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Development as Freedom (عالم المعرفة #303)

4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 · rating details · 1,856 ratings · 118 reviews

By the winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Economics,an essential andparadigm-altering framework for understanding economic development--for both rich and poor--in the twenty-first century.

Freedom, Sen argues, is both the end and most efficient means of sustaining economic life and the key to securing the general welfare of the world's entire population. Releasing the idea...more

Paperback, Reprint edition, 384 pages

Published August 15th 2000 by Anchor (first published 1999)

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Feb 04, 2013 John rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Hippies

Shelves: reviewed

Sen recommends using reason to promote a better and more acceptable society. To successfully use reason in this way requires a suitable evaluative framework in which to assess the merits of social and economic policies, institutions that are capable of promoting specified goals and commitments, and the emergence of new behavioral norms.

Malthusian analysis of fertility behavior predicts “an increase in the number of men surpassing the means of their subsistence.” The analysis rests on skepticism...more Sen recommends using reason to promote a better and more acceptable society. To successfully use reason in this way requires a suitable evaluative framework in which to assess the merits of social and economic policies, institutions that are capable of promoting specified goals and commitments, and the emergence of new behavioral norms.

Malthusian analysis of fertility behavior predicts “an increase in the number of men surpassing the means of their subsistence.” The analysis rests on skepticism about the possibility that, “anything besides the difficulty of procuring an adequate plenty of the necessities of life” will succeed in keeping population growth in check. Sen finds this analysis lacking in several respects. The most notable deficiently of Malthusian pessimism is that it is not supported by the evidence. The evidence shows, on the contrary, that fertility rates come down sharply with social and economic development. The strongest statistical correlations with fertility rates are (1) female literacy, and (2) female labor force participation. Sen notes that these factors increase the decisional autonomy of women within families, and he reasons further that improving the economic and social agency of women permits deliberation which tends to subject their “normal” entitlements to critical scrutiny. Sen reasons that this scrutiny leads to modifications of acceptable communal norms, and gives the interests of women greater weight in the aggregated objectives of families. These freedoms provide women with an opportunity to be more economically secure and more socially independent—they put women in a position to negotiate their entitlements and to secure a more equitable deal. The influence of factors other than “the difficulty of procuring an adequate plenty of the necessities of life” in reducing fertility rates establishes the falsity of Malthusian analysis of fertility behavior.

Sen comes down favor of social policy that empowers people, and social aid that address individuals as free agents of change rather than as passive recipients of benefits. Freedom is a social commitment, and it can be enhanced by altering social arrangements—for example, respecting the rights of individuals to participate in both the political and economic life the community, increasing access to basic education and medical care, etc. New social norms can be established through the use of communicative reason in deliberation and discussion of social choice. Sen persuasively advocates that development be construed as the process of enhancing and expanding substantive freedoms for individuals, and he is optimistic about the role reason can play in improving the social opportunity of individuals to live the lives that they have reason to value.

Full of clear, powerful and well made arguments. Highly recommended.
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May 15, 2010 E rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, field-exams

Here's the thing about Amartya Sen: everything he writes oozes humility and compassion, and his optimism is both refreshing and contagious. His arguments are consistently predicated upon a genuine respect for humanity and a desire to eliminate the poverty that plagues most of the world. For this reason, it's hard not to like him. But - of course there's a but - when it comes down to the actual content and evidence of some of his works there are some gaping holes that fundamentally undermine the...more Here's the thing about Amartya Sen: everything he writes oozes humility and compassion, and his optimism is both refreshing and contagious. His arguments are consistently predicated upon a genuine respect for humanity and a desire to eliminate the poverty that plagues most of the world. For this reason, it's hard not to like him. But - of course there's a but - when it comes down to the actual content and evidence of some of his works there are some gaping holes that fundamentally undermine the persuasiveness of his arguments. While he's not as dogmatic as some of his neoliberal peers, Sen doesn't really move very far beyond the default paradigm that takes the expansion of free markets to be the basic solution to underdevelopment. If you don't agree with that basic assumption (I don't), the rest of this book will be unsatisfying.

