Multidimensional Poverty and Integral Human Development
Integral human development (IHD), with its emphasis on human flourishing, yields a vision of development in which one’s dignity is expressed through cultural, spiritual, economic, and material dimensions, and upheld through political and social structures and the rule of law.
While rooted in Catholic Social Tradition, IHD shares features with recent trends in international development. Among them is the move toward more multidimensional understandings of poverty and development, and a focus on the person as the subject of development. Nonetheless, important differences persist.
This dialogue between Oxford economist Sabina Alkire and legal scholar John Finnis considers the contours of IHD, taking up the question of “What is development?” and asking how IHD is realized operationally.
Cosponsored with the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture.
Sabina Alkire
Sabina Alkire directs the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), a research center within the Department of International Development, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on multidimensional poverty measurement and analysis, welfare economics, Amartya Sen’s capability approach, the measurement of freedoms, and human development...