Amartya Sen | Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny
Recorded 4/4/2006
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Winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics, Amartya Sen is a Harvard Professor and author of Development as Freedom and The Argumentative Indian. Sen is a highly regarded theorist whose writings have been credited with reintroducing ethics into economic discourse. His work has led to the development of more sophisticated techniques for assessing world poverty; he has studied the causes of famine, the economic impact of literacy, and the means by which governments can improve the prospects for their poorest citizens. In Identity and Voilence, Sen proposes that violent conflict is sustained by the illusion of a unique identity.