Let's start with the good. Perhaps Sen's strongest contribution is that instead of taking low income as the primary indicator of underdevelopment (and by extension economic growth as development), he identifies the expansion of freedom as both the means and end of development. Efforts to overcome poverty should be based upon the removal of “unfreedoms” that prevent people from making full use of their capabilities, and by increasing the opportunities individuals have to take responsibility for and act as authors of their own lives. So far so good; this is a welcome departure from the prevalent focus on material deprivation and the overemphasis on structures. Certainly, personal choice and responsibility should be key to development strategies that respect the dignity of the human condition beyond individuals’ productive capacities.

The problem is that this emphasis on freedom is tethered to an understanding of free-market capitalism – as an ethic and as a system of exchange – that draws heavily from classical economics, and which is presented by Sen as the only intellectually defensible position (see his uncharacteristically acerbic dismissal of other approaches that “[dust:] up generically anti-market positions from the distant past”). Essentially, the freedom to participate in capitalist markets is also seen as a substantive freedom, a virtue in and of itself and the ultimate goal of development. This strategy prevents Sen from affording anything close to enough theoretical or empirical consideration to the structural impediments that delimit the boundaries of agent-oriented transformation; he completely neglects to take into account the extent to which capitalism produces and reinforces asymmetrical relations of power not only supra- and internationally but within states themselves.

The result is that while he writes of the importance of norms and institutions, and while he recognizes some forms of structural oppression such as patriarchy, Sen doesn't extend his analysis to incorporate the crucial fact of class domination. Instead, the entire argument is premised upon an understanding of capitalism that is both dated and revisionist: dated in the sense that he relies on 18th century theories of classical economics without updating or contextualizing the arguments for the 21st century, and revisionist insofar as he completely ignores the experiences of those who did not benefit from the emergence of this economic system (ie. peasantries that were brutally destroyed). He's all but forced to acknowledge this when in the very same paragraph he notes that “despite its effectiveness, capitalist ethics is, in fact, deeply limited in some respects, dealing particularly with issues of economic inequality, environmental protection and the need for cooperation of different kids that operate outside the market.” At the risk of stating the obvious, these are rather significant issues that are being bracketed, and leaves me to wonder just what capitalism is so good for if it can't address them in any meaningful way. For someone so concerned with justice and inequality, it's certainly odd that the victors of liberal capitalism inform Sen’s normative approach to development, not those it annihilated

The fact that Sen ignores the power imbalances produced by capitalism is especially important given the interconnectedness of the freedoms he identifies, for just one point of deviance in this virtuous circle of development is enough to upset the desired equilibrium. For example, Sen argues that because of universal reason and rationality “there is no reason why vested interests must win if open arguments and permitted and promoted.” What he doesn't address is that capitalism structures these institutions, ie how highly concentrated media ownership limits the free flow of information that he deems crucial for transparent democratic decision-making (c.f. contemporary Venezuela). The point is not that such structures of power and entrenched interests are impossible to change, but that Sen doesn't even begin to address how such a transformation would be possible given the conditions of capitalism as it's currently entrenched in the world system.

This failure to account for the limits of agency also points to a larger and, in my opinion, more devastating flaw in Sen’s argument: his understanding of capitalism as a self-regulating, ahistorical system based on a universal ethic of market exchange. Although he notes that “today’s prejudices (in favour of a pure market system) certainly need to be investigated and […:] partly rejected,” he doesn't actually interrogate these prejudices or convincingly justify his selection of which aspects of capitalist orthodoxy are to be rejected and which are to be retained. For Sen, “within its domain, capitalism works effectively through a system of ethics that provides the vision and the trust needed for successful use of the market mechanism and related institutions.” As Polanyi argues (much more convincingly, in my opinion), this ideal vision of capitalism bears little relation to the flaws and contradictions of capitalism as it functions in reality; the insecurity and violence brought by capitalism engenders resistance among its victims and create protective countermeasures that further interfere with the autonomy of markets. This is ignored by Sen, who writes of the need to anticipate unintended consequences but can't explain how to do this or why it's happened so rarely.

To be fair (I do like the man!), Sen tries to distance himself from his more rabid neoliberal brethren when he admits that some regulation is necessary to keep the economy stable and to provide important means-tested public goods such as health care and education. But in his steadfast advocacy of capitalism as the key to freedom and insistence that anything more than minimal state involvement in the economy will be detrimental to development, Sen forecloses not just the possibility that other strategies could exist, but that alternatives do exist. This was most striking to me when he makes the important point that women’s work within the home is largely undervalued and ill-recognized, because rather than directly challenging patriarchal attitudes or considering the sort of decommodification that has met with great success in social democratic regimes, Sen argues that the solution is for women to enter the market in order to become more independent and socially recognized. Obviously nobody should be prevented from entering the market economy if they so choose, and some may very well benefit, but it doesn't follow that the best way to empower women is to incorporate them into the mutually supportive systems of capitalism and patriarchy. The market conditions of sex trafficking and the exploitation of migrant domestic workers would certainly suggest otherwise.

I guess Development as Freedom is good for what it is - a liberal call for "kinder" development strategies than those traditionally pursued by IFIs like the World Bank. This is an attractive normative position, but it's not sufficiently convincing when confronted with the realities of structural inequality, highly entrenched vested interests, and the counterprotective movements that emerge in response to contemporary global capitalism. If I can get just as utopian as Sen is for a moment, I think that instead of advocating for freedom within capitalism, he'd be better served by focusing on development as liberation from capitalism, which clearly hasn't been successfully rehabilitated to serve or empower the poor for centuries despite the best efforts of many other well-meaning liberals. Otherwise, schmucks like Bono will just continue to run their mouths and get richer while doing so.(less)

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Apr 28, 2007 Monica rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

The first thing you realize from reading Amartya Sen is what a fundamentally nice human being he must be. I'm serious. Waves of decency and kindness just eminate from the page. And what's more, he seems to believe that for the most part, other people are just as nice as he is. It's such a relief to read someone who's brilliant but not cynical.
The other thing i really liked about this book was that it provides the ideal meeting place for my University of Chicago-steeped intellect and my bleeding...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Bryan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I misunderstood the title, believing Sen's thesis was that economic development leads to greater freedom--"hey, now that we're so rich, look at all the things we can do"--which would have been a very short and shallow book. Instead, I think the idea of the title is that increasing individuals' freedoms will lead to economic development. Not freedom like how a libertarian would define it (which we all know is simply freedom from government regulation and taxes--sorry libertarians, but that about...more I misunderstood the title, believing Sen's thesis was that economic development leads to greater freedom--"hey, now that we're so rich, look at all the things we can do"--which would have been a very short and shallow book. Instead, I think the idea of the title is that increasing individuals' freedoms will lead to economic development. Not freedom like how a libertarian would define it (which we all know is simply freedom from government regulation and taxes--sorry libertarians, but that about sums it all up quite nicely). Sen's freedom is the power to vote, the promise of healthcare and social safety nets, the opportunity to get job training, to get funding for a good education, and for women specifically to be able to make choices about how many children they wish to have and to be able to rise and succeed in the male-dominated workforce.

The freedom Sen defines is geared towards actions which, if individuals take, lead to positive outcomes for both themselves and for society and the economy as a whole.

With pleasure, I think it's safe for me to put Sen firmly in the Progressive's camp.

I wouldn't recommend this book to someone not highly interested in the subject, or who doesn't have a decent college-level background in social history and economic thought. Sen frequently relies heavily on historical economic and social figures as a medium for communication, and also as a way to strengthen his own arguments.

In other words, he writes in a heavy-handed way, using all sorts of Latin, along with English words buried so deep that my poor Kindle dictionary felt ill-equipped...if a Kindle can feel anything at all. And I'm pretty sure Sen made up some words along the way. Instead of attempting to edit down a particular idea into the simplest sentence possible, Sen simple lets his elevated mind use whatever refined tools are at his disposal to spit out the most complex sets of thought all into one long Latin paragraph. In any case, this was not written for the people he is trying to save.

The book took me a very long time to read. I frequently had to take days off to relax the brain by watching a few hour's worth of 24 with my hero Jack Bauer. Many parts of Sen's book went over my head and will remain there forevermore.

