14-15 July, 2011 / FCSH (Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas) / Universidade Nova, Lisbon, Portugal
Philippe van Parijs (Université Catholique de Louvain/Harvard University);
Fernando Tesón (Florida State University).
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the redistributive mechanism by means of which the international community aims to bring about consistent improvements in the fight against extreme poverty worldwide. However, they raise perplexities in many respects. 1.4 billion people still live below the threshold of 1.25$/day that the UN establishes as a desirable goal to achieve, and the acceptability of the threshold is itself controversial. Moreover, the amount of assistance due by the "1st World countries" is set at 0.7% of their Gross Domestic Product, and may be spent both on humanitarian assistance and on development actions.
Are the objectives plausible?
Are the means designed to achieve them sufficient?
Do they fit with what we may see as the 1st World [WINDOWS-1252?]countries’ responsibility towards world poverty?
Is there any such responsibility, and how can we normatively assess it?
In order to assess the MDGs both in their normative and in their practical dimensions we invite papers from philosophers, social scientists, and professionals.
Possible topics are:
- International duties of assistance and their normative justification.
- Imperatives of charity vs. injunctions of justice.
- "1st World" responsibility: its justification, its scope, its quantification.
-"Assistance" and/or "fairness": forms of aid and fairness in the global market;
- The politics of the global market: economic inequality, political asymmetries, and international and supranational organisations.
- How should we redistribute? Through money and resources transfer? Through fair trade? Through trade liberalisation?
- Who should be the recipients of aid (individuals, governments, indigenous organisations)?
- Who should be the agents of aid distribution (States, International Institutions, Non-governmental Organizations, Transnational Corporations)?
The conference aims to grant participants a substantial opportunity for discussion. Each paper-giver will have 30 min. time for his/her presentation (instead of the nowadays customary 15 to 20 min.) and at least 20 min. for discussion.
A selection of papers - elaborated into articles of approx. 6-8.000 words - will be published in a collective volume.
See the volume that resulted from the 1st Lisbon conference at http://www.degruyter.de/cont/fb/ph/detailEn.cfm?isbn=978-3-11-024574-5).
Scholars who wish to participate may send an abstract of 500-1000 words to the following addresses by the 15th of April, 2011:gabriele.deangelis@fcsh.unl.pt;paulobarcelos@gmail.com.
Please, make your abstract ready for blind review.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by the 15th of May.
