Human Development Report 1998


Book Description

This 9th edition of The Human Development Report focuses on consumption patterns prevalent in today's world. It provides unique data tables updated annually and derived from a set of human development indicators.




Economic Complexity and Human Development


Book Description

This book combines the human development approach and innovation economics in order to explore the effects that structural economic change has on human development. While economic diversification can provide valuable new social choices and capabilities, it also tends to lead to more complex decision processes and changes to the set of capabilities required by people to self-determine their future. Within this process of structural transformation, social networks are crucial for accessing information and social support, but networks can also be a root cause of exclusion and inequality reproduction. This implies the need to encourage innovation and economic diversification beyond production expansion, focusing on the promotion of human agency and social inclusion. This book provides such a modern perspective on development economics, emphasizing the role of social networks, economic diversity and entrepreneurship for social welfare. The author discusses how innovation, social networks, economic dynamics and human development are interlinked, and provides several practical examples of social and micro-entrepreneurship in contexts as diverse as Peruvian rural villages and Brazil’s urban areas. The interdisciplinary perspective put forward in this book illustrates theoretical and methodological methods of exploring the complexity of development in a practical and relevant way. It also provides useful information about structural factors which need to be considered by practitioners when designing pro-poor growth policies. Furthermore, the coverage of the core concepts of innovation, networks and development economics, enriched with multiple examples, makes it a valuable resource for scholars and advanced students of modern development economics.







Human Development Report 2007/2008


Book Description

This year's Human Development Report explains why we have less than a decade to change course and start living within our global carbon budget, and how climate change will create long-run low human development traps, pushing vulnerable people into a downward spiral of deprivation.




Human Development Report 1993


Book Description

Since its headline-making debut, the Human Development Report has become an essential resource for development specialists, economists, and political scientists around the world. While previous Human Development Reports focused on investment in people, the 1993 Report not only updates the findings of the earlier volumes, but shifts the focus towards the "other" side of human development--mobilizing and utilizing human potential. The Report surveys the instruments for enhancing and encouraging participatory patterns of development, including privatization and participatory market structures, vertical and horizontal decentralization of government functions, devolution of government powers, enterprise decentralization, involvement of NGOs and other grass-roots organizations, and empowerment of people. It probes the vital connections between employment and development, and offers a global framework for employment that takes into account the growing pressure for international migration. In addition, it examines links between human development and international markets for ucts, capital, and labor, and presents updated human development indicators for more than 160 countries.




The Limits to Growth


Book Description

Examines the factors which limit human economic and population growth and outlines the steps necessary for achieving a balance between population and production. Bibliogs




Consumption, Population, and Sustainability


Book Description

The combined contributions of science and religion to resolving environmental problems are far greater than each could offer working in isolation. Scientific findings are central to understanding the impact of human populations on the environment, but a more ecologically sustainable future will require radical changes in values, lifestyle choices, and consumption patterns -- a revolution that falls squarely within the domain of the religious community. Consumption, Population, and Sustainability is an outgrowth of a conference sponsored jointly by the Boston Theological Institute and the American Association for the Advancement of Science that brought together more than 250 scientists and people of religious faith to discuss the environmental impact of consumption patterns and population trends, and to consider alternative and more equitable value systems, economic arrangements, and technologies that will be necessary for achieving a more sustainable future. The book: provides a brief history of the dialogue between science and religion on environmental issues outlines potential contributions of the religious community to the debate about global sustainability offers a science-based assessment of issues such as carrying capacity, sustainability indicators, and the environmental impacts of consumer-based lifestyles considers religious and theological perspectives on consumption and population from a variety of viewpoints including Roman Catholic, Jewish, Greek Orthodox, and Islamic examines the ethical and policy dimensions of reorienting today's consumer society to one more focused on values, spiritual growth, and relationships. Both the scientific and religious communities can make important contributions to understanding and responding to the impact of population growth and consumption patterns on environmental sustainability. This volume represents a significant step in establishing an ongoing dialogue between the communities, and provides a thought-provoking overview of the issues for scientists, theologians, and anyone concerned with the future of global sustainability.




SDG12 - Sustainable Consumption and Production


Book Description

This book takes a wide-ranging and non-dogmatic view of SDG12, tackling various approaches as to how production and consumption can provide for human well-being while minimizing destructive effects on the biophysical environment.




Applications of Flow in Human Development and Education


Book Description

The third volume of the collected works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi covers his work on the application of flow in areas that go beyond the field of leisure where the concept was first applied. Based on his personal experience with schooling and learning, as well as that of many others and contrary to what Cicero claimed, Csikszentmihalyi arrived at the conclusion that instead of taking pride in making the roots of knowledge as bitter as possible, we should try to make them sweeter. Just as flow became a popular and useful concept in voluntary activities, it could likewise be applied in education with the end result of young people being more likely to continue learning not just because they have to but because they want to. This volume brings together a number of articles in which Csikszentmihalyi develops ideas about how to make education and more generally the process of learning to live a good life, more enjoyable. Since theory is the mother of good practice, the first eleven chapters are devoted to theoretical reflections. Some are general and explore what it means to be a human being, what it means to be a person, when we look at life from the perspective of flow. Others are more narrowly focused on such topics as consumption, education, teaching and learning. They help laypeople reflect how they can arrange their lives in such a way as to leave a small ecological footprint while getting the most enjoyment. The second section of the volume contains a dozen empirical articles on similar topics. They deal with the development of identity and self-worth; with the formation of goals and motivation; with loneliness and family life.




Human Development Report 1994


Book Description

Expounds a new concept of human security- one that focuses on the security of people in their homes, in their jobs, in their communities and in their environment.