words compared to 2010 version: 12139 words ossiter; Table of Contents Introduction General Overviews Historical Background Early History Psychological Theories Influencing Social Work History Post–World War II Social Work Discussion Theories and Approaches Philosophical Discussions Marxian, Neo-Marxian, and Feminist Approaches Capability Theory and Other Political Economic Theories Doyal and Gough's Theory of Human Needs Recent Psychological Theories Nursing Theories Religion, Spirituality, and Human Needs Social Work Practice Social Policy Research Direct Practice Research Gerontological Research Cross-National Comparative Research Needs Assessment Research Human Needs and Other Key Social Work Concerns Human Rights and Human Needs Social Justice and Human Needs Cultural Diversity and Human Needs Oppression, Dehumanization, and Exploitation and Human Needs Human Needs Introduction Social work has long been concerned with the respective roles of the social work profession and the social welfare system in addressing human needs. Social workers engage in needs assessment together with client systems. They provide and advocate for the needs of clients, as well enabling and empowering clients and communities to address their needs. They also advocate for social welfare benefits and services and overall social policies which take human needs into account. Recognizing the centrality of human needs, the preamble of the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers (see National Association of Social Workers 1996 in General Overviews) states: "The primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty." However, explicit ethical content was not present in earlier Codes of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. Furthermore, until very recently little published literature in peer reviewed journals has human needs theories to guide models of social work practice or inform social work research. Universalistic assumptions about human needs have long been found within social work's literature on human development (see Jani and Reisch 2011 in General Overviews). However, these assumptions were often inexplicit. They did not fully utilize theories of human need, which have long recognized that although human needs may be universal, they are addressed in culturally and environmentally specific manners. Also, in practice, social worker have often conflated human needs with the need for the services or benefits available at any one time. This bibliography will explore the history and evolution of the interdisciplinary body of human needs theory and research on which social work has drawn historically, with special attention to the recent surge in interest in human needs theories. In doing so, the entry will discuss a number of key debates that have arisen regarding needs, including whether they are universal or specific to particular cultures, what is the relationship between human needs, human rights and social justice, and how to reconcile theories of human needs and of human capabilities. General Overviews Common Human Needs was the title of one of social work's foundational books (Towle 1945), although the work's primary focus was on human development rather than on human needs. The inclusion of ethics content on human needs was first proposed by a committee chaired by Frederic G. Reamer, who contended elsewhere that human needs concepts reinforced social work's long-standing practice commitment to meeting basic needs (Reamer 1998). Other than James Ife's 1980 dissertation and the extensive early work of David G. Gil 1992, it was not until the 21st century that literature began to more fully discuss human needs. The first entry on human needs in the Encyclopedia of Social Work relied primarily upon an interdisciplinary literature base (Dover and Joseph 2008). In more recent work Ife (2013) expanded upon previous recognition of the value of discourse on the relationship of needs and rights (2002). In the first peer-reviewed article on human needs to appear in a major social work journal, Jani and Reisch (2011) critiqued implicit universalist assumptions about human needs found in the social work literature. The authors also, however, set the stage for future debates in social work by presenting a model for incorporating critical thinking about human needs into theories of social work practice and human development. Dover, Michael A., Barbara Hunter, and Randall Joseph. 2008. Human needs: Overview. In Encyclopedia of social work, 20th ed. Edited by Terry Mizrahi and Larry E. Davis, 398–406. New York: Oxford Univ. Press and National Association of Social Workers. The authors provide an overview of needs concepts in social work. They cover theories of human needs that have been used in social work education, practice, and research and in social welfare policy. They discuss the relevance of human needs for social work values and ethics and for social and political action. Gil, David. 