Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA)
PARTICIPATION, POVERTY AND POWER
Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), Lima
10-12 September 2009
(double session) Panel:
ETHICS AND POLITICS FOR EMPOWERING THE POOR:
SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS
Ethics and Development Thematic Group
Panel Convened by:
- Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP), International Social Science Council/University of Bergen-Norway
- CLACSO-CROP Programe on Poverty Studies, Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO), and
- The Comission for the Study on the Church History in Latin America and the Caribbean/ Comision de Estudios de Historia de la Iglesia en America Latina y el Caribe (CEHILA)
Chairs: Asuncion Lera St. Clair, Scientific Director of CROP and Vice President of the International Development Ethics Association (IDEA), Associate professor of sociology, University of Bergen, Norway; and Hans Egil Offerdal, Coordinator CLACSO-CROP .
PANEL DESCRIPTION:
The panel will take a close and critical look at how various ethical perspectives – including those derived from religious traditions – can result in empowerment and participation of the poor and towards a world free of poverty. The panel builds from previous analysis of development ethics that sees the roots of human development on ideas developed and defended by activists groups in the Latin American Region, in an ethically grounded conception of the economy and nature, and religious based ethics in their relations to poverty, in particular liberation theology.
It further examines the role that ancient cults and beliefs have in conceptions of social solidarity and as tools for social cohesion. The session takes as a point of departure that there are strong similarities in many ‘secular’ perspectives on poverty and development (and systemic critique) in many international organizations and NGOs working with poverty eradication and the escalating awareness and vocal condemnation of the scandal of poverty from religious actors (including the capabilities approach).
It is thus timely to seriously investigate the relations between religious based arguments (and practice), social science for development on behalf of the poor and the endeavor (and reflections) undertaken in international organizations working for poverty eradication. It is equally important to see these perspectives as able to provide guidelines and to develop alternative conceptions of human flourishing, including also development of measurements and indicators. The role of principles in addressing poverty and their translation into political action and transformations of power relations requires thorough investigation through interdisciplinary dialogue. The panel presents a variety of views from theology, philosophy, and the social sciences.
Papers and Speakers (alphabetically, we ask HDCA to schedule the panel in two sessions and to permit us to include Gustavo Gutierrez as one of the panellists, as suggested by Sabina Alkire):
Broadening our Look: a New Approach to Poverty and Human Flourishing.
Julio Boltvinik, El Colegio de México, Mexico
The paper will present a radically new approach to poverty/human flourishing, founded positively on Marxist philosophical anthropology and on systematic reflection on human needs, and negatively on the critique of both what can be called the political economy of poverty and of existing answers to the question of the constitutive elements of human flourishing. The approach adopts as constitutive element of human flourishing, conceived as a multi-perspective conceptual axis, the development of what Marx called the human essential forces: needs and capacities. By cutting off all other perspectives than the economic one from the axis of human flourishing, one derives the standard of living axis, which looks at the development of human essential forces from the perspective of economic (in a broad sense) resources, conditions and opportunities. The paper presents the conclusions of a book of the same name as the title of this presentation (in two volumes) being prepared for printing. In each axis two dimensions of being: structural and circumstantial. This allows for the construction of four concepts of poverty/wealth (or human flourishing): structural being human poverty; circumstantial being human poverty; structural being economic poverty; and circumstantial being economic poverty. The paper presents three main sections each relating to a feature of the new approach: the negative foundations; the positive foundations; and a synthetic view of the new approach.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Julio Bolvinik has been Professor at El Colegio de México since 1992, where he has taught courses mainly on poverty and basic needs, but also on social indicators. He was on leave to be member of Congress (deputy) from September 2003 to august 2006. His research topics are on poverty in Mexico, poverty measurement methods, foundational aspects of poverty and related concepts, and social policy in Mexico. Recent publications: Broadening our look. A New approach to poverty and human flourishing (in Spanish: Siglo XXI editores, in preparation for printing); Poverty in Mexico and in the World. Realities and Challenges (in Spanish: Siglo XXI editores, 2004, co-editor with Araceli Damián); In co-authorship with Enrique Hernández Laos, Poverty and Income Distribution in Mexico (In Spanish: Siglo XXI Editores, 1999); Poverty and Social Stratification in Mexico, (In Spanish, INEGI, 1994); in co-authorship with Amartya Sen & Meghnad Desai, Social Progress Index. A proposal (In English and Spanish: UNDP, Bogotá, 1992, re-edited in Spanish by UNAM, 1998)
