Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-19T05:37:55.579Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Human Needs, Consumption, and Social Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Ayşe Buğra
Affiliation:
Boğaziçi University
Gürol Irzik
Affiliation:
Boğaziçi University

Extract

From its early origins to the present, the development of mainstream economic theory has taken a direction which has excluded the analysis of human needs as a basis for social policy. The problems associated with this orientation are increasingly recognized both by economists and non-economists. As Sen (1985) points out, it is indeed strange for a discipline concerned with the well-being of people to neglect the question of needs. Currently, some writers such as Doyal and Gough (1991), post-Keynesian economists such as Lavoie (1994), and those such as Davis and O'Boyle (1994) who work in the newly emerging school of social economics have begun to address the question of human needs, especially in relation to problems of policy assessment and evaluation. The approaches of some development economists who have dealt with similar issues were also instrumental in drawing attention to the significance of the long-neglected concept of needs (Stewart, 1985; Cole and Miles, 1984).

Type
Essays
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Appadurai, Arjun. 1986. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aristotle, . 1958. The Politics of Aristotle. Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Aristotle, . 1985. Nicomachean Ethics. HackettGoogle Scholar
Barry, Brian M. 1965. Political Argument. RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Baudrillard, Jean. 1988. Selected Writings. Stanford University PressGoogle Scholar
Bauman, Zygmund. 1987. Legislators and Interpreters: On Modernity, Postmodernity and Intellectuals. PolityGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1979. La Distinction: Critique sociale du jugement. MinuitGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Colin. 1987. The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism. BlackwellGoogle Scholar
Cole, Sam and Miles, Ian. 1984. Worlds Apart. Wheatsheaf BooksGoogle Scholar
Davis, John B. and O'Boyle, Edward J. (eds.). 1994. The Social Economics and Human Material Need. Southern Illinois University PressGoogle Scholar
Devlet Planlama Teşkilati (State Planning Organization) 1992. Türkiye Aile Yapisi Araştirmasi (Survey of Turkish Households). Publication no. 2313, AnkaraGoogle Scholar
Douglas, Mary and Isherwood, Baron. 1979. The World of Goods. Basic BooksGoogle Scholar
Doyal, Len and Gough, Ian. 1991. A Theory of Human Need. Guilford PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyal, Len. 1993. ‘Thinking about human need’. New Left Review, 201:113–28Google Scholar
Duesenbery, James S. 1952. Income, Saving, and the Theory of Consumer Behavior. Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Elster, Jon. 1985. Making Sense of Marx. Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Elster, Jon. 1989. ‘Self-realisation in Work and Politics: the Marxist Conception of the Good Life’. In Alternatives to Marxism, pp. 127–58. Elster, J. and Moene, K. O. (eds.). Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Esping-Andersen, Gosta. 1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton University PressGoogle Scholar
Feher Ferenc, Agnes Heller and Markus, György. 1983. Dictatorship over Needs. BlackwellGoogle Scholar
Galbraith, John K. 1972. The New Industrial State. Andre Deutsch Ltd.Google Scholar
Galbraith, John. K. 1976. The Affluent Society. Houghton Mifflin Co.Google Scholar
Hausman, Daniel. 1992. The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics. Cambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirsch, Fred. 1978. Social Limits to Growth. Harvard University PressGoogle Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Harvard University PressGoogle Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1982. Shifting Involvements: Private Interest and Public Action. Princeton University PressGoogle Scholar
Hont, Istvan and Ignatieff, Michael. 1983. ‘Needs and Justice in The Wealth of Nations’. In Wealth and Virtue, pp. 144. Hont, I. and Ignatieff, M. (eds.). Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Jevons, William S. 1905. Principles of Economics. A. M. KelleyGoogle Scholar
Lavoie, Marc. 1994. ‘A post-Keynesian approach to consumer choice’. Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics, 16: 539–62Google Scholar
Lebergott, Stanley. 1993. Pursuing Happiness: American Consumers in the Twentieth Century. Princeton University PressGoogle Scholar
Marshall, Alfred. 1890/1961. Principles of Economics. MacMillan and Co.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. 1844/1975. The Early Writings. PenguinGoogle Scholar
Norton, Anne. 1993. Republic of Signs: Liberal Theory and American Popular Culture. University of Chicago PressGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 1993. ‘Non-Relative Virtues: An Aristotelian Approach’. In Quality of Life, pp. 242–69. Nussbaum, M. and Sen, A.. Clarendon PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penz, G. Peter. 1986. Consumer Sovereignty and Human Interests. Cambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schumpete, Joseph. 1954. History of Economic Analysis. Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Sen, Amartya. 1981. Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlements and Deprivation. Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar
Sen, Amartya. 1985. Commodities and Capabilities. North HollandGoogle Scholar
Sen, Amartya. 1988. ‘Property and hunger’. Economics and Philosophy, 4:5768CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Adam. 1759/1976. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Liberty ClassicsCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Springborg, Patricia. 1984. ‘Aristotle and the problem of needs’. History of Political Thought, 5:393424Google Scholar
State Institute of Statistics 1979. Income Distribution and Consumption Expenditures: Rural Areas 1973–1974. Publication no. 881, AnkaraGoogle Scholar
State Institute of Statistics 1982. Household Income and Consumption Expenditures Survey Results: Urban Areas 1978–1979. Publication no. 999, AnkaraGoogle Scholar
State Institute of Statistics 1993. Statistical Yearbook of Turkey. Publication no. 1620, AnkaraGoogle Scholar
Stewart, Francis. 1985. Planning to Meet Basic Needs. MacMillanCrossRefGoogle Scholar
TÜSİAD (The Association of Turkish Industrialists and Businessman) 1990. Türkiye'de Eğitim (Education in Turkey). IstanbulGoogle Scholar
Veblen, Thornstein. 1899/1934. The Theory of Leisure Class. The Modern LibraryGoogle Scholar
Veblen, Thornstein. 1922. Instinct of Workmanship and the State of Industrial Arts. B. W. Huebsch, Inc.Google Scholar
Warde, Alan. 1994. ‘Consumers, Identity and Belonging: Reflections on Some Theses of Zygmunt Bauman’. In The Authority of the Consumer, pp. 5874. Keat, R., Whitely, N. and Abercrombie, N. (eds.). RoutledgeGoogle Scholar