I found myself agreeing with the author every step of the way, and I'm sure to think on this book for many years to come.(less)

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Jan 03, 2013 Will rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"The powerful effect of female literacy contrasts with the comparatively ineffective roles of, say, male literacy or general poverty reduction as instruments of child mortality reduction. The increase in male literacy over the same range (from 22 to 75 percent) only reduces under-five mortality from 169 per thousand to 141 per thousand. And a 50 percent reduction in the incidence of poverty (from the actual 1981 level) only reduces the predicted value of under-five mortality from 156 per thousan...more

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Apr 13, 2013 أغيد rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

الكتاب يعطي فكرة موسعة عن مفهوم التنمية التي تفسر في العصر الراهن بأنها التنمية الاقتصادية بالمرتبة الأولى والتي تطوي في تفسيرها عن زيادة دخل الفرد والذي يقود بوجه ما لزيادة الدخل القومي.
وتؤكد الكاتبة على مفهوم الحرية كعنصر أساسي ـ وليس غاية ـ تقوم عليها التنمية، الحرية بأشكال مختلفة تشمل الحرية السياسية والاجتماعية والاقتصادية!
نعم ، اقتصادية تطرح أهمية أن يكون للإنسان حرية في اختيار شكل وطبيعة العمل الذي يداوله.
الحرية السياسية! والتي تؤكد الكاتبة ان الكثير من الدول ـ مثل بعض دول آسيا ـ كسنغفورة...more الكتاب يعطي فكرة موسعة عن مفهوم التنمية التي تفسر في العصر الراهن بأنها التنمية الاقتصادية بالمرتبة الأولى والتي تطوي في تفسيرها عن زيادة دخل الفرد والذي يقود بوجه ما لزيادة الدخل القومي.
وتؤكد الكاتبة على مفهوم الحرية كعنصر أساسي ـ وليس غاية ـ تقوم عليها التنمية، الحرية بأشكال مختلفة تشمل الحرية السياسية والاجتماعية والاقتصادية!
نعم ، اقتصادية تطرح أهمية أن يكون للإنسان حرية في اختيار شكل وطبيعة العمل الذي يداوله.
الحرية السياسية! والتي تؤكد الكاتبة ان الكثير من الدول ـ مثل بعض دول آسيا ـ كسنغفورة، والتي تطرح مفهوم أن الحرية السياسية ليست بأهمية الحرية الاقتصادية، بينما تؤكد الكاتبة أن الحرية السياسية تساهم بشكل كبير في زيادة التطوير الاقتصادي، وتساهم حتى في درء المجاعات، بسبب توافر الصحافة الحرة والاعﻻم الحر الذي يراقب عمل الحكومات.
والحرية الاجتماعية كذلك التي تساهم في زيادة النقاش والتداول بين مكونات المجتمع لقبول ورفض الكثير من الاجراءات الاجتماعية ـ كنشر التعليم أو تحديد النسل أو غيرها ـ .
الكتاب المترجم صعب نوعاً ما، لربما بسبب خلل كان في بداية الكتاب واضح بشكل كبير، ثم قلّ فيما تﻻه.
وكذلك الكتاب صعب وليس سهﻻً لأنه يتحدث عن أمور لم نتطرق لها في لغتنا وثقافتنا المعرفية العربية.
جيد نوعاً ما الكتاب، لمن يحب الاطﻻع على نمط هذا الرأي.(less)

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Jun 03, 2010 Lucy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, non-fiction, sustainability

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 21, 2012 Amado rated it 5 of 5 stars

يقيم أمارتيا سن في هذا الكتاب الحجة الدامغة أن الديمقراطية و الحقوق السياسية هي الضامن الوحيد للحقوق الإقتصادية .
و أنه لا يمكن الحديث عن أي تنمية أو تقدم إقتصادي ، أو حالة من الأمن و الإستقرار في ظل غياب الديمقراطية ؛ لأن الحصول على المعلومة الصحيحة فقط في ظل أنظمة غير ديمقراطية غير ممكن .
ينسف أمارتيا سن كثير من المفاهيم السائدة خاصة في العالم العربي و الدول النامية عموماً عن الديكتاتورية الراشدة ، التي توفر الأمن و التنمية .
مستشهداً بالتجربة الهتدية و الصينية يوضح كيف أن بوسع النظام الديمقراطي...more

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Apr 03, 2011 Artanis Iuhr rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Common men and Economists alike.

This book shows why Amrtya Sen was given Noble Prize in economics. Its depth is astounding yet he somehow manages to keep it in easy to understand language and I never had any difficulty with any concept he presented as the accompanying explanations were gradual and very well done. Truly a one of its kind book without peer. A must read to form an real world understanding of how economics directly alters our lives and how we shalln't take personal freedoms as granted. I am, however saddened by so...more

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Jan 04, 2011 Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-top-50-sustainability-books

One of Cambridge Sustainability's Top 50 Books for Sustainability, as voted for by our alumni network of over 3,000 senior leaders from around the world. To find out more, click here.

