Showing papers by "Amartya Sen published in 2015"

The Country of First Boys And Other Essays

Abstract: A Note from Amartya Sen Introduction by Gopalkrishna Gandhi What Should Keep Us Awake at Night Poverty, War and Peace The Country of First Boys Sharing the World: Interdependence and Global Justice Sunlight and Other Fears: The Importance of School Education as a Source of Nourishment for Indian Children Speaking of Freedom: Why Media Is Important for Economic Development Hunger: Old Torments and New Blunders The Smallness Thrust Upon Us The Play's the Thing India Through Its Calendars What Difference Can Tagore Make About the Author

La sémiotique face aux grands défis sociétaux du XXI e siècle1

Abstract: Preambule Une fois n’est pas coutume : avant de passer a la troisieme personne, dont l’usage est attendu de tout semioticien « qui se respecte », je m’autorise un bref preambule a la premiere personne. Les propositions qui suivent pourront paraitre en effet surprenantes sous la plume d’un semioticien, moimeme en l’occurrence, qui a pu donner l’impression de rester plonge (confortablement) pendant plus de deux decennies dans les profondeurs des affects et des passions, et dans les arcanes formelles de la tensivite. Ce moi-meme en cacherait-il un autre, un soi-meme qui se serait peu a peu affirme et qui ferait aujourd’hui surface a la surprise generale (y compris de « moi-meme » !) ? Pendant toutes ces annees, ou je m’occupais (moi-meme) de passions, de tensivite et d’elaborations theoriques diverses et obstinees, j’exercais parallelement d’autres metiers que celui de semioticien, ou plutot d’autres fonctions ou le semioticien etait appele a mettre en œuvre sa semiotique autrement : dans la gestion des affaires publiques universitaires, dans la negociation avec des professionnels de la politique, et pour finir, dans l’echange intense avec les eminents representants de ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler les « grands corps de l’Etat ». C’est ainsi que se constituait un « soi » dans l’engagement meme du « moi ». Ce parcours (toutes fonctions confondues, il a dure presque vingt ans) est maintenant acheve, et je m’efforce d’en tirer quelques consequences pour ce a quoi je n’ai jamais renonce, pour ce qui m’a toujours anime : le souci de l’avenir de la semiotique comme projet scientifique. Tout au long de ce parcours, en meme temps que je m’efforcais de participer aux avancees de la semiotique en tant que programme de recherche, j’ai assiste – et participe – a l’evolution des « manieres » de faire de la recherche. Qu’on en pense du bien ou du mal, les conditions d’exercice de la recherche, et meme les conditions d’existence des disciplines de recherche, se sont profondement transformees en quelques decennies. Au milieu du XXe siecle, le grand partage entre les sciences (les sciences de la nature et les humanites) pouvait etre percu comme clair et durable, et semblait meme proteger les secondes de ce qu’on appelait alors « la demande sociale ». En France, la domination sans partage du structuralisme, au moment meme ou les sciences sociales se mettaient en place et se developpaient, a d’une certaine

A New India

Abstract: When India became independent in 1947 after two centuries of colonial rule, it immediately adopted a firmly democratic political system, with multiple parties, freedom of speech, and extensive political rights. The famines of the British era disappeared, and steady economic growth replaced the economic stagnation of the Raj. The growth of the Indian economy quickened further over the last three decades and became the second fastest among large economies. Despite a recent dip, it is still one of the highest in the world. Maintaining rapid as well as environmentally sustainable growth remains an important and achievable goal for India. In An Uncertain Glory, two of India's leading economists argue that the country's main problems lie in the lack of attention paid to the essential needs of the people, especially of the poor, and often of women. There have been major failures both to foster participatory growth and to make good use of the public resources generated by economic growth to enhance people's living conditions. There is also a continued inadequacy of social services such as schooling and medical care as well as of physical services such as safe water, electricity, drainage, transportation, and sanitation. In the long run, even the feasibility of high economic growth is threatened by the underdevelopment of social and physical infrastructure and the neglect of human capabilities, in contrast with the Asian approach of simultaneous pursuit of economic growth and human development, as pioneered by Japan, South Korea, and China. In a democratic system, which India has great reason to value, addressing these failures requires not only significant policy rethinking by the government, but also a clearer public understanding of the abysmal extent of social and economic deprivations in the country. The deep inequalities in Indian society tend to constrict public discussion, confining it largely to the lives and concerns of the relatively affluent. Dreze and Sen present a powerful analysis of these deprivations and inequalities as well as the possibility of change through democratic practice.

A New India

Abstract: When India became independent in 1947 after two centuries of colonial rule, it immediately adopted a firmly democratic political system, with multiple parties, freedom of speech, and extensive political rights. The famines of the British era disappeared, and steady economic growth replaced the economic stagnation of the Raj. The growth of the Indian economy quickened further over the last three decades and became the second fastest among large economies. Despite a recent dip, it is still one of the highest in the world. Maintaining rapid as well as environmentally sustainable growth remains an important and achievable goal for India. In An Uncertain Glory, two of India's leading economists argue that the country's main problems lie in the lack of attention paid to the essential needs of the people, especially of the poor, and often of women. There have been major failures both to foster participatory growth and to make good use of the public resources generated by economic growth to enhance people's living conditions. There is also a continued inadequacy of social services such as schooling and medical care as well as of physical services such as safe water, electricity, drainage, transportation, and sanitation. In the long run, even the feasibility of high economic growth is threatened by the underdevelopment of social and physical infrastructure and the neglect of human capabilities, in contrast with the Asian approach of simultaneous pursuit of economic growth and human development, as pioneered by Japan, South Korea, and China. In a democratic system, which India has great reason to value, addressing these failures requires not only significant policy rethinking by the government, but also a clearer public understanding of the abysmal extent of social and economic deprivations in the country. The deep inequalities in Indian society tend to constrict public discussion, confining it largely to the lives and concerns of the relatively affluent. Dreze and Sen present a powerful analysis of these deprivations and inequalities as well as the possibility of change through democratic practice.

Human Rights and Asian Values

Abstract: The thesis that Asian values are less supportive of freedom and more concerned with order than discipline than are Western values and that the claims of human rights in the areas of political and civil liberties are therefore less relevant in Asia than West.