p.3 we are losing, if we have not lost already, our capacity
to dream. We are struggling in an exhausting insomnia which impairs the lucidity so desperately needed to cope with
our problems forcefully and imaginatively. Instead, we have become drowsy managers of a crisis which we feel is impossible
to solve by our own means
p.7 In creating the future, there is either the risk of making
errors of perception, or of making errors of action... In our opinion, the future lies in mustering
all our energy to design imaginative but viable alternatives.
p.8 This book proposes an orientation... based on the satisfaction
of fundamental human needs, on the generation of growing levels of self-reliance, and on the construction of organic articulations
[the construction of coherent and consistent relations of balanced interdependence among given elements]
p.8 Human needs, self-reliance and
organic articulations are the pillars which support Human Scale Development.
p.12 We live and work within models of society that overlook
the growing complexity of the real society in which we are immersed. Therefore, we watch the feverish and obsessive
doings of the technocrats who design solutions before having identified where the real problems lie. We seek the justification
of the models in the models themselves, so that when the solutions fail, it is not due to a failure of the model but to entrapments
set up by reality. That reality, the presence of which is strongly felt, is not perceived as a challenge
to be faced, but rather as a problem to be brought under control by re-applying the model with greater tenacity.
p.14 this new approach, interweaving development
and human needs, must go far beyond a simple makeshift rehashing of a paradigm in a state of crisis. From the very outset,
it involves creating conditions for a new way of conceptualizing development. It mean[s] a substantial modification
of the prevailing perceptions about strategies for development... it means acknowledging that the
social and economic theories, which have sustained and directed the processes of development, are not only incomplete
but also inadequate. It entails becoming aware that new and more disquieting frustrations will dominate our
increasingly heterogeneous and interdependent world if development models, based on mechanistic theories and misleading
aggregate indicators, are applied.
p.14-15 The challenge to all of us is to internalize
an approach to development based on human needs which, once understood, will guide our actions and expectations.
p.15 The purpose of this section is to make a theory of human
needs understandable and operational for development. This effort is not grounded in any particular field of study, as the
new reality and the new challenges inevitably compel us to adopt transdisciplinary approaches. Evidence for this
orientation is provided by the fact that we are rarely analyzing a specific problem but instead a web of complex issues
that cannot be resolved through the application of conventional policies founded upon reductionist disciplines.
p.16 What determines people's quality of life? Quality of
life depends on the possibilities people have to adequately satisfy their fundamental human needs.
p.17 Human needs must be understood as a system: that
is, all human needs are interrelated and interactive. With the sole exception of the need of subsistence, that is,
to remain alive, no hierarchies exist within the system. On the contrary, simultaneities, complementarities and trade-offs
are characteristics of the process of needs satisfaction.
p.22 Summary...
Any fundamental human need not adequately
satisfied generates a pathology.
p.24 If we wish to define and assess an environment in the light of
human needs, it is not sufficient to understand the opportunities that exist for groups or individuals to actualize their
needs. It is necessary to analyze to what extent the environment represses, tolerates or stimulates opportunities.
How accessible, creative or flexible is that environment? The most important question is how far people are able to
influence the structures that affect their opportunities.
p.29 We have emphasized that what we require is a needs theory for development.
p.30 Subsistence, Protection, Affection, Understanding, Participation,
Idleness, Creation, Identity and Freedom.
p.31 Pseudo-satisfiers are elements that generate a false
sense of satisfaction of a given need. Although not endowed with them aggressiveness of violators or destroyers,
they may on occasion annul, in the not too long term, the possibility of satisfying the need they were originally
aimed at fulfilling.
p.37 The matrix of needs and satisfiers may serve, at a preliminary stage,
as a participative exercise of self-diagnosis for groups located within a local space... The outcome of the exercise will
enable the group to become aware of both its deprivations and potentialities. After diagnosing its current reality, it may
repeat the exercise in propositional terms: that is, identifying which satisfiers would be required to fully meet the fundamental
needs of the group... The proposed exercise has a twofold value. First, it makes it possible to identify at a local level
a strategy for development aimed at the actualization of human needs. Second, it is an educational, creative and participatory
exercise that brings about a state of deep critical awareness: that is to say, the method is in itself a generator of synergic
effects.
p.38 We believe that regaining diversity is the best way to encourage the
creative and synergic potential which exists in every society.
p.49-50 Fundamental human needs must be understood as
a system, the dynamics of which do not obey hierarchical linearities. This means that on the one hand, no
need is more important per se than any other; and that on the other hand, there is no fixed order of precedence
in the actualization of needs (that need B, for instance, can only be met alter need A has been satisfied). Simultaneities,
complementarities and tradeoffs are characteristic of the system's behavior. There are, however, limits to this generalization.