1992. Foreword. In Human rights and social policy in the 21st century. By Joseph Wronka. New York: Univ. Press of America. Explains that universal human needs are products of biology but also of affect and are affected by cultural and social evolution, ensuring change over time in their nature. Human rights have evolved in response to needs. Human rights are socially constructed and vary among human groups. Ife, James. 1980. The determination of social need. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 15.2: 92-107. This dissertation-based article contends services are often designed based upon a needs assessment human needs, with the nature of human needs themselves being relatively undefined and requiring further conceptual development. Ife, James. 2013. Community Development in an Uncertain World: Vision, Analysis and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Points out that social justice is often discussed in terms of need, and this is fundamental for social policy and planning. Presents a new approach to need definition, using normative and descriptive needs statements. Stresses the gives centrality of discourse on needs for defining and articulating rights. Jani, Jayshree, and Michael Reisch. 2011. Common Human Needs, Uncommon Solutions: Applying a Critical Framework to Perspectives on Human Behavior. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services. 92.1: 13-20. Notes that Towle's Common Human Needs (1945) posited both universal needs and the culturally specific social contexts. Contended there have been underlying universalistic assumptions about human needs within human behavior theory. Draws on psychoanalytic and ego psychology to posit six aspects of human need that can inform social work practice. National Association of Social Workers. 1996. Code of ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. Washington, DC: National Association of Social Workers. The primary mission of social work as a profession is to "enhance human wellbeing" and also to "help meet the basic human needs of all people." Reamer, Frederic G. 1998. The evolution of social work ethics. Social Work 43.6: 488–500. Identifies common human needs as a well-established concept that reinforces social work's historical commitments to meeting basic needs and enhancing wellbeing. Towle, Charlotte. 1945. Common human needs. Common human needs: An interpretation for staff in public assistance agencies. Public assistance report number 8. Washington, DC: Social Security Board, Federal Security Agency. This text for public sector human service workers stresses the interrelatedness of various human needs such as food, clothing and housing, required for physical health and mental health. Adopts a hierarchical perspective, in which dependency needs vary across the life course and are necessary to achieve independence. Historical Background Early on in the evolution of social work as a profession, the use of needs concepts was inescapable, given the enormity of unmet basic needs at the time. Unmet individual and family needs resulted in the recognition of social needs that required urgent responses from the charitable and public sectors. However, debates about human needs were not explicitly theorized, other than as part of larger debates about the relative importance to be placed upon meeting material needs and psychological needs. Then as now there was confusion between service needs (services and benefits) and human needs (for which services and benefits and other forms of social intervention should be developed). Midway through the 20th century early psychological theories of human need such as those of Maslow 1943 (see Psychological Theories section below) provided an incipient basis for the introduction of needs concepts into social work. At the same time articles 23 and 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, promulgated by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, stressed rights for just remuneration for work and for social protections that together ensure human dignity and provide an adequate standard of living. As a result of this social scientific and political recognition of the centrality of basic needs, as of the early 1950s it was at first taken for granted that concepts of human needs were central for modern social work practice and education (Bisno 1952, see Postwar Discussion below). However, during the McCarthy period controversy was produced by Towle's Common Human Needs (see Towle 1056 and Posner 1995 in Early History below). Also, by the late 1950s Kahn 1957 (see Postwar Discussion section) sees human needs theory as insufficiently developed to serve as the basis for modern social work, which turned instead to ecological systems theory. Early History of Social Work Use of the Concept of Human Needs As Bremner 1956 points out, the concept of human needs tends to be periodically rediscovered, as the ambivalent history of social work's usage suggests. The early