Human Development in Times of Crisis

This book examines human development in times of crisis, and its effect on social justice and democracy, with a focus on the delay in developmental progress caused by the ‘Great Recession’, the worst economic crisis in decades. The book places particular focus on policies of human development. It scrutinizes the philosophical foundations of human development while at the same time analyzing the underlying social, economic and institutional backgrounds which are conductive or limiting with respect of the task of politics of human development in times of crisis. Against this background, the project is concerned with the value added of applying the capabilities approach in order to assess the state and the policies of human development. This book connects demands for programmatic conceptions and social analyses in order to assess the opportunities for more capability-enhancing projects and public policies that aim to help counter the developmental setbacks from the economic crisis, and to enhance the quality of society and social justice.

• Human development
• Crisis
• Social Justice
• Human rights
• Social Change
• crisis
• development
• human rights
• social justice
• social science
• development aid

“This is an interesting collection of essays that well reflects the multidisciplinarity of CA scholarship: the list of authors includes contributors from across the Social and Political Sciences, including Sociology, Philosophy, Economics, Development Studies, Education Studies, Social Policy, Political Economy, and Childhood Studies. This, along with the combination of empirical and conceptual pieces, means that there is something for everyone in this book.” (Annie Austin, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Vol. 19 (3), 2018)

“The perspective of human development has advanced the analysis and assessment of the serious challenges people face in our precarious world. This engaging collection of papers makes a significant contribution to the understanding and enriching of that important perspective.” (Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Harvard University, USA)

• Faculty of Educational Science, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

  Hans-Uwe Otto, Holger Ziegler, Antoanneta Potsi

• Faculty of Education, University of Ioannina, Ioanniona, Greece

  Spyridon Pantazis

Hans-Uwe Otto is Professor of Educational Science at Bielefeld University, Germany, Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and Director of the Bielefeld Centre for Education and Capability Research, Germany.