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Happiness, Capabilities, and Opportunities
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Naples, 15th – 17th November 2018
HEIRS International Conference 2018
University of Napoli ‘Federico II’
::: INFORMATION :::
- news: * FINAL PROGRAM * : [ link ]
- VENUE: Conference Center Uni. Naples “Federico II”, via Partenope 36, 80121, Naples
- LOCAL INSTRUCTIONS: [ link ]
- REGISTRATION FORM: [ link ]
::: CALL FOR PAPERS :::
After a 15-year research project that has explored many dimensions of happiness, HEIRS 2018 international conference will focus on the unconventional triad of Capabilities, Happiness and Opportunities.
The Capability approach emphasizes the objective dimensions of good life, or, more to the point, the objective dimensions that underpin the opportunities for a good life. In this perspective, happiness enters as one valuable functioning among others, not as the sole definitive objective. On the other hand, the capability approach is just one possible way to look at opportunities. These can be seen as more basically related to the size and richness of an individual’s opportunity set, that is, the set of options from which individuals are free to choose, bearing the consequences of their choices.
Although a subjective approach to happiness – that can be traced back to Jeremy Bentham’s theory of happiness as utility and is innervated by modern cognitive research – cannot skip the skepticism raised by those whose viewpoint favors either capabilities or opportunities, an alternative perspective, based on a more objective conception of happiness as eudaimonia or human flourishing, might.
The conference aims at stimulating a dialogue between different scientific perspectives on happiness. We welcome proposals from economics, psychology, philosophy, social sciences and humanities in general. The main purpose is one of deepening our understanding of the relationship between happiness on one side and capabilities and opportunities on the other.
In June 2005, a second conference on Capabilities and Happiness was held at the University of Milan Bicocca. The first had been celebrated just some months earlier at the St Edmund College, Cambridge. In 2005 the aim was to bring together scholars from different disciplines for a rich discussion. More than ten years later the aim is still that.
Keynote speakers: Sabine Alkire, Séverine Deneulin, Robert Sugden.
The conference will be held in memory of Pier Luigi Porta, who organized the first conference on happiness in Milan in 2003. A special ‘Pier Luigi Porta prize’ on happiness’ will be awarded to a young scholar.
Venue in Naples: TBA
Organizing institutions: HEIRS – University of Napoli ‘Federico II’, Department of Economics and Statistics – LUMSA University – IREC: International Review of Economics.
Scientific committee: Sergio Beraldo (University of Napoli ‘Federico II’ & CSEF), Leonardo Becchetti (University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’), Luigino Bruni (LUMSA University), Stefano Bartolini (University of Siena), Luca Crivelli (SUPSI), Benedetto Gui (Sophia University Institute), Vittorio Pelligra (University of Cagliari), Maurizio Pugno (University of Cassino), Tommaso Reggiani (Masaryk University), Alessandra Smerilli (Auxilium), Luca Stanca (University of Milan-Bicocca).
Information: www.heirs.it – heirs.unimib@gmail.com