Global Dignity & Humiliation Mapping and Assessment Initiative

Among the most important results of the Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict that was held at Columbia University on December 14-15, 2006, was the inception of a Dignity and Humiliation Assessment Developing Initiative. Please see a description of the development of this initiative from 2005 onwards.

Many had suggested, already years before, that we need to find a way to measure humiliation in societies so that we can show to policy makers that humiliation is relevant and needs to be included into public policy making (see also our Public Policy for Equal Dignity project). Ultimately, all institutions (from marriage to the United Nations), it was suggested, would need scrutiny and restructuring so as to prevent that they have humiliating effects.

Please see our sessions on Dignity & Humiliation Assessment so far, at our 2006, 2007 and 2008 Workshops on Humiliation and Violent Conflict in New York, and our 2008 Conference in Norway.

Please see furthermore other related pages on this website, for example, our Research Methodology page, our Research Projects page, and our Publications page.

If possible, we would like to publish the results of our Dignity and Humiliation Assessment Developing Initiative on this page (and later on a specifically dedicated page to which we link from here) so that they can be accessed by policy makers and other users.

Other publication outlets for our researchers are our HumanDHS journal (now dormant) as well as any other suitable journal.

We differentiate two main goals for our initiative:

1. Research goal: We want to measure the complexity of dignity and humiliation (and we acknowledge that this is infinitely difficult).

2. Activism goal: The function of a "Country Index" or "World Regions Index" would not be to cover the entire complexity of dignity and humiliation, but to devise a tool that is "just sufficient" to show differences that could be useful for public policy making.

While the first goal requires a focus on a comprehensive covering of the phenomena of dignity and humiliation, the second goal would be served by a "just-enough" approach. The second goal is similar to global warming — we need to act on information that is "just enough;" it would be misguided to wait until all aspects of global warming are comprehensively documented, because then it may be too late.



Material & Links

Authentic Happiness Questionnaire Center
at Martin Seligman's homepage at University of Pennsylvania.

Course on Assessing Human Rights Online at Wikiversity, by Lee Beaumont
Lee Beaumont kindly wrote on 6th October 10.2016: I now have a course on assessing human rights on-line at Wikiversity. This work actually began nearly 9 years ago with your work to create a Humiliation index. At that time I worked to create a questionnaire. Then about 1 ½ years ago, I wrote a future fiction story describing an Olympics-style event that focus on human rights, rather than sports contests. Early this summer I was encouraged to involve University students, so I began working with Monmouth University professors, local to this area. They seem enthusiastic about the idea, and plan to involve students in researching and writing human rights assessment reports to begin to fill in the assessment grid. As always, please feel free to share this information as widely as you wish. Thanks! Lee Beaumont.
[See more here]

Dignity Index- A Developing Proposal
See a summary of proposals, developed for the 12th annual dignity conference, by Lee Beaumont.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. The UPR is a significant innovation of the Human Rights Council which is based on equal treatment for all countries. It provides an opportunity for all States to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to overcome challenges to the enjoyment of human rights. The UPR also includes a sharing of best human rights practices around the globe. Currently, no other mechanism of this kind exists. See a 2011 Draft report of the Human Rights Council on its sixteenth session. We thank Lee Beaumont for intending to contribute to this initiative.

International Labour Organization (ILO) Decent Work Programmes
Decent Work Country Programmes have been established as the main vehicle for delivery of ILO support to countries. DWCPs have two basic objectives. They promote decent work as a key component of national development strategies. At the same time they organise ILO knowledge, instruments, advocacy and cooperation at the service of tripartite constituents in a results-based framework to advance the Decent Work Agenda within the fields of comparative advantage of the Organization. Tripartism and social dialogue are central to the planning and implementation of a coherent and integrated ILO programme of assistance to constituents in member States. DWCPs are the distinct ILO contribution to UN country programmes and constitute one main instrument to better integrate regular budget and extra-budgetary technical cooperation. Each DWCP is organised around a limited number of country programme priorities and outcomes. These are further detailed in an implementation plan. Monitoring and evaluation guidelines complement this approach. A DWCP is the expression of the ILO Programme and Budget in a country. The country programme priorities and outcomes reflect the strategic results framework of the ILO, adapted to national situations and priorities. In turn Programme and Budget strategic outcomes and indicators are based on Decent Work Country Programme outcomes.
We thank Kevin Lyonette for making us aware of this work.

The Social Cohesion Radar
Social cohesion is an elusive concept eliciting positive associations. But to ensure a systematic measurement of cohesion, it is important to know exactly what cohesion is. The Bertelsmann Stiftung has launched the Social Cohesion Radar in an effort to inform the policy debate concerning cohesion. The purpose of the study is to provide a better understanding of current social changes and trends for the future.