history of the use of the concept of human needs in social work was traced by the dissertation of Barbara Hunter Randall Joseph (Joseph 1986). Needs concepts were explicit in the work of early British social welfare figures, such as Booth 1902. In the United States, Edward Thomas Devine focused mainly on service needs but also introduced what has been a long-standing debate about the extent to which needs can be met within the present socioeconomic system (Devine 1909). Mary Ellen Richmond's approach to casework clearly distinguished between economic needs and expressed needs of clients (Richmond 1922). Bertha Capen Reynolds supported the growing focus on client self-determination but worried that it could result in social work or societal neglect of basic human needs (Reynolds 1973). The revised edition of Towle's Common Human Needs (Towle 1957), published by the National Association of Social Workers in the wake of the destruction by the federal government of the original plates for the book, removed a controversial passage noted by Posner (1995). Arguably, the concept of human needs was politicized during the McCarthy period, reducing its perceived value for informing social work theory and practice. Booth, Charles. 1902. Life and labour of the people in London. London: Macmillan. This work of early British social work strongly influenced needs concepts, especially the basic requirements for human nutrition. Bremner, Robert Hamlett. 1956. From the depths: The discovery of poverty in the United States. New York: New York Univ. Press. Points out that human needs as a concept was pioneered by social work but that each age discovers or thinks it has discovered needs anew. Devine, Edward Thomas. 1909. Misery and its causes. New York: Macmillan. Stresses the concept of service needs, not human needs, but also stresses that some needs could be met within the present economic system without revolutionary changes. Joseph, Barbara Hunter Randall. 1986. The discovery of need, 1880–1914: A case study of the development of an idea in social welfare thought. Ph.D. diss., Columbia University School of Social Work. Concludes that no unified concept of needs was defined in early social work. References to needs ranged from needy to neediness to needful to in need. Posner, Wendy B. (1995). Common Human Needs: A story from the prehistory of government by special interest. Social Service Review, 69.2: 188-225. Portrays the history of news media and Congressional criticism of Towle's Common Human Needs. Reynolds, Bertha Capen. 1973. Between client and community: A study of responsibility in social case work. New York: Oriole. First published in 1934. Reynolds was concerned that relationship-centered approaches centered on client wants rather than needs raised the possibility of a loss of focus on responsibility for the outcome of work with clients. Richmond, Mary Ellen. 1922. What is social case work? An introductory description. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Richmond saw people as interdependent rather than dependent beings. She placed greater emphasis on growth in personality than was the case with her earlier emphasis on the details of social diagnosis in relation to economic and social needs. Towle, Charlotte. (1957). Common human needs. (Rev. ed.). New York,: National Association of Social Workers. Identifies human needs, such as an impulse to survive and a need to feel secure. Towle goes on to detail the nature of human needs in relationship to various developmental stages. Psychological Theories Influencing Social Work History By the mid-1940s the field of psychology had produced two conceptualizations of human motivations and needs (Murray, et al. 1938; Maslow 1943). Abraham H. Maslow's 1943 theory was based upon a hierarchy of need and was influenced by the earlier work of Henry Alexander Murray 1938. Maslow later added selftranscendence to his hierarchy of needs (Koltko-Rivera 2006; Maslow 1971). Simultaneously, Kurt Lewin's field theory was being developed (Lewin 1947a, Lewin 1947b). Its theoretical framework was consistent with social work's historical emphasis on the relationship of the individual and the social environment. However, Maslow warned at the time that field theory was no replacement for needs theory (Maslow 1943). Hearn 1958 used field theory to develop general systems theory, later the foundation of the ecosystems perspective. Although Maslow's theories have continued to be briefly mentioned in many social work texts, there is little incorporation of needs concepts in social work practice models. Hearn, Gordon. 1958. Theory building in social work. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Hearn's theory-building expertise was used during the late 1950s to provide an alternative to human needs theory as the conceptual foundation for modern social work. Hearn relied on Kurt Lewin's field theory (Lewin 1947a, Lewin 1947b) to develop general systems theory, one theoretical foundation for social work's ecosystems perspective. Koltko-Rivera, Mark E. 2006. Rediscovering the later version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: Self-transcendence and opportunities for theory, research, and unification. Review of General Psychology 10.4: 302–317. Discusses the widely ignored identification by Abraham H. Maslow of selftranscendence as a step above self-actualization in his hierarchy of need (see Maslow 1971). Lewin, Kurt. 1947a. Frontiers in group dynamics: Concept, method, and reality in social science; Social equilibria and social change. Human Relations 1.1: 5–41. Lewin recognizes the dynamic relationship of individuals to their social environment. He stresses the structural properties of the parts of a dynamic social field rather than the structural properties of the individuals who are subparts of the field. He deemphasizes sociological theories of social structure and psychological theories of human needs. Lewin, Kurt. 1947b. Frontiers in group dynamics II: Channels of group life; Social planning and action research. Human Relations 1.2: 143–153. Lewin theorizes that resources flow to social fields through channels that have gates and gatekeepers. Both objective and subjective processes impact on social problems, but Lewin stresses the relationship between scientific and moral aspects of social problems and stresses the role of power. Maslow, Abraham H. 1943. A theory of human motivation. Psychosocial Review 50.4: 370–396. Maslow stresses that while human needs are universal, there are culturally different preferences. He warns that field theory should not be a substitute for needs theory. Maslow, Abraham H. 1971. The farther reaches of human nature. New York: Viking. According to Koltko-Rivera 2006, Maslow here amends his hierarchy of needs to include self-transcendence. Murray, Henry Alexander, William G. Barrett and Erik Homburger. 1938. Explorations in personality: A clinical and experimental study of fifty men of college age. New York: Oxford University Press. Distinguishes latent and manifest needs and conceptualizes several needs, including achievement, affiliation, and power. Murray's needs-press model and other work influenced Maslow. Post–World War II Social Work Discussion In postwar Britain human needs concepts remained an important foundation for both social work and social welfare (Graham 1951). In the United States, as of the early 1950s, human needs content was seen as essential for social work education (Bisno 1952, Boehm 1956, Boehm 1958, Stroup 1953). Bisno 1952 recognized early on what has been a persistent human needs theory dilemma, namely, how much stress to place on common human needs and human similarities rather than on human individual and cultural differences. Functionalist theories of social welfare envisioned a social welfare system based upon an integrative view of human needs (Wilensky and Lebeaux 1958). However, by the late 1950s, although he recognized that an integrative view of needs was important for social work, Alfred J. Kahn 1957 concluded that, given the relatively undeveloped state of human needs theory, there was little choice but to define human needs within specific societal contexts. However, Kahn 1959 admitted that there was still potential for later human needs theory development relevant to social work. Bisno, Herbert. 1952. The philosophy of social work. Washington, DC: Public Affairs. Social science has alternatively stressed either human similarities or human differences. Social work should recognize both shared common needs and unique individual needs and desires. Boehm, Werner. 1956. The plan for the social work curriculum study. New York: Council on Social Work Education. Argues that human needs content should be an important aspect of social work education. Boehm, Werner. 1958. The nature of social work. Social Work 3.2: 10–18. Points out that social work was recognized as a profession because it both meets human needs and carries out a social control function. Graham, Michael. 1951. Human needs. London: Cresset. Proposes that levels of human needs satisfaction, if adequately theorized, could provide an alternative to the means test for judging the utility of social policies and social services. Kahn, Alfred J. 1957. Sociology and social work: Challenge and invitation. Social problems 4.3: 220–228. Says that social work research on human needs was basic to social policy. But Kahn felt that conceptual problems with the concept of needs remained. He saw human needs as defined and satisfied within specific social-economic-politicalcultural situations. Kahn, Alfred J. 1959. The function of social work in the modern world. In Issues in American social work. Edited by Alfred J. Kahn. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. Argues that an integrative view of needs should be applied to social work (see Wilensky and Lebeaux 1958), although he saw needs theory per se as too undeveloped. Social work might later consider how universal biological drives are converted into motives and eventually into needs. Stroup, Herbert. 