The recurring theme of this book is encapsulated in its title: namely, that development is about expanding human freedoms. These include but are not limited to increased GDP per capita. Hence, social and economic arrangements (education and healthcare), political and civil rights, technological progress and social m...more

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Feb 14, 2010 Xarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Xarah by: Dr. Miguel Vasquez

Shelves: non-fiction, own

I had to read this book for my graduate Anthropology of Development class. At first I was a little skeptical, and a little worried, on how approachable the book was going to read (especially since I had to read it in a week).

It took a few sections before I really got into the book and began to understand Sen's approach towards development, especially in regards to personal freedoms. Sen approaches development as integrative - that no one aspect (such as education or individual rights) is singul...more

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Jul 14, 2010 Justin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sen plots the course of contemporary philosophy and development economics to the intersection of human capabilities in a way that's as compelling intellectually at is frustrating to read. Page after page I kept wondering if there wasn't any less pedantic way to present what are essentially basic arguments in defense of freedom and our ability to take advantage of it as the yardstick of human development instead of GDP. The overriding theme that freedom is both the means and the end of developmen...more

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May 11, 2009 Maggie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Development as Freedom was difficult to get into, but got more and more interesting as Sen progressed from outlining his theory of "development as freedom" to its various applications. His basic theory is that development should be considered in terms of the freedoms people possess AND are able to utilize. He argues that when we focus on increasing freedoms instead of other measures such as growth of per capita GDP, we can get a more complete picture of whether people are living lives that they...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Chin2 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: research

Amartya Sen is, for me, one of the most profound and influential theorists on development in the contemporary era. A Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Sen has destabilized the long-standing notion that poverty is a purely economic phenomenon. He argues, instead, that poverty is a multi-dimensional problem that aims to cripple a human being by depriving them the basic freedoms that can potentially enhance the full extent of our capabilities. This includes a denial to education, political participation,...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Jesse rated it 5 of 5 stars

Amartya Sen: Nobel economist who published this book very shortly after winning his prize. Wikipedia says his research is on "welfare economics and social choice theory" and that he helped create the Human Development Index; all of the above should be enough reason to give him your attention.

I started reading Development as Freedom while in the middle of Joseph Stiglitz's (another Nobel economist) The Price of Inequality and found myself enjoying Amartya Sen's writing much more. Part of it was t...more Amartya Sen: Nobel economist who published this book very shortly after winning his prize. Wikipedia says his research is on "welfare economics and social choice theory" and that he helped create the Human Development Index; all of the above should be enough reason to give him your attention.

I started reading Development as Freedom while in the middle of Joseph Stiglitz's (another Nobel economist) The Price of Inequality and found myself enjoying Amartya Sen's writing much more. Part of it was the writing---Stiglitz felt like he would never stop repeating himself to make sure you understood---but more was the attitude; Amartya Sen's book is incredibly positive, focusing on the potential for increasing freedom and quality of living for everyone, which came as a very stark contrast to Stiglitz's constant negatives about why income inequality is harmful.

I went into this book having little knowledge of (and having never seriously read about) development as a subject. It's a dense book to begin with, and even more so if you're not familiar with the language of the field, but still accessible if you're willing to take your time and work through it slowly. Amartya Sen does not waste words, so you are better off reading slowly with the understanding that you'll miss things otherwise.

Sen paints an incredibly comprehensive picture, dealing with free speech, free elections, wealth distribution, gender inequality, gender roles, population growth, the free market, and even things like income distribution within a family (not a topic I usually hear discussed, maybe just because of my ignorance of development theory) to describe individual freedom and quality of life. He spends little time dismissing fundamental arguments, instead choosing to more often discuss the merits of nuanced criticisms of his approaches along with his ideas. He brings in a wealth of philosophies into the debate, from Aristotle, Confucian philosophies, and early Indian philosophers to Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. Examples to illustrate different approaches to development or how effective different policies have been are drawn from the whole world: Ireland, Ethiopia, Japan, China; Sen even compares development between different Indian states, taking time to describe reasons that Kerala's high level of development over its neighbors.

Notably, Sen doesn't tend to advocate specific approaches to solving problems (and even points this out), but instead seems to have a broader goal of changing the way people discuss and think about developmental issues. If there's any specific lesson of this book, it's that development necessarily is not simple! There's no one single problem that we can solve to fix the world and no magic bullet solution for any problem, but rather a variety of factors to consider and several kinds of individual's freedoms and capabilities to be worked towards.