“Catholic Ethics and Empowerment in the Popular Sectors: A View from Argentina”
Fortunato Mallimaci; Universidad de Buenos Aires/CONICET, Argentina
ABSTRACT:
The paper looks at the diverse roles and presence that Catholic and Evangelical groups have in popular sectors and in empowering them. It examines the ways in which these faiths impinge in popular groups’ conception of culture, of conflicts, and their relations to the state; a state that either ‘privatizes’ or ‘permits’ public space for these groups and their faiths. The paper aims to show religious plurality and the role of faiths in people’s refusal to participate in what is a common tendency to ‘individualize,’ and disembody people from institutions. The paper further examines what type of ethics flows from various religious movements and its relationship to empowerment. This is of particular important at a time of disenchantment and loss of credibility of in educational, political and union institutions.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Fortunato Mallimaci is professor at the University of Buenos Aires and senior researcher at CONICET. Doctor en sociología en la Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales de París. He is a specialist in the relation between religious groups, the state and society. He has worked with popular religious groups and conducted several research projectis at national and international levels in this area. He is head of the “Society, Culture and Religion Group” in CONICET. Sus últimas publicaciones: Religión y política. Perspectivas desde A. Latina y Europa; Modernidad, religión y memoria y Los nuevos rostros de la marginalidad.
“The Endurance of the Andean Gods: Virtues of the Andean Ethos”
Imelda Vega-Centeno B., Coordinación Latinaomericana de la CEHILA, Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos, "Bartolomé de Las Casas", Cuzco, Peru.
ABSTRACT:
For more than 500 years the majestic cults of the Andean people – of which we learn through the chroniclers of the XVI century – have not been acknowledged. Yet these cults survive found in numerous peasants’ rites, thereby connecting the Andean people to their ancestral gods. They survive in Catholic rituals fast as well as the celebration of Corpus Christi. Hidden in these rituals one encounters solar cults, the gods of the old religion and their faiths as well as manners of relating to the sacred and to nature. Moreover, ancient Andean cults also provides an ethic that seeks social cohesion, leading to a sense of ‘group or community’ as separated it from the others. The author looks at the survival of the original cults, faiths and conceptions of social relations, today hidden in the wrapping of Roman Catholicism. The paper aims to go beyond Eurocentric concepts and descriptions of indigenous religions; in particular when analyzing the original Andean religion. It thus seeks to understand its ethic of social relations and the value-based connection of people to nature.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Imelda Vega-Centeno B, is the current Latinamerica Coordinator of the Comission for the Study of Church History in Latin America (CEHILA). Cehila is a group of historian and sociologist doing research on the historical and social presence of Christian Churches especially in the world of the poor. She is President of the Center of Regional Andean Studies “Bartolomé de Las Casas” in Cuzco-Perú. She is expert in religion, politics, history and Andean Studies, and a frequent guest-lecturer in universities world-wide.
“Title and abstract forthcoming”
Enrique Dussel, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM)/Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico
(We have full confirmation from Enrique Dussel, he needed some extra time to get us the title and abstract because of previous commitments. WE will resend the proposal with his intervention’s description as soon as we hear form him, before the end of this week )
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Enrique Dussel, philosopher and professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM), Iztapalapa, and at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. He is the founder of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians and author of numerous works in theology, philosophy and church history. His latest book is “Twenty Theses on Politics”.
Gustavo Gutierrez, Instituto Bartolomé de las Casas, Peru
(pending coordination with HDCA conference Organizers )
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Gustavo Gutierrez is a Peruvian priest and theologian, currently John Cardinal O'Hara Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. He is the author of the monumental work “A Theology of Liberation” and a former professor of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), Lima.
