India: Development and Participation

Rating:
Summary: Sen at his best
Review: This book is Sen at his best. The current 2002 edition is an update of a 1995 edition entitled "India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity." The modification of the title reflects a move to make the notion at the center of Sen's thinking more precise. For those not involved in the public policy debate in India itself, this is the central notion and the real value of Sen's work and finds its best exposition in this broad-ranging, political-economic commentary on development in Sen's native land. By contrast, the exposition it has Sen's more "theoretical" works such as the recent "Rationality and Freedom" is desperately inadequate.
Sen is very much not someone inclined towards a single solution to social problems, or a single rule-of-thumb for such solutions, but there is nevertheless a strong, unitary theme to Sen's commentary.
The discussion (in Chapter 7) of "Gender Equality and Women's Agency" is paradigmatic. It is not only paradigmatic though, for Sen believes that the eradication of the anti-female bias which pervades much of Indian society is itself central to the solution of all the social problems in India in its own right.
Still, in large measure what Sen has to say about how women's oppression in India can be overcome, applies also to what he has to say about the plight of low caste people, people living in poor areas of the country and poverty and oppression in general.
Sen's notion could be summarised by means of a series of five concepts, each of which in turn takes a step closer to the essential notion of what is needed to lead a good life in society: (1) commodities, wealth and value, (2) functioning, (3) capability, (4) voice and finally (5) critical voice.
The problem is that the notion of "critical voice" (subjectivity) cannot be developed within the framework of utilitarian economics and social-choice theory as Sen seems determined to do.

Rating:
Summary: Sen at his best
Review: This book is Sen at his best. The current 2002 edition is an update of a 1995 edition entitled "India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity." The modification of the title reflects a move to make the notion at the center of Sen's thinking more precise. For those not involved in the public policy debate in India itself, this is the central notion and the real value of Sen's work and finds its best exposition in this broad-ranging, political-economic commentary on development in Sen's native land. By contrast, the exposition it has Sen's more "theoretical" works such as the recent "Rationality and Freedom" is desperately inadequate.
Sen is very much not someone inclined towards a single solution to social problems, or a single rule-of-thumb for such solutions, but there is nevertheless a strong, unitary theme to Sen's commentary.
The discussion (in Chapter 7) of "Gender Equality and Women's Agency" is paradigmatic. It is not only paradigmatic though, for Sen believes that the eradication of the anti-female bias which pervades much of Indian society is itself central to the solution of all the social problems in India in its own right.
Still, in large measure what Sen has to say about how women's oppression in India can be overcome, applies also to what he has to say about the plight of low caste people, people living in poor areas of the country and poverty and oppression in general.
Sen's notion could be summarised by means of a series of five concepts, each of which in turn takes a step closer to the essential notion of what is needed to lead a good life in society: (1) commodities, wealth and value, (2) functioning, (3) capability, (4) voice and finally (5) critical voice.
The problem is that the notion of "critical voice" (subjectivity) cannot be developed within the framework of utilitarian economics and social-choice theory as Sen seems determined to do.