1953. The field of social work. Sociology and Social Research 37.6: 395–398. Of seven basic areas for introductory courses in social work, one should be the nature of human needs. Wilensky, Harold L., and Charles Nathan Lebeaux. 1958. Industrial society and social welfare: The impact of industrialization on the supply and organization of social welfare services in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Argues that functional generalization tied to an integrative view of human needs is required for an advanced system of social welfare, although it is not a necessary condition for defining the boundaries of the existing social welfare system. Theories and Approaches The nature of human needs has been a subject of philosophical, theological, and scientific speculation since the early Greeks. In recent decades, advances in human need theory have drawn primarily on contributions from the field of philosophy. There has been growing philosophical acceptance of the centrality of universal needs concepts for moral and political philosophy. These works have included a number of important debates arising from Marxian, neo-Marxian, and feminist approaches, as well as capability theory and other political economic theories. Most recently two formal theories of human needs and psychological needs have been promulgated: the theory of human needs (THN) of Doyal and Gough (1991) and the self-determination theory (SDT) of Deci and Ryan (2000). Both seek to move beyond the perceived theoretical limitations of the work of Maslow 1943. These and other theories of human needs have been widely used in other helping professions, including most notably nursing. The role of religion and spirituality in relationship to human needs has also produced a substantial amount of literature. Deci, Edward L., and Richard M. Ryan. 2000. The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry 11.4: 227–268. Explains self-determination theory and its contention that there are universal psychological needs, including competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Doyal, Len, and Ian Gough. 1991. A theory of human need. New York: Guilford. Theorizes two primary basic needs (health and autonomy) necessary to avoid serious harm and engage in social participation. Civil, political, and women's rights are prerequisites for culturally specific ways of satisfying intermediate needs, including food, water, housing, health, childhood security, significant primary relationships, economic security, and basic education. Maslow, Abraham H. 1943. A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review 50.4: 370–396. Maslow presents his hierarchical theory of human needs (including physiological needs, safety needs, belonging/love, and self-actualization). Philosophical Discussions There is a growing philosophical consensus that the concept of needs is essential to moral and political philosophy. Doyal 1998 utilizes philosophical methods to debate developments in human needs theory. In one collection of the philosophical literature on needs, Thomson 2005 identifies fundamental needs satisfaction as a necessary condition for the avoidance of serious harm. Strongly criticizing John Rawls's theory of social justice for not having incorporated the notion of vital need (Rawls 1977), one major philosopher, David Wiggins 2005 comes down squarely on the side of the centrality of universal rather than relativist conceptions of human needs, stressing their importance for the philosophical understanding of social justice. Philosophical literature on needs has accelerated substantially over the past ten years (Noonan, 2014). Needs theory is now being applied to the study of global social justice and the critique of capitalism as an economic system (Brock, 2009; Noonan, 2014). Brock, Gillian. 2009. Global justice: a cosmopolitan account. New York: Oxford University Press. Brock sees human needs theory (and not only capabilities theory) is essential to the consideration of global social justice. Absolutely necessary needs are those which are indispensable and inescapable in order to achieve autonomy and engage in human social participation. Social policy should strive to harmonize needs, entitlements and incentives. Doyal, Len. 1998. A theory of human need. Necessary goods: Our responsibility to meet others' needs. Edited by Gillian Brock, 157–172. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Contains philosophical discussions of human needs. Restates and reasserts the objectivity and universality of needs, despite the strength of subjective feelings people have about individual needs and the reality of cultural differences in how needs are met. Miller, Sarah. Clark. 