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SHECP Founding Executive Director Harlan Beckley Releases Book

Dr. Harlan Beckley, SHECP's Founding Executive Director, has authored the new book Rethinking Equal Opportunity: Dignity, Human Capability, and Justice. Based on conversations with colleagues and students and a grounding in recent data on social inequities, Beckley outlines the requirements of fair equality of opportunity beyond economic success. His work helps to broaden our understanding of poverty as a lack of means to achieve desired outcomes rather than just an absence of income and material well-being. His study provides insights into how individuals and social structures can inhibit or enhance the abilities of persons to pursue different ends as well as the freedom to change those desired ends. He deftly delves into issues of legal vs moral judgements, individual capability vs structural capacity, and the essential roles of grace and forgiveness in building a just society.


The idea for the publication arose from Beckley’s leadership of the Shepherd Program for Poverty Studies at Washington and Lee and SHECP. Sascha Goluboff, SHECP's Interim Executive Director, shared her assessment that Beckley’s work is much-needed in today’s world. “With high polarization across so many facets of American society, this book provides the necessary calm and ethical approach to understanding our individual and sociocultural limitations and outlining concrete steps for families, community organizations, and legislatures to increase equal opportunities for all.”


You can read more about Harlan's book here.


On Friday, July 26th, we will kick of this year's Annual Conference with the keynote session, "Rethinking Equal Opportunity: A Conversation with Harlan Beckley" hosted by Notre Dame's Dr. Connie Mick.



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