Hope, Despair & Divided Futures in America & Beyond: Can Well-Being Science Save Us From Despair?

On October 24-25, 2024, the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto hosted the 27th annual International Institute on Social Policy: Social Policy in Unsettled Times. We are proud to be the new home of the Institute, and to continue the long and proud tradition of Canada’s premier social policy conference as established by our colleagues at Queen’s University.
We live in a swirling confluence of social, economic, cultural and ecological forces. Inflation has led to sharp increases in the cost of key fundamentals of life - housing, food, energy. Technological change, epitomised by rapid advances in artificial intelligence, disrupts established communities and ways of living. People are also alert to other disruptions - climate impacts, migration pressures, and geopolitical threats - all of which can contribute to a sense of unease and insecurity in their own lives. While none of these trends is new, what seems different is the speed with which they are occurring. The Munk School is bringing together leading international and Canadian experts to ask: What is the role of social policy in this context? In each session we will consider how Canada compares to other countries, and what can be learned from international experience.
Opening Keynote: Hope, Despair & Divided Futures in America & Beyond: Can Well-Being Science Save Us From Despair?
Much attention has been paid to the despair that has been wrought by the disruptive social and economic changes of the past few decades. But less attention has been paid to its inverse: the essential role of hope in engendering resilience in both individuals and communities. Carol Graham brings the tools of economics together with a close exploration of reported experience to addressing the “power of hope” and the role of social policy in providing the resources to support and sustain confidence that a belief that “one can make one’s life better."
Speaker: Carol Graham, Senior Fellow, Economics, Brookings Institution and College Park Professor at the University of Maryland
Moderator: Dan Zuberi, Professor of Social Policy, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto