Seminar: "Global Poverty and Inequality: Prospects for Development in the Anthropocene" by Dr. Jason Hickel

MdM SEMINAR SERIES



Title: "Global Poverty and Inequality: Prospects for Development in the Anthropocene"

Speaker: Dr. Jason Hickel, Goldsmiths College de University of London

Date: Thursday 11 April 2019

Time: 13:00 - 14:30h

Venue: Sala Montseny Z/023

The conventional story of development resembles what Alexei Yurchak calls "hypernormalization" - an illusory narrative that people secretly know to be false and yet nonetheless embrace and reproduce, because the reality is too difficult to confront.  We insist that aid is working, that global inequality is declining and that poverty will soon be eradicated.  But 58% of the human population remains poor, while the real per capita income gap between the global North and South has nearly quadrupled since the end of colonialism.  How do we understand these divergent narratives?  What is driving trends in global poverty and inequality?  And what are the prospects for international development in the 21st century?

Dr. Jason Hickel is an anthropologist, author, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has taught at the London School of Economics, the University of Virginia, and Goldsmiths, University of London, where he convenes the MA in Anthropology and Cultural Politics.  He serves on the Labour Party task force on international development, works as Policy Director for /The Rules collective, and sits on the Executive Board of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP). Jason's research focuses on global inequality, political economy, post-development, and ecological economics.  His most recent book, The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions, was published by Penguin Random House in 2017, and Jason will present its core messages in this lecture. Jason will be a visiting fellow at ICTA-UAB for April and May 2019 with an MdM visiting grant.