| When: | Friday, April 23 and Saturday, April 24, 2010 |
| Location: | University of Chicago Law School |
| Organizers: |
James Heckman, University of Chicago Martha Nussbaum, University of Chicago Robert Pollak, Washington University in St. Louis |
| Sponsors: |
The Center for Law, Philosophy and Human Values, The University of Chicago Law School The Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics The American Bar Foundation The Spencer Foundation |
This conference seeks to link the "Human Development Approach" to the recent literature on the economics, neuroscience, and psychology of human development in order to enrich both fields. The conference will foster a broader notion of capability formation than just formal education or cognition, which has been the focus of the Human Development Approach. It will adopt a life cycle perspective on capability expression and formation. Recent research documenting the contributions of families, schools, governments, and other institutions of society (including religious bodies, community groups, foster care, the juvenile justice system, and on-the-job training) to the formation of capabilities in children, adolescents, and young adults suggests that a broader framework for the Human Development Approach would be useful. The aim of the conference is to integrate recent advances in understanding how capabilities are produced into the Human Development Approach and to study the implications of the revised research programfor law and public policy.
