http://dep.eco.uniroma1.it/~soccap/eng-index.htm

Dipartimento di Economia Politica, Milano-Bicocca

The Capability Network

16 - 18 June 2005
Università di Milano-Bicocca

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


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.

Organization Committee

Luigino Bruni, Milano-Bicocca
Stefano Bartolini, University of Siena
Maurizio Pugno, University of Trent

Proposals have to be sent to [log in to unmask],
not after December, 31 2004.

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