Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen (b.1933) has been a beacon of common sense in the interdisciplinary terrain he occupies. His work on entitlements and capability stress human agency rather more than constraint, and they carry ‘some sense of worth and of real people's lives’ (Gasper, 2000: 996). His insistence on understanding and resolving inequality, tackling justice and expanding basic freedoms has placed many mainstream economists in his discipline, and other utilitarians in a heavily compromised position. As he approaches his ninth decade, we look back for the third time for the collection Key thinkers on space and place at his contributions to social science, philosophy, history, and ‘humane economics’ (Desai, 2001). His beguiling ideas have been highly influential, and has reached the ears of policymakers and publics worldwide. They are not without their critics, described in the chapter.