The Happy Planet Index: 2012 Report Map of Peacekeeping Operations Around the World Gapminder
Gapminder is a non-profit venture – a modern “museum” on the Internet – promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
Gapminder was founded in Stockholm by Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund and Hans Rosling on February 25, 2005. Gapminder is registered as a Foundation at Stockholm County Administration Board (Länstyrelsen i Stockholm) with registration number (organisationsnummer) 802424-7721. In March 2007, Google acquired Trendalyzer from the Gapminder Foundation and the team of developers who formerly worked for Gapminder joined Google in California in April 2007. See a demonstration video by Hans Rosling.

Measuring Peace in the Media
An analysis of 37 TV news programmes from 23 networks in 15 countries cross-referenced with the Global Peace Index. The study presents a fact-based approach into understanding the accuracy of international television networks coverage of peace, violence and conflict.
Please read more at http://www.visionofhumanity.org/.

Global Peace Index
The Global Peace Index (GPI) is an attempt to measure the relative position of nations’ and regions’ peacefulness. It is the product of Institute for Economics and Peace and developed in consultation with an international panel of peace experts from peace institutes and think tanks with data collected and collated by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Genuine Progress Indicator
The GPI is one of the first alternatives to the GDP to be vetted by the scientific community and used regularly by governmental and non-governmental organizations worldwide. Redefining Progress advocates for the adoption of the GPI as a tool for sustainable development and planning.

2010 Global Peace Index Discussion at the United Nations
Thursday, June 10, 2010, New York, United States.

ISO 26000
ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, has decided to launch the development of an International Standard providing guidelines for social responsibility (SR) named ISO 26000 or simply ISO SR and is expected to be released in 2010[1]. Contents [hide] 1 Guidance without certification 2 Project aim 3 Development leadership 4 Target: wide range 5 References 6 See also 7 External links
Please see more at http://www.sis.se/upload/632755963519968005.pdf. We thank Ulrich Spalthoff for making us aware of ISO 26000.

State of the USA
A system of US national measurements, a “key national indicators” system or a national-indicators panel, run by the National Academy of Sciences... "The State of the USA intends to ultimately post around 300 indicators on issues like crime, energy, infrastructure, housing, health, education, environment and the economy. Those involved with the self-defined indicators movement — people like Hoenig, as well as
supporters around the world who would like to dethrone G.D.P. — argue that achieving a
sustainable economy, and a sustainable society, may prove impossible without new ways to
evaluate national progress. Left unanswered, however, is the question of which indicators are the
most suitable replacements for, or most suitable enhancements to, G.D.P. Should they measure
educational attainment or employment? Should they account for carbon emissions or happiness?... Simon Kuznets, the inventor of so-called national accounts — the collection of indicators calculated by the Bureau of Economic Analysis that now includes G.D.P. and a host of other economic and financial measures — actually harbored concerns about his creation from the start. As Steve Landefeld pointed out to me, Kuznets worried that the nation’s economic activity might be mistaken for its citizens’ well-being. Many years later, in Kuznets’s Nobel Prize lecture in 1971, he also offered a list of ways his measures might be improved. “It seems fairly clear,” he said then, “that a number of analytical and measurement problems remain in the theory and in the evaluation of economic growth.”... So far only one measure has succeeded in challenging the hegemony of growth-centric thinking. This is known as the Human Development Index, which turns 20 this year. The H.D.I. is a ranking that incorporates a nation’s G.D.P. and two other modifying factors: its citizens’ education, based on adult literacy and school-enrollment data, and its citizens’ health, based on life-expectancy statistics. The H.D.I., which happens to be used by the United Nations, has plenty of critics. For example, its three-part weightings are frequently criticized for being arbitrary; another problem is that minor variations in the literacy rates of developed nations, for example, can yield significant differences in how countries rank... Amartya Sen joined the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and the French economist Jean-Paul Fitoussi on a commission established by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to consider alternatives to G.D.P.... The Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission, as it eventually came to be known — its official title was the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress — grew to about two dozen members and met in Europe and the U.S. several times in 2008 and 2009... Stiglitz and his fellow academics ultimately concluded that assessing a population’s quality of life will require metrics from at least seven categories: health, education, environment, employment, material well-being, interpersonal connectedness and political engagement." (The Rise and Fall of the G.D.P.)

The Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission
The Commission on the measurement of economic performance and social progress has been created at the beginning of 2008 on French government's initiative. Increasing concerns have been raised since a long time about the adequacy of current measures of economic performance, in particular those based on GDP figures. Moreover, there are broader concerns about the relevance of these figures as measures of societal well-being, as well as measures of economic, environmental, and social sustainability. Reflecting these concerns, President Sarkozy has decided to create this Commission, to look at the entire range of issues. Its aim is to identify the limits of GDP as an indicator of economic performance and social progress, to consider additional information required for the production of a more relevant picture, to discuss how to present this information in the most appropriate way, and to check the feasibility of measurement tools proposed by the Commission. Commission's work is not focused on France, nor on developed countries. The output of the Commission will be made public, providing a template for every interested country or group of countries. The Commission is chaired by Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz, Columbia University. Professor Amartya Sen, Harvard University, is Chair Adviser. Professor Jean-Paul Fitoussi, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, President of the Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE), is Coordinator of the Commission. Members of the Commission are renowned experts from universities, governmental and intergovernmental organisations, in several countries (USA, France, United Kingdom, India). Rapporteurs and secretariat are provided by the French national statistical institute (Insee), OFCE, and OECD. The Commission held its first plenary meeting on 22 - 23 April 2008 in Paris. It is expected to give in its final report after one year.
See more at http://www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr/en/index.htm.

Redefining Progress’ Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)
Redefining Progress, a San Francisco-based policy organization (www.rprogress.org), is at the forefront of the alternative economic/social indicator movement. Their Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) adjusts the GDP to account for “negative” growth (such as resource depletion and spending for crime prevention) versus “positive” growth. Its goal is to create a single-number indicator that will supplant GDP as a measure of economic and social welfare...
Read more at http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/prb0022-e.htm#B B. We thank Brian Ward for this link.

Lee Beaumont and Brian Ward on Wolfram Alpha and the Global Peace Index
On May 23, 2009, Lee Beaumont wrote: "I am intrigued by the recent release of Wolfram Alpha. See www.wolframalpha.com/. It is a powerful and innovative tool for marshalling data to solve problems. Perhaps you will be interested in my recent article proposing Wolfram Alpha be put to work measuring human rights. See: http://emotionalcompetency.blogspot.com/2009/05/measuring-human-rights-with-wolfram.html." Brian Ward responds: "To gain accurate data that can be compared between societies, cultures or countries could be difficult. Many people don’t have the knowledge to answer the questions and many people wouldn’t answer out of fear or answer incorrectly. Governments could not be relied on to answer correctly on behalf of people. Maybe we need ‘Hans Blix’ type of people to gather the information. Possibly they would be denied access to the areas of greatest need. www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/about-gpi/methodology.php is a link to the Global Peace Index study – Maybe peace measured this way has a correlation to extent of humiliation."

Culture of Peace Assessment Tools by Robert Stewart, Canadian Culture of Peace Program
"The world is dangerous not because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything." - Albert Einstein
WHAT FUTURE WILL YOU CREATE? - the Canadian Peace Initiative (“CPI”), which is based on the principle that peace starts at home, with ‘me’. CPI is a process to provide the venues, support and guidance to ‘Open Space to Open Minds and Hearts to Peace’. It is open, transparent, patient and committed, drawing people from all walks of life, freeing them from their stasis and mobilizing them. Understanding that everyone is a peace leader and peace educator, emphasis is placed on helping people to be more effective leaders and educators, drawing on their own potential and inner strengths, galvanizing, inspiring and energizing the peace movement. Peace education (raising social intelligence and building successful relationships) is our best investment and information our most important resource. As we take ownership of peace others will follow – because it will be uplifting and empowering, it will be infectious, and lead to sudden, massive, cultural change. The CPI process has led to the Canadian Culture of Peace Program. See http://www.cultureofpeace.ca and http://www.peace.ca.

Special Meetings of our Dignity and Humiliation Mapping and Assessment Team with Jack Goldstone, Hroar Klempe, Finn Tschudi, Vegar Jordanger, Linda Hartling, Rick Slaven, Evelin Lindner at our 11th Annual HumanDHS conference in Norway, 25th and 26th June 2008
• Summary of the meetings by Vegar Jordanger
• Summary notes of the meetings by Linda Hartling

The MisFortune 500 List
The MisFortune 500 list features corporations whose practices have negative impacts on women's rights, lives and livelihoods, from working conditions to food sovereignty, access to natural resources to living wages, discrimination to harassment. Browse by the list by company, region, industry or topic.

The Power of Information Taskforce
The UK government has launched a competition to find innovative ways of using the masses of data it collects. It is hoping to find new uses for public information in the areas of criminal justice, health and education. The Power of Information Taskforce - headed by cabinet office minister Tom Watson - is offering a £20,000 prize fund for the best ideas. To help with the task, the government is opening up gigabytes of information from a variety of sources...
Please read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/7484131.stm.

China Plans Harmonious Society Measurement Standard
Wang Jinhua, deputy director of the Rural Areas Division of the Grassroots Political Power Building Department under the Ministry of Civil Affairs in China, has told local media that China is studying ways to create an index system for quantifying a harmonious society...
Read more at http://www.chinacsr.com/2007/10/11/1744-china-plans-harmonious-society-measurement-standard/.

