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Is the West really the best? Modernisation and the psychosocial dynamics of human progress and development

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  • Richard Martin Eckersley

Abstract

Scientific and political interest in measures of human progress and development is increasing, but the indicators are far from capturing all we need to know. They place Western liberal democracies at the leading edge of progress, and present them as models of development; Western nations typically occupy all but a few of the top 20 places in progress indices. However, indicators are measuring modernisation rather than optimal quality of life or well-being; modernity’s benefits are counted but its costs are underestimated. In particular, the measures do not adequately acknowledge the ‘psychosocial dynamics’ of human societies: the complex interactions and relationships between the subjective and objective worlds. Unless we pay more attention to these dynamics, we will not develop solutions which match in scale the problems they are intended to address. Indicators need to allow a transformation in our worldview and beliefs as profound as that which gave rise to modernity.

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  • Richard Martin Eckersley, 2016. "Is the West really the best? Modernisation and the psychosocial dynamics of human progress and development," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(3), pages 349-365, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:44:y:2016:i:3:p:349-365
    DOI: 10.1080/13600818.2016.1166197
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    Cited by:

    1. Becky A. Black & Margaret L. Kern, 2020. "A qualitative exploration of individual differences in wellbeing for highly sensitive individuals," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Bing Wang & Tianchi Chen, 2022. "Social Progress beyond GDP: A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of GDP and Twelve Alternative Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Richard Eckersley, 2019. "Letter to the editor: Are indicators telling us the real story about progress?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 919-929, January.

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