‘Human Development is About People Being Able to Meet Their Aspirations’ – Arthur Grimes’ reflection on rearticulating human development

During May, the ISC will be featuring essays written by experts on Rearticulating Human Development. This is a joint project with the UNDP. ISC members and your networks are encouraged to participate. Visit the project homepage here.

What do you think is at the core of the human development concept?

I think human development is about people being able to meet their aspirations. Aspirations are contextual. They are formed through interactions with a person’s immediate environment and also from what they see happening in the rest of the world. People want to be doing as well as other people they see around them and those that they see further afield, in a variety of ways, not just materially. To sum up, I would say it means meeting their aspirations, where those aspirations are informed by what they see is possible for other people.

Your research focuses on well-being, in what ways does it fit in the human development concept? Read more.

Image by Viv Lynch on Flickr