Transparency International
Transparency International is the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption.

UN Indices
- UN Human Development Indices: Composite indices - HDI and beyond

Humiliation Index Ideas
•  Beaumont, Lee (2008), Humiliation Index Ideas, contribution prepared for the Global Dignity & Humiliation Assessment Initiative, 2008.
•  Beaumont, Lee (2007), Metrics - A Practical Example, and Thoughts on a Measurements Plan, contribution prepared for the 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York, December 13-14, 2007.

Contributions to the Global Dignity & Humiliation Assessment Initiative Session at the HumanDHS Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict in NY in December 2007
•  Sabina Alkire and Emma Samman (Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative)
Shortlisted Indicators on Humiliation, and a Note Explaining Research Interests and Progress to Date at OPHI (2007), contribution prepared for the 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York, December 13-14, 2007 (see also a Paper on Shame and Humiliation (2007) by Diego Zavaleta Reyles).
•  Hroar Klempe & Torbjørn Rundmo (Department of Psychology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway), The Reliability and Validity of a Measurement Instrument of Culture Defined As Symbol Exchange (2007), contribution prepared for the 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York, December 13-14, 2007, as Power Point presentation and as Pdf file.
•  Sophie Schaarschmidt, contribution prepared for the 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York, December 13-14, 2007.
•  Linda Hartling
- Humiliation: Assessing the Specter of Derision, Degradation, and Debasement, Doctoral dissertation, Union Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1996.
- Humiliation: Assessing the Impact of Derision, Degradation, and Debasement, first published by: The Journal of Primary Prevention, 1999, 19(4): 259-278.
•  Emanuela C. Del Re, The Role of Dignity and Humiliation for Security (2007)
•  Maggie O'Neill, Maggie's theoretical concept of ethno-mimesis (the inter-connection of sensitive ethnographic work and visual re-presentations) is a methodological tool as well as a process for exploring lived experience, displacement, exile, belonging and humiliation.
•  Lone Alice Johansen, African Solutions to African Intergroup Conflicts: Ubuntu and Humiliation - A Study of Ubuntu and Its Effect on Perceived Humiliation in a Interactive Track Two Dialogue Seminar (2007)
•  Lee Beaumont, Metrics - A Practical Example, and Thoughts on a Measurements Plan (2007), contribution prepared for the 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York, December 13-14, 2007.
•  Michael Sayler, Tracking Humiliation with CMM (2007), contribution prepared for the 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York, December 13-14, 2007.
•  Jennifer S. Goldman, The Differential Effects of Collective-level vs. Personal-level Humiliating Experiences (2007), Doctoral dissertation in Social-Organizational Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, focusing on the role that humiliation plays in exacerbating violent social conflict.
•  Floyd Webster Rudmin
- Preventing Inadvertent Humiliation (2006)
- Six Research Designs on Humiliation (2005)
•  James Westaby (unfortunately hindered to join us)
•  Pamela H. Creed (unfortunately hindered to join us)

Global Humiliation Assessment Team Background Document, status December 2007
Among the most important results of the Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict that was held at Columbia University on December 14-15, 2006, was the inception of a Dignity and Humiliation Assessment Developing Initiative. Please see here a description of the development of this initiative from 2005 onwards.
Many suggest, since years, that we need to find a way to measure humiliation in societies so that we can show to policy makers that humiliation is relevant and needs to be included into public policy making (see also our Public Policy for Equal Dignity project). Ultimately, all institutions (from marriage to the United Nations) need scrutiny and restructuring so as to prevent that they have humiliating effects.
Please see our sessions on Dignity & Humiliation Assessment so far, at our 2006 and 2007 Workshops on Humiliation and Violent Conflict in New York.
Please see furthermore other related pages on this website, for example, our Research Methodology page, our Research Projects page, and our Publications page.
We envisage to publish the results of our Dignity and Humiliation Assessment Developing Initiative on this page (and later on a specifically dedicated page to which we link from here) so that they can be accessed by policy makers and other users.
Other publication outlets for our researchers are our HumanDHS journal as well as any other suitable journal.

Preparation and Method
•  Lindner, Evelin G. (2000). Preparation and Method, in The Psychology of Humiliation: Somalia, Rwanda / Burundi, and Hitler's Germany. Oslo: University of Oslo, Department of Psychology, Doctoral Dissertation in Psychology, pp. 103-131.
•  Lindner, Evelin G. (2001). How Research Can Humiliate: Critical Reflections on Method, in Journal for the Study of Peace and Conflict, Annual Edition 2001-2002, pp. 16-36.

 

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