James Joseph Heckman, born in 1944, is a Nobel Prize winning American economist who is currently at the University of Chicago, where he is The Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and the College; Professor at the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies; Director of the Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD); and Co-Director of Human Capital and Economic Opportunity (HCEO) Global Working Group. He is also Professor of Law at the Law School, a senior research fellow at the American Bar Foundation, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 2000, Heckman shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Daniel McFadden, for his pioneering work in econometrics and microeconomics. As of February 2019, he is the next most influential economist in the world.
Political science is a social science which deals with systems of governance, and the analysis of political activities, political thoughts, and political behavior.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures some governments, policy makers and human rights abusers to denounce abuse and respect human rights, and the group often works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants and political prisoners.
Quality of life (QOL) is an overarching term for the quality of the various domains in life. It is a standard level that consists of the expectations of an individual or society for a good life. These expectations are guided by the values, goals and socio-cultural context in which an individual lives. It is a subjective, multidimensional concept that defines a standard level for emotional, physical, material and social well-being. It serves as a reference against which an individual or society can measure the different domains of one’s own life. The extent to which one's own life coincides with this desired standard level, put differently, the degree to which these domains give satisfaction and as such contribute to one's subjective well-being, is called life satisfaction.
Central European University (CEU) is a graduate-level private university accredited in Austria, Hungary, and the U.S., with campuses located in Budapest and Vienna. CEU is ranked as one of the world's top universities in social sciences and humanities, with top-ranked programs in philosophy, cognitive science, political science, mathematics, international studies, public policy and administration, and history.
Structural violence is a term commonly ascribed to Johan Galtung, which he introduced in the article "Violence, Peace, and Peace Research" (1969). It refers to a form of violence wherein some social structure or social institution may harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. Institutionalized adultism, ageism, classism, elitism, ethnocentrism, nationalism, speciesism, racism, and sexism are some examples of structural violence as proposed by Galtung. According to Galtung, rather than conveying a physical image, structural violence is an "avoidable impairment of fundamental human needs". As it is avoidable, structural violence is a high cause of premature death and unnecessary disability. Because structural violence affects people differently in various social structures, it is very closely linked to social injustice. Structural violence and direct violence are said to be highly interdependent, including family violence, gender violence, hate crimes, racial violence, police violence, state violence, terrorism, and war.
Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan is an Indian geneticist and administrator, known for his role in India's Green Revolution, a program under which high-yield varieties of wheat and rice were planted. Swaminathan has been called the "Father of Green Revolution in India" for his role in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat in India. He is the founder of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. His stated vision is to rid the world of hunger and poverty. Swaminathan is an advocate of moving India to sustainable development, especially using environmentally sustainable agriculture, sustainable food security and the preservation of biodiversity, which he calls an "evergreen revolution."
José Miguel Insulza Salinas is a Chilean politician who served as Secretary General of the Organization of American States from 2005 to 2015. He previously served as Chile's Foreign Minister from 1994 to 1999, and as Interior Minister from 2000 to 2005.
Structural adjustment programs (SAPs) consist of loans provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) to countries that experienced economic crises. The two Bretton Woods Institutions require borrowing countries to implement certain policies in order to obtain new loans. The conditionality clauses attached to the loans have been criticized because of their effects on the social sector.
Peace and conflict studies is a social science field that identifies and analyzes violent and nonviolent behaviours as well as the structural mechanisms attending conflicts, with a view towards understanding those processes which lead to a more desirable human condition. A variation on this, peace studies (irenology), is an interdisciplinary effort aiming at the prevention, de-escalation, and solution of conflicts by peaceful means, thereby seeking "victory" for all parties involved in the conflict. This is in contrast to military studies, which has as its aim on the efficient attainment of victory in conflicts, primarily by violent means to the satisfaction of one or more, but not all, parties involved. Disciplines involved may include philosophy, political science, geography, economics, psychology, sociology, international relations, history, anthropology, religious studies, and gender studies, as well as a variety of others. Relevant sub-disciplines of such fields, such as peace economics, may be regarded as belonging to peace and conflict studies also.
Pierre Sané is the Founder & President of Imagine Africa Institute was UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences from May 2001 - June 2010. He was Secretary General of Amnesty International from October 1992 to April 2001.
Development theory is a collection of theories about how desirable change in society is best achieved. Such theories draw on a variety of social science disciplines and approaches. In this article, multiple theories are discussed, as are recent developments with regard to these theories. Depending on which theory that is being looked at, there are different explanations to the process of development and their inequalities
Gilbert Fowler White was a prominent American geographer, sometimes termed the "father of floodplain management" and the "leading environmental geographer of the 20th century". White is known predominantly for his work on natural hazards, particularly flooding, and the importance of sound water management in contemporary society.
Juan Somavía Altamirano is the former Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO). He was elected to serve as the ninth Director-General of the ILO by the Governing Body on 23 March 1998. On 7 November 2013, he was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to serve as Special Adviser on Interregional Policy Cooperation.
Ha-Joon Chang is a South Korean institutional economist, specialising in development economics. Currently a reader in the Political Economy of Development at the University of Cambridge, Chang is the author of several widely discussed policy books, most notably Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective (2002). In 2013 Prospect magazine ranked Chang as one of the top 20 World Thinkers.
Dan Lyons is the chief executive officer of the Centre for Animals and Social Justice, a British animal protection charity. He is an honorary research fellow at the University of Sheffield and the author of The Politics of Animal Experimentation (2013).
Social anthropology is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and Commonwealth and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In the United States, social anthropology is commonly subsumed within cultural anthropology.
Rolph Eric van der Hoeven is emeritus professor on employment and development economics at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and was appointed in 2009 as a member of the Committee on Development Cooperation of the International Advisory Council (AIV) to the Dutch Government. Dr. van der Hoeven is a member of the Board of Trustees of the KNCV Tuberculosis Fund.
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of poorer countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. It comprises two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and the International Development Association (IDA). The World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group.
Stephan Haggard is the Lawrence and Sallye Krause Professor of Korea-Pacific Studies at the School of Global Policy and Strategy and distinguished professor of political science at the University of California San Diego. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley (1983) and taught in the Government Department at Harvard (1983-1992) before joining the faculty at UC San Diego. He teaches courses on international political economy, the international relations of the Asia-Pacific and qualitative methods. He is currently the editor of the Journal of East Asian Studies, a journal devoted to publishing innovative social science research on the region.
