The Creation of the Human Development Approach

This book examines the main reasons and challenges for the success of the human development approach both in theory and practice as an alternative to the economic growth model. Unlike the preceding research which has typically been either theoretical/prescriptive or empirical/descriptive, it follows a pragmatic historical and institutional methodology, since human development cannot be understood without considering the complexities added centrally by the formation process in the UNDP. Referring to the capability approach, it also addresses how to best reflect happiness within this paradigm.

Offers unprecedented historical and institutional context to understanding the human development approach Revives critical discussions around the evolution and value of the now-popular human development index (HDI) Presents pointed policy suggestions for how the human development approach can overcome its current challenges

Autorentext
Tadashi Hirai is Project Researcher in the University of Tokyo, Japan, and a supervisor specializing in the human development approach and the human development index at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Klappentext
This book examines the main reasons for the success of the human development approach as an alternative to the economic growth model of development. Is human development theoretically richer, as claimed by its advocates, than any other development concepts including the mainstream? Is its measurement, the human development index (HDI), better than other proposed indices of well-being? Is there anything to be revised to keep its influence for the future? The methodology used throughout this book follows a historical and institutional approach on the ground that human development cannot be understood without taking into account the complexities added by the formation process. Quite often, human development debates are either theoretical and prescriptive or empirical and descriptive. Instead, this book provides a 'meso-analysis' of human development by means of a more pragmatic historical and institutional methodology, avoiding the other two extremes that have already been covered by philosophers and field-experts.

Inhalt

1. History of Development: Towards Human Development .- 2. Institutionalisation of Development Concepts .- 3. Measurement of Development: Predecessors of the Human Development Index .- 4. The Human Development Index and Its Evolution .- 5. Happiness in Human Development.