WELCOME!

Welcome to the official blog for RISD's advanced studio,Design for Social Entrepreneurship, Spring 2010. This course aims to cultivate social entrepreneurial designers by investigating the power of products, systems and services to create positive social and environmental change both internationally and domestically.

Instructor: Sloan Kulper, IDSA

Course Planner: Yi Zhang

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Maternal Deaths in Decline Worldwide


Today the New York Times reports that The Lancet, a leading medical journal, has published a study(Maternal mortality for 181 countries, 1980—2008: a systematic analysis of progress towards Millennium Development Goal 5, Hogan, et al. PDF link) that shows a marked decline in maternal deaths worldwide since 1980.

It's interesting to note (as the NYT reports) that the social entrepreneurship community can be conflicted in terms of its opinions of this sort of positive, sweeping social research. On the one hand, the members of social organizations are undoubtedly interested in maintaining the urgency of their mission in the eyes of the public by telling very real stories of tragedy that abound in our flawed planet. This is especially true for issues that, though improving, remain major problems that still deserve to be addressed promptly. Yet, without a sense of progress, all efforts start to seem to be hopeless. Nicholas Kristof has made this point (video) before regarding the seemingly overwhelming problem of forced prostitution.

We should debate this issue of access to clear information vs. maintaing the public's attention in class.

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