A pre-systemic threshold must be recognized, below which a feeling of deprivation may be so severe that the urge to
satisfy the given need may paralyze and overshadow any other Impulse or alternative.
The case of subsistence may serve to
illustrate this clearly. When the possibilities of satisfying this need are severely impaired, all other needs remain
blocked and a single and intense drive prevails. But such a situation does not hold true only in the case of
subsistence. It is equally relevant to other needs.
p.52 It follows from the above that the way in which needs are understood,
and the role and attributes ascribed to the possible satisfiers, are absolutely definitive in determining a development strategy.
p.53 Human Scale Development does not exclude conventional goals,
such as economic growth, so that all persons may have access to required goods and services. However, the difference with
respect to the prevailing development styles lies in considering the aims of development not only as points of arrival, but
as components of the process itself. In other words, fundamental human needs can and must be realized
from the outset and throughout the entire process of development. In
this manner, the realization of needs becomes, instead of a goal, the motor of development itself [JLJ -
note to self - put in paper]. This is possible only if the development strategy proves to be capable of stimulating the permanent
generation of synergic satisfiers.
p.63-64 An economic rationale is needed that does not ascribe importance
to indiscriminate accumulation nor to the mere improvement of conventional economic indicators irrelevant to the well-being
of people, nor to principles of efficiency unrelated to the satisfaction of human needs... The fetishism of numbers must be
replaced by the development of people. [JLJ - in game theory, the obsession with the numerical "score" of a position must
be replaced by an obsession with the sustainable development of a position]
p.70 Human Scale Development calls for a restructuring of the way we pursue
knowledge in order to create critical awareness throughout society... We require research leading to the creation of
data bases capable of measuring and evaluating what is relevant to Human Scale Development.
p.80 Any alternative that aims to achieve Human Scale Development will
necessarily entail a policy of activating non-conventional resources.
p.86 Only a development style that aims to satisfy human needs can take
up the postponed challenge to stimulate the growth of all men and women, and of their entire personalities
p.92 What is required is to channel all efforts into bringing the parts
of the system together into a coherent articulated whole. Only an articulated system [p.90 By articulation we mean, in this
case, that global processes and self-reliant micro-spatial processes complement each other effectively without there being
a cooptation of the micro by the macro] can aspire to be a healthy system. And only a healthy system can aspire to self-reliance,
to meeting the needs and fulfilling the potential of people.
p.93-94 Although we know how to describe and how to
explain, we seem to overlook the fact that describing plus explaining does not amount to understanding.
The former have to do with knowledge, which is the stuff of science, while the latter has to do with meaning, the stuff of
enlightenment. The result of this confusion is that at this stage of history, we know a lot but understand very little.
p.96 A simplistic mind is a mind full of answers. It is also a mind that
seldom realizes the simple fact that answers must be preceded by pertinent questions. The person with a simplistic mind looks
for inspiration and knowledge in simplistic theories, mainly in those that confirm his or her preconceptions.
p.97 the serious fact remains that while our societies have become
increasingly complex, our theories of society, whether social or economic, have become increasingly simplistic... through
simplistic theories and models we cannot expect to understand the behavior of the type of social systems of which we are members
in our world today. [JLJ - put in paper]
p.105-106 Since childhood, I have been concerned with what I considered
to be a very important question: "What makes human beings unique? ..." ... I had almost decided to give
up, having become a university student in the meantime, when I mentioned my frustration to my father. He
simply looked at me and said: "Why don't you try stupidity?" Although shocked at first, the years have passed,
and I would like to announce that, unless someone else can claim legitimate precedence, I am very proud of probably
being the founder of a new and very important discipline - the discipline of stupidology. [JLJ nope. Stupidity is
NOT what makes humans unique. Watch a squirrel run back and forth across a road dodging traffic - some of them don't make
it to the other side.]
p.112 How many of us actually understand the problems we are trying to solve?