Development as Freedom is one of the books that has most broadened my thinking, teaching me to look in the world at new ways. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to learn something new and willing to tackle difficult subjects.
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Dec 28, 2012 Michael Griswold rated it 3 of 5 stars

Amartya Sen has been assailed as haven written a piece of liberal utopian propaganda, but he does have a valid argument that democracy does have a preventive place in human suffering noting that famines have never occurred within a democracy and states that give women the chance to earn their own livelihood are stronger than those that aren't. Sen perhaps does not devote enough time to the problems with democracy. Democracy cannot and should not be seen as a cure all that will bring wealth and p...more

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Feb 20, 2011 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Update: I've recently picked this back up. It's an easier read than I remember, and the content is better than I remember. It's amazingly relevant: the chapter on markets includes an argument that fiscal conservatism should first promote programs with high returns-on-investment like... basic health and basic education for everyone.

I skipped a lot of the technical chapters in this book. There was a lot of "positioning oneself within the academic literature" that did not interest me.

However, I'd...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Libby rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: global-values

The sub-title should be "Poverty as Capability Deprivation." I find the most useful parts of his writing those that evaluate definitions of poverty and also goals of anti-poverty interventions.
surprisingly centrist at times. one of the essential freedoms he keeps returning to is the freedom to trade and participate in commerce.
His portrayal of Adam Smith makes me want to read his stuff closely. Sen seems to derive a good chuckle from quoting Smith's arguments against income disparities and for...more The sub-title should be "Poverty as Capability Deprivation." I find the most useful parts of his writing those that evaluate definitions of poverty and also goals of anti-poverty interventions.
surprisingly centrist at times. one of the essential freedoms he keeps returning to is the freedom to trade and participate in commerce.
His portrayal of Adam Smith makes me want to read his stuff closely. Sen seems to derive a good chuckle from quoting Smith's arguments against income disparities and for public education, while also describing and repeatedly returning to this episode in Karl Marx's thought:
p. 29 "Karl Marx's favorable remarks on capitalism as against the unfreedom of precapitalist labor arrangements related exactly to this question, which also produced Marx's characterization of the American Civil War as "the one great event of contemporary history." Indeed, this issue of market-based freedom is quite central to the analysis of bonded labor - common in many developing countries - and the transition to free-contract labor arrangements."

There are some points of the argument he glosses over more quickly than I would like:
p. 90 "While it is important to distinguish conceptually the notion of poverty as capability inadequacy from that of poverty as lowness of income, the two perspectives cannot but be related, since income is such an important means to capabilities." As soon as I typed that out I realized that wasn't a great example.

This was a useful paragraph:
p. 96 "What about the basic capability to live to a mature age, without succumbing to premature mortality? As was discussed in Chapter 1, in terms of that criterion the African American men fall well behind the immensely poorer men of China, or the Indian state of Kerala - and also of Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Jamaica and many other poor economies.
... "Indeed, even if we take higher age groups (say, that between thirty-five and sixty-four years), there is evidence of enormously greater mortality for black men vis-a-vis white men, and black women vis-a-vis white women. And these differentials are not wiped out by adjustment for income differences. In face, on of the more careful medical studies related to the 1980s shows that the black-white mortality differential remains remarkably large for women even after adjustment for income differentials.
... "While U.S. black men have 1.8 times the mortality rate of white men, black women have nearly three times the mortality of white women in this survey. And adjusted for differences in family income, while the mortality rate is 1.2 times higher for black men, it is as much as 2.2 times higher for black women."(less)

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Nov 25, 2008 Chandra rated it 4 of 5 stars

A refreshing holistic approach to developmental strategies that goes beyond mere economic growth and stresses the importance of other factors that enable or inhibit the agency of freedom. It's clear that Sen is brilliant, and he simplifies (some) of his arguments for the lay reader, but it's still a bit dense, especially the first few chapters, which lay out his philosophical/social grounds for his arguments. But the later chapters explore specific issues, with specific examples, that helps put...more

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Sep 21, 2007 Agpalo added it Recommends it for: development practitioners and scholars

Amartya Sen is the Nobel Prize Winner for economics in 1998. He is a great believer in the process and reach of public reasoning. He believes that “poverty as well as tyranny, poor economic opportunities as well as systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities as well as intolerance or over activity of repressive states” are the major sources of “unfreedom”.

