Since the publication of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sens flagship book "Development as Freedom," development has been redefined in terms of human capability and opportunity. This approach has come to underpin the United Nations Development Programs influential Human Development Reports, and has had considerable significance in both academic and policy circles.

This work explores a new development paradigm whose central focus is on human well-being. Increase in income is treated as an essential means, but not as the end of development, and certainly not as the sum of human life. Development policies and strategies are discussed which link economic growth with human lives in various societies. The book also analyzes the evolution of a new Human Development Index which is a far more comprehensive measure of socio-economic progress of nations than the traditional measure of Gross National Product. For the first time, a Political Freedom Index is also presented. The book offers a new vision of human security for the twenty-first century where real security is equated with security of people in their homes, their jobs, their communities, and their environment. The book discusses many concrete proposals in this context, including a global compact to overcome the worst aspects of global poverty within a decade, key reforms in the Bretton Woods institutions of World Bank and IMF, and establishment of a new Economic Security Council within the United Nations.

Human Development has been advocated as the prime development goal since 1990, when the publication of the first UNDP Human Development Report proposed that development should improve the lives people lead in multiple dimensions instead of primarily pursuing economic growth. This approach forms the foundation of Advancing Human Development: Theory and Practice. It traces the evolution of approaches to development, showing how the Human Development approach emerged as a consequence of defects in earlier strategies. Advancing Human Development argues that Human Development is superior to measures of societal happiness. It investigates the determinants of success and failure in Human Development across countries over the past forty years, taking a multidimensional approach to point to the importance of social institutions and social capabilities as essential aspects of change. It analyses political conditions underlying the performance of Human Development, and surveys global progress in multiple dimensions such as life expectancy, infant mortality, and education and outcomes, whilst reflecting on dimensions which have worsened over time, such as rising inequality and declining environmental conditions. These deteriorating conditions inform Advancing Human Development's account of the challenges to the Human Development approach, covering the insufficient attention paid to macroeconomic conditions and the economic structure needed for sustained success.

"The book is well written and the theorists and their respective work are well-presented and clearly explained. . . . As a text dealing with the historical overview of major theorists and their work in human development over the last century or so, it is extremely strong and could be widely used in a variety of both undergraduate and graduate courses." —Ann C. Diver-Stamnes, Humboldt State University "In general, I found the websites and references listed at the end of each chapter to be very interesting and useful for taking students beyond what is in the text." —Jane Ledingham, University of Ottawa "A fine choice for a classic theories course, and I believe that the level of presentation would be appropriate for advanced undergraduate or graduate students. . . . The up-to-date web sites at the end of each section are a definite plus. The choice of sites is excellent." —Cosby Steele Rogers, Virginia Tech An Introduction to Theories of Human Development examines the development process, looking at the series of changes that occur as a result of an interaction between biological and environmental factors. Why might our behavior as an adult be so different from when we were infants? Why and how does one stage of development follow the next? Are the changes that we experience abrupt in nature or smooth and predictable? Author Neil J. Salkind reflects on such critical questions to help readers understand what happens along the way as one develops from infancy through later life. This book provides a comprehensive view of the primary theoretical models of human development including those from the biological, psychoanalytic, behavioral, and cognitive developmental perspectives. Along with a brief discussion of a historical background for each of these approaches, An Introduction to Theories of Human Development examines the application of these theories to various aspects of human development, such as the effectiveness of early intervention, individual differences, adolescence, and sociobiology. Features of this text: A final, integrative chapter compares the various theories presented in the book using Murry Sidman′s model of six criteria for judging a theory to help develop students′ skills for critically assessing theory. Classic approaches to understanding human behavior across the lifespan are also examined. Pedagogical features such as chapter opening quotes, boxed highlights, key terms, a glossary, and websites for further reading enhance student understanding of everyday human behavior. An Introduction to Theories of Human Development is an accessible text for advanced undergraduate students in the social and behavioral sciences including such fields as psychology, education, human services, nursing, sociology, social welfare, and human development and family studies.

Human Development in an Unequal World deals with the twenty-first-century challenges of unstable economic growth and sustainability and the re-emergence of deprivations and inequalities in multiple realms. It argues that the broader perspective of human development is most suited in reorienting development towards a more equitable, sustainable, and empowering world. The authors discuss the concept and philosophy of the capabilities and human development approach, its measurement, the links between economic growth and human development, and the role of social sector policy, gender equality, and securing sustainability. In doing so, they analyse frameworks, processes, institutions, and actors, and weave together concepts, methods, and evidence from numerous developing countries. The chapters offer an integrated understanding of the importance of capabilities, freedoms, and human flourishing in the process of development. This volume calls for an approach that focuses on the humanness of development and brings people back to the centre stage—a phenomenon that has receded to the background in the neoliberal era.

