1,543 research outputs found
Structures and meanings : a way to introduce argumentation analysis in policy studies education
No full textreasoning;logic;policy analysis;policy sciences
Four suggestions for the Rearticulation of Human Development
No full textDes Gasper looks at the evolution of the human development
discourse before and since the initiation of the Human
Development Reports in 1990. He makes suggestions for
rethinking the concept, such as seeing it as part of a set
of interlinked concepts that include human security, and
emphasising the need for local- and national-level human
development reporting
What is the capability approach?: its core, rationale, partners and dangers
No full textdevelopment theory; human development; quality of life; social values; freedom;
Global ethics and global strangers : beyond the inter-national relations framework : an essay in descriptive ethics
No full textethics;globalization;boundaries;individuals;international relations
Nussbaum's capabilities approach in perspective : purposes, methods and sources for an ethics of human development
No full textmethodology;ethics;comparative analysis;human development
Polymer multimode waveguide optical and electronic PCB manufacturing
No full textThe paper describes the research in the £1.3 million IeMRC Integrated Optical and Electronic Interconnect PCB Manufacturing (OPCB) Flagship Project in which 8 companies and 3 universities carry out collaborative research and which was formed and is technically led by the author. The consortium’s research is aimed at investigating a range of fabrication techniques, some established and some novel, for fabricating polymer multimode waveguides from several polymers, some formulations of which are being developed within the project. The challenge is to develop low cost waveguide manufacturing techniques compatible with commercial PCB manufacturing and to reduce their alignment cost. The project aims to take the first steps in making this hybrid optical waveguide and electrical copper track printed circuit board disruptive technology widely available by establishing and incorporating waveguide design rules into commercial PCB layout software and transferring the technology for fabricating such boards to a commercial PCB manufacturer. To focus the research the project is designing an optical waveguide backplane to tight realistic constraints, using commercial layout software with the new optical design rules, for a demonstrator into which 4 daughter cards are plugged, each carrying an aggregate of 80 Gb/s data so that each waveguide carries 10 Gb/s
Human well-being : concepts and conceptualizations
No full textsocial welfare;comparative analysis;social theory;human development;socioeconomic indicators
Dennis Goulet
No full text__Abstract__
The human development approach emerged in the late 1980s in response to the negative effects of structural adjustment programmes applied to countries in the South. Led originally by two South Asian scholars, Mahbub ul Haq and Amartya Sen, in cooperation with a large international network, the approach is comparative in perspective and global in reach and has been incorporated into parts of the United Nations (UN) system, including the United Nations Development Programme. Over the years this approach has integrated three dimensions – human development, human rights and human security –, and looks at people’s well-being or ill-being, security and insecurity, in the context of issues arising from global interconnectedness and inequities. It has had significant influence, but one constraint has been that its focus on the ‘human’ is accompanied by a widely recognised gap in respect of ‘the social’ (Apthorpe 1997, Gasper 2011, Phillips 2011).
In this paper we emphasise the human security wing of the UN human development approach, for that provides the most opening from this family of ‘human’ discourses to issues of the ‘social’. Human security discourse looks at the human impacts of globalisation and the consequences of interrelated economic, socio-political, cultural and environmental change. Many international agencies, governments and social networks have taken up human security language. These include, besides UN agencies, the Human Security Network that includes Canada, Norway, The Netherlands, a dozen other countries and many NGOs; the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and development cooperation agency; the Thai government; and, to some extent, departments in charge of EU foreign policy
Exploring human autonomy effectiveness: Project logic and its effects on individual autonomy
No full textWe have proposed elsewhere an alternative analytical framework for project evaluation and a criterion of ‘human autonomy effectiveness’ to examine the effects of aid projects on the lives, opportunities and capacities of participants (Muñiz Castillo & Gasper, 2009). A project is human-autonomy effective when it promotes an expansion of individual autonomy that allows people to support and sustain their own development, in a way that does not constrain other priority capabilities. In this paper, we explore how four aid projects influenced the autonomy of local participants, by examining their project logic. We elicit key assumptions behind the projects’ design and implementation; identify significant project practices (forms of interaction and practical strategies); and analyse the practices’ possible influence on the participants’ autonomy. The paper shows that we need to understand the project logic in a deeper way than through the conventional ‘logical framework’ approach. Power relations between project stakeholders are crucial elements of the actual practices that influence the access to resources as result of the projects. Moreover, practices such as top-down design or excessive conditionality could harm participants’ autonomy despite being supportive to other goals, and thus have negative longer-run significance. When project practices constrain the opportunities and perceived competence of individuals to help themselves, the ‘development’ or change promoted by those projects is not sustainable (Ellerman, 2006)
Development as freedom : contributions and shortcomings of Amartya Sen's development philosophy for feminist economics
No full textwomen;development theory;economic theory;care work;feminist theory;freedom;social philosophy
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