2012. The ethics of need agency, dignity, and obligation. New York: Routledge. Addresses human vulnerability and dependence as a neglected aspect of the human condition. When human agency is seriously endangered, fundamental needs such as bodily integrity, shelter, nutrition, social inclusion, and emotional attachment must be addressed in order to avoid significant harm, enable purposive action in the social world, and achieve self-determination. Noonan, Jeff. 2014. MacIntyre, Virtue and the Critique of Capitalist Modernity. Journal of Critical Realism, 13.2: 189-203. There is an infrequently cited but growing and extensive philosophical literature concerned with human needs. Such perspectives can provide the basis for a fuller critique of capitalism and inform a vision for human flourishing. Rawls, John. 1977. The basic structure as subject. American Philosophical Quarterly 14.April: 159–165. In this restatement of his distributive theory of justice, Rawls states that justice does not require an equal division of social primary goods but it does require equal rights and liberties as well as equality of opportunity. Thomson, Garrett. 2005. Fundamental needs. In The philosophy of need. Edited by Soran Reader, 175–186. New York: Cambridge University Press. Distinguishes instrumental needs from fundamental needs, which the author defines as uncircumstantial and unavoidable necessary conditions for avoidance of serious harm. Wiggins, David. 2005. An idea we cannot do without: What difference will it make (e.g., to moral, political, and environmental philosophy) to recognize and put to use a substantial conception of need? In The philosophy of need. Edited by Soran Reader, 25–50. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press. Criticizes conceptions of justice that do not incorporate concepts of need. Supports a precautionary principle that supports social policies that focus on meeting present human needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their human needs. Marxian, Neo-Marxian, and Feminist Approaches Marxian and feminist theories have long influenced the progressive tradition in social work, and have included debates about the degree to which human needs are universal or relative, are consistent with Marxism or likely to reinforce social oppression, or are philosophically rigorous or value laden. The socialist feminist work of Fraser 1989 prioritizes the discursive nature of needs identification. Heller 1976 contends that Karl Marx viewed needs as relative to the relations of production and that under capitalism needs were transformed into wants. However, others contend that Marx made a clear distinction between wants and needs (Springborg 1981). More recent work reinterprets Marx's theory of needs (Hughes 2000) and concludes that Marx identified the primacy of needs (Lebowitz 2003). Noonan 2004 criticizes rights-based theories of liberal democracy for giving primacy to property rights over demands for human needs satisfaction. Noonan 2012 criticizes theories of need that are not sufficiently expansive, in that they rest upon the logical foundation of avoidance of serious harm, at the sacrifice of advocacy for human liberation. The work of Sarah Clark Miller 2012 and Brock 2009 are examples of feminist philosophical literature stressing that human needs theory is required in moral and political philosophy. For Miller 2012 needs are not weaknesses, but are aspects of the human condition that must be addressed with both rationality and caring. Fraser, Nancy. 1989. Struggle over needs: Outline of a socialist-feminist critical theory of late capitalist political culture. In Unruly practices: Power, discourse, and gender in contemporary social theory. Edited by Nancy Fraser. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press. Uses a socialist-feminist analysis to identify unequal discursive power among groups engaged in struggles over needs. Distinguishes between thin (basic) needs and thick needs, which are service or policy needs often debated in relation to thin needs. She proposes stressing needs identification rather than needs satisfaction. Heller, Agnes. 1976. The theory of need in Marx. New York: St. Martin's. Sees in Karl Marx a qualitative and relativist distinction between the essentially manufactured needs for commodities under capitalism and the system of radical needs that would emerge among cooperating individuals under communism. Hughes, Jonathan. 2000. Capitalism, socialism, and the satisfaction of needs. In Ecology and historical materialism. By Jonathan Hughes, 161–200. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press. This historical materialist approach to social ecology criticizes Heller 1976 and reinterprets Karl Marx's view of human needs as being consistent with the philosophical priority given to avoidance of serious harm. Lebowitz, Michael A. 2003. The primacy of needs. In Beyond capital: Marx's political economy of the working class, 2d ed. By Michael A. Lebowitz, 161–167. