Johan Skytte Prize to Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen, Thomas W. Lamont Professor at Harvard University, wins the 23rd Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science. Sen is awarded the Prize for his multisided scholarship, “combining insights on the vulnerabilities of humankind with knowledge on the unique capacities of democratic political power to mitigate and diminish this exposure.”

Sen is an economist by training but his conviction that democratic institutions play a fundamental role in making a difference in people’s lives makes him a worthy recipient of this highly esteemed Prize in Political Science.

Sen’s contribution spans the fields of political economy, social choice theory, public health, political philosophy, as well as the sub-discipline of development studies. His notable scholarly works include Poverty and Famines (1981) where he explores the link between famine and lack of democracy and highlights the crucial role democracy plays in alievating extreme poverty. In Development as Freedom (1999), he argues that political, social and economic freedoms are both the means and the ends of development. In his 2009 book, The Idea of Justice, Sen addresses questions of how justice may be increased or how injustices may be removed, rather than offering resolutions of questions about the nature of perfect justice.

The 2017 Prize, consisting of a monetary award of 500.000 Swedish crowns and a medal, will be awarded at a traditional ceremony which will take place in Uppsala on September 30, 2017. More information will follow shortly.

The winner of the Prize was selected at a meeting held at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies of the University of Tartu on March 1st. Among the six members of the Skytte Prize Committee is Vello Pettai, Professor of Comparative Politics at Tartu.

Read more at: http://www.skytteprize.com/

Forwarded by:
Maili Vilson
Research Communication Specialist
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
University of Tartu
maili.vilson [ät] ut.ee
+372 737 6584