In my last post, I explored my recent considerations regarding different understandings of individualism. From a market neoliberal approach, society is built from individuals and nothing but individuals — we are the sum of the characteristics brought to society by individuals and nothing more. From a capability approach, we start with the individual as the… Continue reading From the individual to the social and back again
I would categorize both my professional and personal vocation as fostering community. As with any such development work, this brings with it value judgements of what should be improved so as to foster community. I’m increasingly finding, however, that our country’s myopic focus on economic growth as measured by the gross domestic product is counter to… Continue reading Distinguishing Individualism — the Capability Approach and Fostering Community
Much is made about our failing schools and the need for educational reform. Too often this takes the form of dismantling public education to instead champion private forms of education, or fighting teachers unions, or calling for more standards and testing. I’m part of a group, CTRL-Shift, and we’ve been meeting weekly to debate the… Continue reading Educational Performance: It’s about inequity and poverty
Knowing the ultimate reason we are doing what we’re doing is so important, allowing us to work backwards to make sure we are maximizing limited resources but also helping to assure we are using processes consistent with the end goal. I often find it takes a lot of soul searching to distinguish interim hoped for… Continue reading The Impact: Citizens Affecting Social Change
“When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast with a scientific and technological abundance. We’ve learned to fly the air as birds, we’ve learned to swim the seas as fish, yet we haven’t learned… Continue reading Technological Abundance, Communal Poverty
