116 research outputs found

    Theoretical Foundations and the Book's Roadmap

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    This collection places children's issues at the centre of understandings of human development. Using Amartya Sen's 'Capability Approach', the contributors to this book draw on new tools and theoretical perspectives to understand the role of children in human development. Looking at a wide range of themes including child poverty, microfinance, disability, education, the built environment, the role of emotions and promoting children's active participation, this study furthers the capability approach as a key theoretical perpsective in understanding children and development

    Other People’s Adaptations : Teaching Children With Special Educational Needs to Adapt and to Aspire

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    For over three decades, the capability approach proposed and developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum has had a distinct impact on development theories and approaches because it goes beyond an economic conception of development and engages with the normative aspects of development. This book explores the new frontiers of the capability approach and its links to human development in three main areas. First, it delves into the philosophical foundations of the approach, re-examining its links to concepts of common good, collective agency and epistemic diversity. Secondly, it addresses its 'operational frontier', aiming to give inclusive explanations of some of the most advanced methods available for capability researchers. Thirdly, it offers a wide range of the applications of this approach, as carried out by a mix of renowned capability scholars and researchers from different disciplines. This broad interdisciplinary range includes the areas of human and sustainable development, inequalities, labour markets, education, special needs, cities, urban planning, housing, social capital and happiness studies, among others

    Valores e Desenvolvimento Humano

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    A primeira parte desse Relatório de Desenvolvimento Humano do Brasil 2009/2010 começa com a descrição de um amplo processo de consulta aberta à sociedade, denominada Brasil Ponto a Ponto, para a escolha do tema do relatório. A Campanha Brasil Ponto a Ponto teve por objetivo estimular o debate em todo o país sobre o que precisa ser mudado no Brasil para melhorar a vida das pessoas. A campanha foi aberta a todos os brasileiros, que poderiam participar respondendo à pergunta: O que precisa mudar no Brasil para a sua vida melhorar de verdade

    Aspirations and human development interventions

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    What role can aspirations play in small-scale human development interventions? In this paper, we contribute to answering that question with both conceptual and empirical work. Aspirations can play at least two roles in small-scale human development interventions: the capabilities-selecting role and the agency-unlocking role. While aspirations also face the challenge of adaptation to adverse circumstances and unjust social structures, we argue that this challenge can be met by embedding the formulation and expression of aspirations within a setting of public discussion and awareness-raising activities, and that adaptation can be further countered by including a commitment to action. We then report on field research done in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, South Africa, where a group of women went through a process of voicing, examining, and then realizing their aspirations. The action research confirms our theoretical hypotheses. We also do not find any evidence of adaptation of the women’s aspirations, and argue that the absence of such adaptation might be a result of active capability selection, reflection, deliberation, and the exercise of agency throughout the action research programme.Web of Scienc

    Cognitive Dysfunction Is Sustained after Rescue Therapy in Experimental Cerebral Malaria, and Is Reduced by Additive Antioxidant Therapy

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    Neurological impairments are frequently detected in children surviving cerebral malaria (CM), the most severe neurological complication of infection with Plasmodium falciparum. The pathophysiology and therapy of long lasting cognitive deficits in malaria patients after treatment of the parasitic disease is a critical area of investigation. In the present study we used several models of experimental malaria with differential features to investigate persistent cognitive damage after rescue treatment. Infection of C57BL/6 and Swiss (SW) mice with Plasmodium berghei ANKA (PbA) or a lethal strain of Plasmodium yoelii XL (PyXL), respectively, resulted in documented CM and sustained persistent cognitive damage detected by a battery of behavioral tests after cure of the acute parasitic disease with chloroquine therapy. Strikingly, cognitive impairment was still present 30 days after the initial infection. In contrast, BALB/c mice infected with PbA, C57BL6 infected with Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi and SW infected with non lethal Plasmodium yoelii NXL (PyNXL) did not develop signs of CM, were cured of the acute parasitic infection by chloroquine, and showed no persistent cognitive impairment. Reactive oxygen species have been reported to mediate neurological injury in CM. Increased production of malondialdehyde (MDA) and conjugated dienes was detected in the brains of PbA-infected C57BL/6 mice with CM, indicating high oxidative stress. Treatment of PbA-infected C57BL/6 mice with additive antioxidants together with chloroquine at the first signs of CM prevented the development of persistent cognitive damage. These studies provide new insights into the natural history of cognitive dysfunction after rescue therapy for CM that may have clinical relevance, and may also be relevant to cerebral sequelae of sepsis and other disorders
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