Search results for "Human Development"
showing 10 items of 90 documents
The Sport for All Ideal: A Tool for Enhancing Human Capabilities and Dignity
2014
Abstract Sport, as a child of modernity, is intertwined with typically modern elements, such as the search for universality, competition, and the fascination for measurement. As modernity is essentially defined, in legal and moral terms, as a search for universally grounded moral principles or basic human rights, modern sports are widely seen as a means to promote typically modern values such as dignity. This paper conceives of the term "dignity" in light of the capabilities approach upheld by Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen. According to these authors, dignity is conferred according to certain human basic capabilities that we all are entitled to. This is the reason why this article explore…
Entrepreneurship Training and Self-Employment among University Graduates
2012
In economies characterized by low labor demand and high rates of youth unemployment, entrepreneurship training has the potential to enable youth to gain skills and create their own jobs. This paper presents experimental evidence on a new entrepreneurship track that provides business training and personalized coaching to university students in Tunisia. Undergraduates in the final year of licence appliquee were given the opportunity to graduate with a business plan instead of following the standard curriculum. This paper relies on randomized assignment of the entrepreneurship track to identify impacts on labor market outcomes one year after graduation. The analysis finds that the entrepreneur…
Ecological Justice in the Anthropocene: A Proposal
2019
The power created by technoscience during the 20th century has turned human beings into global ecological agents. In the face of this challenge, unique in the history of humankind, there are three answers that have been proposed: to accelerate the process of human control over nature (technocratic paradigm); to revert the present situation to a previous stage in which nature recovers its independence from human beings (decrecentism); and to maintain the current system with some measures to solve the side effects (ecocapitalism). The technocratic paradigm does not recognize the value and limits of nature. Decrecentism ignores the duty of using technology to provide more dignified, decent lif…
Is ICT the Key to Development?
2010
Using panel data for 52 developed and developing countries over the period 1998-2006, this article examines the links between information and communication technology diffusion and human development. We conducted a panel regression analysis of the investments per capita in healthcare, education and information and communication technology against human development index scores. Using a quantile regression approach, our findings suggest that changes in healthcare, education and information and communication technology provision have a stronger impact on human development index scores for less developed than for highly developed countries. Furthermore, at lower levels of development education…
Microcredit for Self-Employed Disabled Persons in Developing Countries
2005
Microcredit has become a popular instrument to promote economic empowerment among poor entrepreneurs, and is increasingly being recommended to improve economic rehabilitation among persons with disabilities. However, the majority of the advocates of microcredit for persons with disabilities seem not to be informed on the involved “rules of the game”. At the same time the microfinance community lacks information on disability issues. In this report we aim on closing the gap in knowledge and culture between the disability- and the microfinance communities. We apply resource based theory to analyze when microcredit for disabled persons is an appropriate tool and when it is not. We argue that a…
Grassroots Social Innovation for Human Development: An Analysis of Alternative Food Networks in the City of Valencia (Spain)
2017
This paper explores the contribution the capability approach (CA) and grassroots innovation (GI) literature makes to a better understanding of the complexity, richness and specificity of bottom-up processes of social innovation (SI), and their specific contribution to social transformation. Using a purely qualitative methodology, the paper addresses a case study—organic food buying groups in the city of Valencia—and examines them through the lenses of SI, GI and CA. By taking four concurrent dimensions of the SI literature (agents, purposes, drivers and processes) and cross-fertilising them with the bottom-up, people-driven character of GI, and the concepts of agency, capabilities, delibera…
Engineering creativity support for future research and development
2017
Abstract The human abilities to use nature’s materials and force to their benefit, by means of engineering applications has made the human development possible. Multiple factors have influenced the human development, sometimes accelerating it, other times slowing it down to annulation. Although it is known and accepted that creativity’s role is essential in engineering performances, the neglecting of creativity in engineering education is not understood. The graduates from Anglo-Saxon countries and Europe reduced creative potential and the lack of necessary abilities concerning the solving of the companies’ problems have been emphasized by specialists in education and governmental reports r…
Human Security versus Human Development - Behavioristic Approach
2016
Abstract Recent terrorist attacks in Brussels, Paris and Istanbul, are shaking a world bewildered of daily fear of violence, while the contemporary consumer has to deal with the “new wars” emerging in the context of the current socio-economic and political context. The issue is especially thorny since, most of the times, the “enemy” the citizens must face is unknown, not only when it comes to terrorist attacks, but also when dealing with the question of the “enemy” in foods purchased for consumption (food security) or the security of personal data when accessing and using the Internet (cyber security). Consequently, this paper attempts to highlight the way in which the safety and security n…
The Relationship Between Entrepreneurship and Digitalization - Spotlight on the EU Countries
2020
Abstract In the current context of the modern world, economies depend on a dynamic innovative environment, the innovation actually representing one of the main facilitators of change. The economic growth has certainly led to an exponential increase with respect to the interaction between innovation and entrepreneurship. Undoubtedly, innovation depends on the entrepreneurial context and mostly on the cooperation between the market process’ level actors. In order to implement the innovation in the entrepreneurial activities, there is a sine qua non condition of having the abilities to contribute as a promoter on spreading and adoption of innovation. The current innovations are, in certain sit…
The Berkeley Innovation Index: A Quantitative Approach to Measure, Track and Forecast Innovation Capability Within Individuals and Organizations
2018
Innovation and entrepreneurship are essential processes for human development, market growth, and technological breakthroughs, and it is vital for economic growth. Despite its importance, innovation is inherently difficult to measure and hence it is almost impossible for an individual or organization to know how they can improve their innovation output or claim that they are great at innovation. This paper presents a novel approach to measure and quantify innovation, called the Berkeley Innovation Index (BII). The BII characterizes and measures innovation capability of an individual or an organization. It builds on the hypothesis that innovation performance depends on the people, culture, a…