Sen convincingly argues that ethics and economics should go together as opposed to some narrow minded formulation of economic...more

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Aug 05, 2009 Sam rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: so-serious, foreign

Sen starts by addressing "What is the relation between our collective economic wealth and our individual ability to live as we would like?"
then he quotes the eighteenth century poet William Cowper on freedom:
Freedom has a thousand charms to show, that slaves however contented, never know.

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,...more

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Jan 20, 2008 Andy rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: economics-and-finance, nonfiction

There's a nice 40 page essay in here about the importance of considerations other than GDP in developing countries. Unfortunately it is buried by 260 pages of poor writing in which Sen:

- repeats himself
- repeats himself
- distinguishes his arguments or perspectives into type A, type B, and type C, when in reality A, B, and C are not all that different, or their distinction does not seriously enhance understanding of the subject being discussed
- stretches his points to tautological limits - think...more

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Aug 19, 2007 Meredith rated it 5 of 5 stars

All of Sen's work is meaningful, but this might be his most important. Sen is a novel economist in that he acknowledges the limitations of classic economics in relating to globalization, human rights, and poverty. Many economists have trouble seeing the forrest for the trees, but Sen knows the classic figures reported to the U.N. tell a partial story and leave out the humanity of the people actually experiencing what it means to have a high maternal mortality rate. Sen's idea of success might no...more

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Dec 07, 2010 Cassandra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nf, 2010, g-economy

While I have labeled this book as both sociology and econ, it is primary econ. I can't recall ever reading an econ book, so this is my first. It was a good book (4 stars!) but it seemed to jump around a lot. The author did relate everything he discussed back to his main theme, but there were points that seemed a little vague to me. I'm not an economist, so I have a feeling that some of my confusion stems from that. This book took me nearly a month to read, partly because I had so many other thin...more

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Jan 17, 2010 John Biers rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an influential book in my graduate program and obviously beyond that. For me, it offers a phiolosophical framework for linking freedom and equality, two concepts that are often seen as conflicting with each other. Although the focus is on developing countries, Sen offers some trenchant thoughts on the US, noting that many from the U.S. aren't "free" under his definition.

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Jan 31, 2013 Joanne rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book changed my life. This was an assigned reading when I was doing my degree in International Studies, and it's one of those few books that touched a chord in me and affected the way I thought about how I wanted to develop my career as a woman, and also our responsibilities as stewards of the future economic framework of our society. Amartya Sen is a wise, wise man.

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Jan 04, 2009 Faris Alfadh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ekonomi-politik-internasional

Mungkin yang sangat mengkhawatirkan dari fenomena kemiskinan bukan hanya persoalan hilangnya kemampuan secara ekonomi karena pendapatan yang terbatas, namun lebih parah lagi, menurut Sen, kemiskinan sangat berpotensi menghilangkan kapabilitas manusia untuk berkembang dan berfungsi. Artinya, kemiskinan merupakan problem kemanusiaan yang berdampak pada seluruh sisi kehidupan.

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Mar 30, 2013 Khaled rated it 4 of 5 stars

A collection of essays that pioneers a transition from perceiving poverty reduction in terms of economic indicators towards earning individuals their freedom from oppression (hunger, fear etc).

Sen's approach to development is accepted by economists, thus highlighting its impact in the development community. Passages can be tricky to read and at times repetitive.

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Dec 10, 2010 Amanda Helfer rated it 3 of 5 stars

Amartya Sen wrote a powerful book about development economics that anyone can read and understand. The current economic climate may change the way people perceive his writing but it doesn't change the clear logic he states or the fact that the West has done little to promote true development abroad.

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Jan 12, 2012 Juan Nikolas rated it 5 of 5 stars

He leído resúmenes y síntesis de este libro, los cuales ilustran bien el pensamiento del autor y su enfoque enteramente. Lo pongo como leído por eso, aunque quisiera tener la oportunidad de conseguir este libro como tal en físico o electrónico!

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About Amartya Sen

Amartya Kumar Sen is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society’s poorest members.

Sen was best known for his work on the causes of famine, which led to the development of practical solutions for preventing or limiting the effects of real or perceiv...more

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Books by Amartya Sen

The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity

Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny

Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation

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