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Can technology solve global poverty?

Ideas Matter, a joint project of Boston Review and MIT’s Department of Political Science, is a lecture series that brings Boston Review writers together with other experts and practitioners for substantive debate on the challenges of our times.

The first event in the series — which will take place from 4-6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 2, in Wong Auditorium — attempts to answer the question, “Can technology solve global poverty?”

The media and international-development advocates can’t stop trumpeting information and communications technology for development (“ICT4D”). But, drawing on his fieldwork in India, Kentaro Toyama argues that cell phones and the Web can take us only so far. Human capacity remains the foundation of economic growth. Joining the debate are Nicholas Negroponte, Rachel Glennerster, and José Gómez-Márquez. Archon Fung moderates.

There will be nine events in the Ideas Matter series, all free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Ideas Matter website.

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