Indifference-driven Discontent to Empathy-led Development: What Globally Minded Educators Can Learn from Stiglitz

Abstract

Globalization and Its Discontents is a must-read for those in higher education seeking greater understanding of global economic policy’s key role in shaping globalization’s unfolding. Candidly and insightfully composed by 2001 Nobel Prize winner in economics, Joseph Stiglitz, this personalized narrative presents a brief history of the complex dynamic among global economic institutions and key regions of the world these institutions have impacted, for better or for worse. This review highlights that cultivating a shared global value for reducing inequality is as vital as it is challenging. Organizing shared approaches for addressing inequality present even greater challenges, as international political and economic systems differ enormously. In accessible language, Stiglitz (2003) approaches this complexity with a perceptive eye for trends. This review draws upon neurological and sociological bases for empathy as an active healing agent not only for persons (micro-level), but also for nations and our emerging global society (macro-level).