In the field of economics, people are trained to think and act rationally. Oftentimes, a professional peace building team or council is partially composed of economists that provide insights on economic development in the affected zones. Nowadays, practitioners start to question the effectiveness of the work that they have done to mitigate the plight around the world – whether or not their work is what the affected/victims want.
Professor Glenzer said that practitioners nowadays are trying to draw more from the behavioral economics – a contemporary field tells you that people make logical assumptions of economic rationality that do not reflect people’s actual choices, and does not take into account cognitive biases. In other words, people do not know when they are biased in decision-making. Westerners’ philosophies may not apply to the philosophy of people in the undeveloped or developing countries. This is what actually happening the conflict zones – victims sometimes expressed to the practitioners that their work is not what they want.
Professor Glenzer recommended a book that we all should read before going to the field. This book is also my favorite when I studied behavioral economics – Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, which tells you how people actually think in reality. He further stressed that doing any sorts of development work is important to understand how other people think and react. He also emphasized that the importance of ACTION RESEARCH necessarily for peace building and development work – people with the problem get to research the problem. As an Economics major, I hope I can integrate the behavioral economic knowledge and mindset in my peace building work/projects in the future.