"This book provides a critical deconstruction of the human development framework promoted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 1990. Taking the Human Development Reports of the UNDP as its starting point for reflection, this book investigates the construction of this framework as well as its political function since the end of the Cold War. The book argues that the UNDP's discourse on development relies on essentialist philosophical, cultural and political assumptions dating back to the 19th century and concludes that these assumptions - also present in the MDGs and SDGs - impede a full grasp of the complex and multi-layered global problems of the current world. Whilst development critiques traditionally relied on liberal, Marxist or Foucauldian theoretical frameworks and focused on epistemological or political economy issues, this book draws on the post-foundational and post-structuralist work of Ernesto Laclau and Jacques Derrida and proposes an ontological and relational reading of development discourses that both complements and further develops the insights of previous critiques. This book is key reading for advanced students and researchers of Critical Development Studies, Political Science, the UN, and Sustainable Development"--

If a country’s Gross Domestic Product increases each year, but so does the percentage of its people deprived of basic education, health care, and other opportunities, is that country really making progress? If we rely on conventional economic indicators, can we ever grasp how the world’s billions of individuals are really managing? In this powerful critique, Martha Nussbaum argues that our dominant theories of development have given us policies that ignore our most basic human needs for dignity and self-respect. For the past twenty-five years, Nussbaum has been working on an alternate model to assess human development: the Capabilities Approach. She and her colleagues begin with the simplest of questions: What is each person actually able to do and to be? What real opportunities are available to them? The Capabilities Approach to human progress has until now been expounded only in specialized works. Creating Capabilities, however, affords anyone interested in issues of human development a wonderfully lucid account of the structure and practical implications of an alternate model. It demonstrates a path to justice for both humans and nonhumans, weighs its relevance against other philosophical stances, and reveals the value of its universal guidelines even as it acknowledges cultural difference. In our era of unjustifiable inequity, Nussbaum shows how—by attending to the narratives of individuals and grasping the daily impact of policy—we can enable people everywhere to live full and creative lives.

Although deeply contested in many ways, the concept of human dignity has emerged as a key idea in fields such as bioethics and human rights. It has been largely absent, however, from literature on development studies. The essays contained in The Practice of Human Development and Dignity fill this gap by showing the implications of human dignity for international development theory, policy, and practice. Pushing against ideas of development that privilege the efficiency of systems that accelerate economic growth at the expense of human persons and their agency, the essays in this volume show how development work that lacks sensitivity to human dignity is blind. Instead, genuine development must advance human flourishing and not merely promote economic betterment. At the same time, the essays in this book also demonstrate that human dignity must be assessed in the context of real human experiences and practices. This volume therefore considers the meaning of human dignity inductively in light of development practice, rather than simply providing a theory or philosophy of human dignity in the abstract. It asks not only “what is dignity” but also “how can dignity be done?” Through a unique multidisciplinary dialogue, The Practice of Human Development and Dignity offers a dialectical and systematic examination of human dignity that moves beyond the current impasse in thinking about the theory and practice of human dignity. It will appeal to scholars in the social sciences, philosophy, and legal and development theory, and also to those who work in development around the globe. Contributors: Paolo G. Carozza, Clemens Sedmak, Séverine Deneulin, Simona Beretta, Dominic Burbidge, Matt Bloom, Deirdre Guthrie, Robert A. Dowd, Bruce Wydick, Travis J. Lybbert, Paul Perrin, Martin Schlag, Luigino Bruni, Lorenza Violini, Giada Ragone, Steve Reifenberg, Elizabeth Hlabse, Catherine E. Bolten, Ilaria Schnyder von Wartensee, Tania Groppi, Maria Sophia Aguirre, and Martha Cruz-Zuniga

Here is a book that challenges the very basis of the way psychologists have studied child development. According to Urie Bronfenbrenner, one of the world's foremost developmental psychologists, laboratory studies of the child's behavior sacrifice too much in order to gain experimental control and analytic rigor. Laboratory observations, he argues, too often lead to "the science of the strange behavior of children in strange situations with strange adults for the briefest possible periods of time." To understand the way children actually develop, Bronfenbrenner believes that it will be necessary to observe their behavior in natural settings, while they are interacting with familiar adults over prolonged periods of time. This book offers an important blueprint for constructing such a new and ecologically valid psychology of development. The blueprint includes a complete conceptual framework for analysing the layers of the environment that have a formative influence on the child. This framework is applied to a variety of settings in which children commonly develop, ranging from the pediatric ward to daycare, school, and various family configurations. The result is a rich set of hypotheses about the developmental consequences of various types of environments. Where current research bears on these hypotheses, Bronfenbrenner marshals the data to show how an ecological theory can be tested. Where no relevant data exist, he suggests new and interesting ecological experiments that might be undertaken to resolve current unknowns. Bronfenbrenner's groundbreaking program for reform in developmental psychology is certain to be controversial. His argument flies in the face of standard psychological procedures and challenges psychology to become more relevant to the ways in which children actually develop. It is a challenge psychology can ill-afford to ignore.

A comprehensive, systematic account of human development which is sensitive to the needs, interests and ecologies of nonwestern cultures and individuals is provided in this unique volume. The importance and value of the sociocultural milieu in shaping the growth and development of children is emphasized, and the author asserts throughout that children do not grow and develop according to the same patterns regardless of culture. The author describes developmental psychology from the perspective of West Africa, demonstrating how the local ecology and the resulting cultural ideology lead to differing ways in which children are conceptualized and socialized, and in turn how they develop. While much of his case material is from