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Reinterprets Karl Marx's theory of history to identify the primacy of needs, with social change taking place when people recognize that the existing social structure no longer permits the satisfaction of the very needs generated at that point in history. Miller, Sarah. Clark. 2012. The ethics of need agency, dignity, and obligation. New York: Routledge. Gives specific content to the concept of serious harm, by identifying the serious harm of compromised agency. Reasons that when needs are denied, compromised agency demands a response that restores self-determination. Utilizes a feminist perspective that considers relational, caring and emotional abilities to be central to building, maintaining and restoring human agency. Noonan, Jeff. 2004. Rights, needs, and the moral grounds of democratic society. Rethinking Marxism 16.3: 311–325. Argues that classical and contemporary liberal democratic theories assume that human rights and property rights are the foundation of political democracy. However, property rights may conflict with the abilities of social struggles to ensure that basic human needs are met. This requires a more advanced conceptualization of social democracy. Noonan, Jeff. 2012. Materialist ethics and life-value. Montrâeal; Ithaca NY: McGill-Queen's University Press. Noonan (2012) critiqued THN and other needs theorists if and when they prioritize universal, organic life requirements for survival over more comprehensive concepts of need, since doing so would confine the conceptualization of social justice to those needs which could conceivably be met within the existing structures of capitalism. Springborg, Patricia. 1981. Appendix: "Needs" as a concept. In The problem of human needs and the critique of civilization. By Patricia Springborg, 252–275. Boston: Allen and Unwin. Critical of Abraham H. Maslow, Springborg stresses the distinction between wants and needs. She points out that Karl Marx's dissertation cited Cicero's typology of desires, including those that are natural and necessary, those that are natural but not necessary, and those that are neither. Capability Theory and Other Political Economic Theories Political economic and capability theories have been strongly influenced by conceptions related to human needs. The institutional economics of Karl Polanyi and K. William Kapp provide an intellectual alternative to the assumptions of classical liberalism (Berger and Steppacher 2011). Kapp's work anticipated current debates about the relationship of human needs and social sustainability (Gough, 2014). The political economic work of McMurtry 1998 was influential on Noonan 2006, who contended that human needs are fundamentally compromised without significant change in the system of property rights. The relative value needs theory and the capability theory of Sen 1985 and Nussbaum 2000 has been a major source of conceptual confusion. Recently, a volume edited by Nussbaum has included an essay by Gough 2014 explaining the distinctions between needs and capabilities. For Sen 1985, as is the case for Gough, basic forms of democratic rights are necessary to engage in social participation and establish claims for the right of need satisfaction. Nussbaum built on Sen 1985 in order to further theorize a list of universal human capabilities, which she saw as relevant to developing constitutional provisions ensuring these capabilities can be achieved. Arguably, the salience of particular human need satisfiers is different at various points in the human life course, depending on how various agential capabilities evolve or are endangered, thus reducing the ability to avoid harm. This is shown by Miller's 2012 example of variation across the life course in our need to establish, maintain, or reestablish agency (see Philosophical Discussions above). O'Neill 2011 cites Sen (1984) as making the point that the concept of needs is more passive than the concept of capabilities, but responds that needs should not be seen as weaknesses. Similar conceptual confusion also sees assets and strengths as preferable concepts to needs. Gough, Ian. 2014. Lists and Thresholds: Comparing the Doyal-Gough Theory of Human Need with Nussbaum's Capabilities Approach. In F. Comim & M. C. Nussbaum (Eds.), Capabilities, Gender, Equality: Towards Fundamental Entitlements (pp. 357-381). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gough explains that both needs theory and capabilities theory support universalism, and stress the limits of cultural relativism. Both invoke strong moral claims on societal obligations. A chart is presented contrasting the two theories. The two theories are seen as addressing a basically similar agenda. Berger, Sebastian, and Rolf Steppacher. 2011. Editorial introduction. In S. Berger & R. Steppacher (Eds.), The foundations of institutional economics (pp. 1-16). New York: Routledge. The authors relate how Kapp discussed bio-cultural needs and issued a call for the reintroduction of human needs into economic theory, as well as for a social welfare minimum designed to ensure basic needs satisfaction. McMurtry, John. 1998. The question of need. In Unequal freedoms: The global market as an ethical system. By John McMurtry, 162–166. