaum (University of Chicago): "Development and Human
Capabilities: The Contribution of a Philosophical Theory of Justice"
Introduction: Rainer Forst (Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M.)

Friday, 14th of December 2012

10-12 am
Panel 3: Equality, Development and Democratic Justice

David Crocker (University of Maryland): "Agency and Democracy:
Re-orienting Theories of Development and Justice"

Neera Chandhoke (University of Delhi): "Equality for What?"

1:30-3:30 pm
Panel 4: Development - Historical Foundations and Current Problems

Philip Lepenies (Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies,
Potsdam): "Us and Them: Reflections on the Historical Foundations of
Development"

Joseph Agbakoba (University of Nigeria at Nsukka): "The Problem of
Choice and Responsibility in Modern Africa's Development"

3:30-4:00 pm
Coffee Break

4:00-6:00 pm
Roundtable with Practitioners from Development Organizations

Stefan Gosepath, Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy, Freie
Universität Berlin

Angela Hariche, Head of Unit, Gobal Well-Being Networks, OECD –
Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, Paris

Michael Krempin, Senior Policy Advisor, Corporate Development Unit,
GIZ – German Society for International Cooperation, Frankfurt/M.

Jean Saldanha, Policy and Advocacy Officer, CIDSE – International
Alliance of Catholic Development Agencies, Brussels


Registration and Venues

Attendance of the workshop is free. Registration is required for
organization and catering purposes by November 28. Places are
limited, and will be assigned on a first come, first serve basis.
There is no registration needed for the public lecture. In order to
register, please contact Ms Valérie Bignon:
[email protected] Venues

The panels and the roundtable will take place in the
"Eisenhower-room" of the main building, i.e. the "IG Hochhaus", on
Campus Westend. The room number of this venue is 1.314.

The public lecture will take place in lecture hall 6 of the lecture
hall building, i.e. the "Hoersaalzentrum", on Campus Westend.

A map of Campus Westend, which indicates the buildings of the venues
of the panels, the roundtable and the public lecture, is available
here: http://www.gsefm.eu/_data/pdf/DirectionsCampusWestend.pdf


Organizer:
Julian Culp (Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M.)

Workshop website:
http://www.justitia-amplificata.de/en/events/workshop-on-justice-and-development.html


Contact:

Ms Valérie Bignon M.A.
Goethe-Universität
Campus Bockenheim
Varrentrappstraße 40-42
60486 Frankfurt/Main
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)69 798-253 55
Fax:   +49 (0)69 798-763 25 355
Email: [email protected]
Web:
http://www.justitia-amplificata.de/en/events/workshop-on-justice-and-development.html




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