New database to provide a clearer portrait of life in the United States
CHICAGO
If you have ever wished for a centralized repository ofdata and information about the living standards of people in the UnitedStates, your wish is about to come true.
The idea for Human and Economic Development in America’s Citiesemerged last month when forty academicians, researchers, policymakers,foundation executives, civic leaders, and journalists met for aweek-long conference at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC). Thereport will be available in book form and as a computerized database.It will make race, age, gender, and regional comparisons of the lifeexpectancy, educational attainment, literacy, incarceration rates, andincomes, of Americans, according to Lord Meghnad Desai, professor andchair of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the LondonSchool of Economics.
Desai is one of the creators of the Human Development Report,produced by the United Nations Development Program, the world’santi-poverty agency. The UNDP report ranks developed and undevelopedcountries based on a human development index.
Wim Weiwel, dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs at UIC,said the UNDP report receives a lot of attention each year and pointsto discrepancies that exist in the world.
The U.S. report, he said, “will compare metropolitan areas in theUnited States and it will call attention to both the good and theproblems in American cities. We are beginning to assemble a veryhigh-quality group of universities, as well as practitioners andjournalists, to help us think through how best to do this.”
In addition to UIC, participating universities include HowardUniversity, Morgan State University, Rutgers University, the Universityof New Orleans, Governors State University, the University ofWisconsin, Cleveland State University, Northeastern University, and theUniversity of Chicago.
