The volume suggests a capability perspective for evaluating welfare and educational policies. Capabilities are conceptualized as people’s freedom to choose and conduct a life they have reason to value. The contributions of this volume analyze what social institutions – in particular in the field of education and welfare – may provide in order to enhance capabilities in particular for most vulnerable people.
In 2002 the International Labour Organization issued a report titled ‘Decent work and the informal economy’ in which it stressed the need to ensure appropriate employment and income, rights at work, and effective social protection in informal economic activities. Such a call by the ILO is urgent in the context of countries such as India, where the majority of workers are engaged in informal economic activities, and where expansion of informal economic activities is coupled with deteriorating working conditions and living standards. This book explores the informal economic activity of India as a case study to examine typical requirements in the work-lives of informal workers, and to develop a means to institutionalise the promotion of these requirements through labour law. Drawing upon Amartya Sen’s theoretical outlook, the book considers whether a capability approach to human development may be able to promote recognition and work-life conditions of a specific category of informal workers in India by integrating specific informal workers within a social dialogue framework along with a range of other social partners including state and non-state institutions. While examining the viability of a human development based labour law in an Indian context, the book also indicates how the proposals put forth in the book may be relevant for informal workers in other developing countries. This research monograph will be of great interest to scholars of labour law, informal work and workers, law and development, social justice, and labour studies.
Science for Peace and Security (SPS) cooperation brings together NATO & partners to address common security concerns reflected in the so-called SPS Key Priorities. These include emerging security challenges such as terrorism, cyber defense or energy security, as well as human and social aspects of security, support to NATO-led mission and operation, advanced technologies with security applications, and early warning. The SPS project “Advanced Civil Emergency Coordination Pilot in the Western Balkans” addresses several of these areas. As a key regional SPS flagship project, it helps to build capacity in response to a concrete security challenge. The Western Balkans is a region frequently affected by natural disasters and the pilot project provides emergency responders in the region with an incident command system that allows sharing information about disasters in a fast and easy way, enhancing situational awareness and building capacity in the area of civil emergency coordination.
Enhancing Human Capacities is the first to review the very latest scientific developments in human enhancement. It is unique in its examination of the ethical and policy implications of these technologies from a broad range of perspectives. Presents a rich range of perspectives on enhancement from world leading ethicists and scientists from Europe and North America The most comprehensive volume yet on the science and ethics of human enhancement Unique in providing a detailed overview of current and expected scientific advances in this area Discusses both general conceptual and ethical issues and concrete questions of policy Includes sections covering all major forms of enhancement: cognitive, affective, physical, and life extension
This book provides a systematic review of the variables and mechanisms that underpin resilience and growth in professions who face a high risk of regular and repetitive exposure to adverse or hazardous events. Given the inevitability of this exposure, promoting the acceptance and practice of this paradigm is essential for facilitating the capability of emergency responders to adapt to, and if possible to grow from, adverse and hazardous experience. By identifying salient dispositional, cognitive, group, organizational, and environmental predictors of resilience and articulating the mechanisms that link them to adaptive and growth outcomes, emergency organizations will have the capacity to intervene prior to exposure to adverse events, rather than waiting until after the event, as is currently the norm. This book thus adopts an approach that is fundamentally preventative in nature and offers practical suggestions to support the development of resilient capabilities. By describing influences on this capability that cover the person, the organization, and factors external to the workplace, it offers a more ecologically comprehensive approach to those working in this area. In addition, it offers a more comprehensive framework for this work by drawing on constructs (e.g. trust, empowerment) that would ordinarily lie outside mainstream traumatic stress research. The contents of this book provide a theoretically and empirically rigorous knowledge base and intervention framework capable of mitigating negative reactions, facilitating adaptation in the face of adversity, and enhancing the likelihood that adverse and traumatic work experiences will enrich the personal and professional lives of those who dedicate themselves to protecting and safeguarding others. It will be of interest to emergency worker counselors, police counselors, disaster workers, mental health professionals, and individuals that work with people exposed to trauma.
In 2002 the International Labour Organization issued a report titled ‘Decent work and the informal economy’ in which it stressed the need to ensure appropriate employment and income, rights at work, and effective social protection in informal economic activities. Such a call by the ILO is urgent in the context of countries such as India, where the majority of workers are engaged in informal economic activities, and where expansion of informal economic activities is coupled with deteriorating working conditions and living standards. This book explores the informal economic activity of India as a case study to examine typical requirements in the work-lives of informal workers, and to develop a means to institutionalise the promotion of these requirements through labour law. Drawing upon Amartya Sen’s theoretical outlook, the book considers whether a capability approach to human development may be able to promote recognition and work-life conditions of a specific category of informal workers in India by integrating specific informal workers within a social dialogue framework along with a range of other social partners including state and non-state institutions. While examining the viability of a human development based labour law in an Indian context, the book also indicates how the proposals put forth in the book may be relevant for informal workers in other developing countries. This research monograph will be of great interest to scholars of labour law, informal work and workers, law and development, social justice, and labour studies.
How can unjust societies be overcome with a better distribution of opportunities to flourish? How can human development be revitalised in countries where social welfare is being questioned? In short, how can human development be fostered in practice? These are some of the important questions asked in this volume through analysis of existing policies and conceptualisations of coherent and systematic strategies for human development policies at the local, national and international level. International contributors innovatively combine the hitherto unpaired perspectives of the capability approach and the tradition of critical social policy with empirical examples using case studies from South-Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North and South America. The result is a call for a new, feasible approach towards more socially balanced, democratic and innovative capability-promoting policy activities, models and programmes that reduce social and human suffering to promote an enhanced social quality of current societies around the world.
The West and the East approach economic development differently. The Europeans and Americans stress free and fair business climate, promoting private activities generally without picking winners, and improving governance. East Asia is interested in achieving concrete results and projects rather than formal correctness, prioritizing a few sectors for industrialization, and eventual graduation from aid. The West mostly shapes shifting strategies of the international donor community while the East has in reality made remarkable progress in industrial catch-up. The two approaches cannot be merged easily but they can be used in proper combination to realize growth and economic transformation. This book proposes more dialogue and complementarity between the two in the development effort of Africa and other regions. In this collected volume, contributed by experts and practitioners from both East and West, the need to introduce Eastern ideas to the global development strategy is emphasized. Analysis of British and other Western donor policies is given while Japanese, Korean, and other Asian approaches are also explained with concrete examples. The concept of governance for growth is presented and the impact of rising China on development studies is contemplated. The practices of industrial policy dialogues and actions assisted by East Asian experts are reported from Tunisia, Zambia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and others. The book should be applicable to all donors, institutions, NGOs and business enterprises engaged in development cooperation.
