In a January 2011 Winter Term Class, “Twenty-First Century Global Challenges,”  21 Middlebury students studied great challenges of our time – including wide-scale poverty, climate change, and the struggle for human rights. They then analyzed how social entrepreneurs – individuals and groups who are developing new ways to attack systematic problems – are taking on these challenges.  For example, Nina Cameron ’12 studied how the Global Network is trying to reduce the prevalence of neglected tropical diseases; Erin Kelly ’13 studied how the University of the Peopleis providing tuition-free higher-education throughout the developing world.  The students also spend much of the course developing a vision for a new center for social entrepreneurship based at Middlebury College.  On this MiddLab, we report the ongoing results of this work.

People Jonathan Isham, Jr. Professor of Economics Wahid Ahmed Catherine Brown Nina Cameron Brian Clow Thomas Crocker Matthew Engel Stuart Fram Allison Grant Mark Hannah Paul Hildebrand Aaron Kelly Claire McIlvennie Olivia Noble Bradley Osborn Devin Perkins Hilary Platt Jeronimo Riefkohl Martin Sweeney Rhidaya Trivedi Kenneth Williams Nicole Williams

The Ripple Effect in India

Related Links Social Entrepreneurship in the Liberal Arts – Jonathan Isham (The Middlebury Campus, January 20, 2011) The Development Project Management Institute (DPMI) at MIIS Careers in the Common Good Old Stone Mill The Alliance for Civic Engagement Fred Kropp’s course on social entrepreneurship at MIIS

Downloads Reducing the prevalence of neglected tropical diseases – Nina Cameron ’12 Increasing access to tertiary education in the developing world – Aaron Kelly ’13 A vision for the Hassenfeld Center at Middlebury College – the students of ES380 A 2007 paper on social entrepreneurship at Middlebury – David Hopkins ’06.5 Social Entrepreneurship Collaboratories – Gordon Bloom (Harvard ’82) A recent talk from Bill Gates on Education for the Real World

Chinese household registration policy classifies each citizen as either an urban or rural dweller. As China’s coastal urban economies began to rapidly develop in the late 19070s and 1980s, many rural dwellers migrated to cities in search of higher wages. These migrant laborers were not able to receive the services provided to urban dwellers by local city governments. Preliminary results show that employers are more likely to offer these types of increased compensation when they are located in more mature job markets where the supply of jobs exceeds demand.

People Doug Shultz Researcher Anne Knowles Associate Professor of Geography and Advisor

Related Links Spring Student Symposium 2002 Chinese Household Income Survey

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This research explores these markets from  cultural, geographic, political, and economic angles, concentrating on an aspect peculiar to each city. Thanks in part to its strategic crossroads location, the Antwerp market developed earliest, nurturing a dynamic, cosmopolitan scene. In Amsterdam, we shall also discuss financial difficulties that artists, notably Rembrandt, may have faced. Lastly, we shall leave the continent, venturing across the English Channel to roost in London, which itself came to showcase a glittering auction and art market, dominated by the royalty and aristocracy.

People Sophia Wang Researcher Pieter Broucke Professor of History of Art and Architecture; Associate Curator of Ancient Art

Related Links This research was part of the Greece vs. Rome exhibit at the Middlebury College Museum of Art. FYSE1279: Greece vs. Rome

Downloads Presentation Slides Watch the Presentation with the Slides (RealMedia) Photos of the Greece Versus Rome Exhibit: Wall portraits Manuscripts

Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city, has grown and thrived primarily through commerce. Often the most important kind of commerce in the city is informal buying and selling at unfixed prices in unfixed or temporary locations. Important aspects of Tapatían (Guadalajaran) culture are represented in the day-to-day activity of street vendors and tianguis (open-air markets). This presentation is adapted from a long-form essay (in Spanish), written during a semster on Middlebury’s program in Guadalajara.

People J.P. Allen Researcher Nicole Chance Coordinator of International Programs & Sponsor

Related Links C.V. Starr School in Latin America

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The business model of the food industry, as it stands today, is unsustainable.  To counter these negative trends, organizations like Slow Food International have begun to champion the importance of “quality” for health, the environment, and the art of gastronomy. But what does quality mean and what will be its impact on the global food industry? An analysis of wines produced in France and labeled with the government-sponsored quality certification system, Appelation d’Origine Contrôlée, reveals that an emphasis on quality and geography, rather than brand, makes the food market more monopolistically competitive, more inclusive yet hierarchical.

People Emily Gullickson Researcher Thierry Warin Sponsor and Associate Professor of Economics Lynn Owens Sponsor and Assistant Professor of Sociology

Related Links Spring Student Symposium

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