Amartya Sen as growth sceptic

In Wednesday’s University of Westminster seminar on Amartya Sen (see 4 January dispatch) I argued that the Nobel prize-winning economist is key growth sceptic thinker. His Development as Freedom redefines development from being a process of social transformation (traditional to modern, rural to urban, agrarian to industrial etc) to a series of individual entitlements. He also uses the term “freedom” to refer to so many different things robs it of any real meaning (for example, removing sources of unfreedom such as poverty, tyranny, poor economic opportunities, systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities, intolerance and over-activity of repressive states).