Social Engineering the Poor

Since World War II, the dominant approaches to social problems in the United States have been centralized, technocratic, and mechanistic. Although undeniably successful on many metrics, these programs and initiatives have also sown the seeds for other kinds of social disorder and deprivation. The rise of technocratic approaches to social problems in the United States, despite good intentions, has harmed the social fabric at all levels of American society, but it has especially disadvantaged the poor.

“Social Engineering the Poor,” part of the Acton Institute’s Towards a Free and Virtuous Society conference series, will explore different sectors of American society for the purpose of exposing what Pope Francis has called the “technocratic paradigm” and how it has tended to erode natural communities in which people flourish.

Over two and a half days, participants will hear engaging presentations from leading scholars and practitioners on a diverse range of topics including education, charity, the market, welfare, the family, and the “built environment” of our communities. This conference aims to provide participants with the opportunity to think through some of the most challenging problems of our time aided by powerful insights from the Judeo-Christian tradition. 

Conference Details

This is a small conference. Participants will have the opportunity to engage the speakers and other attendees throughout the event in a relaxed and comfortable setting including nice meals and evening soirées.

Space is limited, and conference attendance is considered by application only. This conference is ideal for nonprofit professionals, pastors, service ministry staff, and graduate students, but applications of all backgrounds will be considered on a case-by-case basis. 

Conference fees, meals, lodging, and travel will be covered for accepted applicants. Accepted participants will also receive copies of “Rethinking Charity: Restoring Dignity to Poverty Relief” by Ismael Hernandez. 

Questions?

If you have any questions about the event, please email Caleb Whitmer at cwhitmer@acton.org.

Ismael Hernandez is the founder and president of The Freedom & Virtue Institute. The Institute exists to challenge the paternalistic, condescending, and statist way of attending to the problems of poverty in America. Its training on effective compassion and student programs extends throughout the United States and the Caribbean. His writings have appeared in various newspapers, including the Washington Times, as well as such magazines as Crisis and World. He is the author of the book Not Tragically Colored: Freedom, Personhood, and the Renewal of Black America. Ismael holds a master’s degree in political science and lives in Benson, NC with his wife and three children.

Michael Matheson Miller is Chief of Strategic Initiatives and Senior Research Fellow at the Acton Institute. He is the Director and Producer of the award-winning documentary, Poverty, Inc. the PovertyCure DVD Series, and The Good Society Series, and was the founding director of PovertyCure, which promotes entrepreneurial solutions to poverty in the developing world. He writes and speaks extensively on the intersection between moral philosophy and theology and economics, poverty, entrepreneurship, and culture. He is the host of the Moral Imagination Podcast and a Distinguished Fellow at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America, and the author of Digital Contagion and the forthcoming Excluded: How Global Humanitarianism Excludes the Poor from Justice and Prosperity from Crossroad.

John C. Pinheiro, PhD, is Director of Research at the Acton Institute, where he leads the research department of fellows and affiliate scholars, oversees the Journal of Markets and Morality and advises its executive editor, manages book publications, oversees academic grants and awards, and lectures nationally and internationally for Acton on topics such as the American founding. Prior to joining Acton, he was professor of history at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from 2004-2022. Dr. Pinheiro holds a PhD in history from the University of Tennessee, degrees in history and religious studies from California State University, and he studied Italian at Universitá per Stranieri di Perugia.

Rachel Ferguson is an economic philosopher at Concordia University Chicago. As director of the Free Enterprise Center there, she leads a nationwide, cross-disciplinary faculty network that engages questions of liberty and virtue through seminars, conferences, and pedagogy. Dr. Ferguson has been a visiting fellow at the Eudaimonia Institute, and her work can be found in Discourse, the Journal of Markets & Morality, and the Library of Economics and Liberty. Ferguson lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where she is actively involved in community building and empowering marginalized entrepreneurs through LOVEtheLOU and Gateway to Flourishing.