Professor Markovits Delivers Lecture in New Delhi

Professor Daniel Markovits ’00 delivered the 10th Distinguished Lecture at the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) in New Delhi, India, on Dec. 8.

His lecture, titled “The Good Life After the Age of Growth,” traced the history of growth as an idea and a reality, arguing that humanity must find new ideals in the face of growth’s globally destructive impacts.

Markovits’ lecture comprised two parts. The first situated “growth” within historical context, revealing how an ethic of ever-unfinished expansion came to dominate the world. The second took stock of the growth-induced crises — most notably, climate change — that face the world today. In his talk, Markovits considered what role education might play in forging new ideals to guide institutions and individuals after the decline of growth.

MGIEP is an educational research agency supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Headquartered in New Delhi, the Institute harnesses education to advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. MGIEP hosts classes and workshops, formulates policy proposals, and contributes to scholarly discourse.

Markovits is the Guido Calabresi Professor of Law at Yale Law School and the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Private Law at Yale Law School. He has published widely in leading scholarly and popular publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. The American Prospect named Markovits to its list of the world’s top 50 thinkers in 2021.

Markovits’ forthcoming book, tentatively titled The Good Life After the Age of Growth, shares the title of his lecture. His most recent book, The Meritocracy Trap: How America’s Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite, was published by Penguin Press in 2019.