The anti-globalization movement is not even about globalization, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen. The protests held by those opposed to globalization are among the most globalized events in the world. Amartya Sen says there are several misconceptions that dominate conversations about globalization. Tonight, he sets them straight.

Globalization is not new, as many people portray it as, nor is it only a Westernization, Sen points out. Although today much of the flow of ideas and influence goes from West to East, it wasn’t that long ago that Europe was absorbing Chinese technology and Arabic mathematics.

Globalization is not inherently a bad thing, Sen also argues. It has enriched the world culturally and economically. Globalization itself does not cause global inequality, and it needs to be part of the solution to that inequality.

“The predicament of the poor cannot be reversed by withholding from them the great advantages of contemporary technology, the efficiency of international trade and exchange, and the social and economic merits of living in open, rather than closed, societies,” Sen writes.

This hour, looking at globalization in a new way with Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen.

Guests:

Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize-winning economist, author of “Development as Freedom”