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Call for papers
2nd
Workshop on Capabilities and Happiness
Dipartimento di Economia Politica, Milano-Bicocca
Capability
and Sustainability Centre
St. Edmund College, Cambridge
The Capability Network
16 - 18 June 2005
Università di Milano-Bicocca
Researches on the “Economics and Happiness”
are increasingly taking a considerable place among the interests
of social scientists: quality of life, the relationship between
goods and well-being, relational goods, intrinsic motivations,
and the impact of basic need and relational satisfactions
to motivation and wellness. These inquiries overlap with the
“Capabilities Approach”, which very much directs
attention to these issues.
In March 2004 the CSC (Capability
and Sustainability Centre, St. Edmund College, Cambridge)
organized in Cambridge the 1st workshop “Capabilities
and Happiness”, and the participants were persuaded
that the connection capabilities-happiness can be extremely
stimulating and potentially able of opening a very promising
new field of research, an idea shared also by the Capability
Network. This second workshop is also a by-product of the
researches on happiness undertaken at the Department
of Economics of Milano-Bicocca. The workshop itself is
a follow up to the first International Conference on the Paradoxes
of Happiness in Economics at Milano-Bicocca 20-23 March
2003.
The Capabilities approach is unequivocally focussed on the
objective dimensions of good life, and considers happiness
as a good indicator of the quality of life only if accompanied
with a wide capability set, which goes well together with
Amartya Sen’s critique to happiness as a possibly misleading
concept in human development. The Happiness approach, yet,
today includes two methodologically quite different strands.
On one side, we have theories of a “subjective”
nature which emphasize self-reported feelings, pleasure, satisfaction,
focused in particular on the measurement of the corresponding
variables. Examples of this subjective approach are manifold
in cognitive researches of happiness. That approach also falls
within the mainstream of current economic studies on happiness,
and has continuity with the Benthamite theory of happiness
as utility. The other strand focuses on “objective”
analyses of happiness, conceived of as human flourishing.
In this strand scholars are interested in intrinsic motivations,
civic commitment, relationship status and quality and personal
growth as indicators of a happy life. This approach to happiness
– that has supporters in economics, sociology and psychology
– is fully consistent with the capabilities approach,
and has been influenced by a rediscovery of Aristotle’s
eudaimonic conception of happiness, as discussed in the work
of philosophers such as Martha Nussbaum.
The principal aim of this interdisciplinary workshop is to
gather together scholars of all the different methodological
strands for a rich encounter.
The Keynote Speakers include:
Amartya Sen, Harvard
Ed Diener, University of Illinois
Richard Easterlin, University of Southern California
Carol Graham, Brookins Institution, Washington
Robert Sugden, UEA, Norwich
Richard Ryan, University of Rochester
Carol Ryff, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Scientific Committee
Martha Nussbaum, University of Chicago
Amartya Sen, Harvard University
Ed Diener, University of Illinois
Enrica Chiappero, University of Pavia
Flavio Comim, St. Edmund College, Cambridge
Luigi Pasinetti, Catholic University, Milan.
Pier Luigi Porta, University of Milano-Bicocca
Stefano Zamagni, University of Bologna
Organization Committee
Luigino Bruni, Milano-Bicocca
Stefano Bartolini, University of Siena
Maurizio Pugno, University of Trent
Proposals have to be sent to happiness.conference@unimib.it,
not after December, 31 2004.
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