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian. This criticism of the absence of needs concepts in classical and contemporary economics proposes a concept of needs associated with the deprivation of conditions that reduce human organic capability. His work was influential for Noonan 2006. Noonan, Jeff. 2006. Democratic society and human needs. Montreal: McGillQueen's Univ. Press. Contends that needs-based concepts are central to moral philosophy and ethics. Proposes a reconceptualization of democracy that is needs based rather than rights based. Points out that certain property rights might need to be subordinated to the requirements of human needs satisfaction in order to achieve a fully democratic society. O'Neill, John. 2011. The overshadowing of needs. In F. Rauschmayer, I. Omann & J. Frühmann (Eds.), Sustainable development: capabilities, needs, and well-being (pp. 25-42). London: Routledge. Needs concepts are often avoided because they are equated with neediness or dependence, which are negatively construed. Discourse is biased in favor of a focus on agency and on people as actors, rather than on people as being passive or dependent. Nussbaum, Martha Craven. 2000. Women and human development: The capabilities approach. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press. Drawing upon Sen 1985, further develops a list of universal human capabilities, the threshold level of which can be the basis for constitutional provisions. Sen, Amartya Kumar. 1985. Commodities and capabilities. New York: Elsevier. Argues that social and political participation are correlated with basic political and liberal rights and the exercise of the claim that economic needs be respected. Doyal and Gough's Theory of Human Need (THN) Drawing upon the philosophical expertise of Len Doyal and the economic training of Ian Gough, a fully construed theory of human needs (THN) was constructed. The theory shows the social preconditions for meeting two basic human needs, health and autonomy, seen as necessary for avoiding serious harm and engaging in social participation. Varying by culture and environment, specific satisfiers are used to address a number of intermediate needs that are prerequisites for meeting health and autonomy needs. Additional social preconditions, including human rights and cross cultural communication, are required for achieving the critical autonomy necessary for critical participation in one's chosen way of life. The theory of human need (THN) was designed to permit empirical testing of its constructs (Doyal and Gough 1991). During the 21st century, there is a growing use of the THN as well as self-determination theory (SDT, see next section). Recently, THN was used in the first full-length account of the relationship of human needs and social policy (Dean 2010). Also, THN has been used in Brock's work on global social justice (see Philosophical Discussions above) and in Miller's work on the ethics of need (see Marxian, Neo-Marxian, and Feminist Approaches). Also, although still critical of THN, James Ife 2013 provides a lengthy rendition of the central tenets of THN with respect to the universalism and relativism of human need. Ryan and Sapp 2007 contribute to a volume edited by Gough, where they discuss the fundamental compatibility of SDT and THN. Gough 2014 presents an electronically accessible copy of the original theory chart from The Theory of Human Need (Doyal and Gough, 1991). In this work he also explains the centrality of human needs theory for ongoing debates about social and environmental sustainability. In recent years, THN is also beginning to be used in the social work literature (Axford 2010; Dover 2013). Axford, Nick. 2010. Is social exclusion a useful concept in children's services? British Journal of Social Work, 40.3: 737-754. doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcn121 Draws on THN to examine the British child welfare discourse on social exclusion (which stress inclusion and structural change) and needs-led approaches (which focus on reducing harm and enhancing participation). Dean, Hartley. 2010. Understanding human need: Social issues, policy and practice. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. Places THN within the larger context of needs and capabilities theory generally. Clarifies the confusion regarding the use of human needs theory in social work, social policy, and social science. Utilizes needs concepts to discuss poverty and inequality, social exclusion, and the relationship of needs to rights. Dover, Michael A. 2013. Letter from the editors. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 19.1: 1-3. THN theorizes significant primary relationships as necessary for health and autonomy needs. SDT theorizes relatedness as one of three basic psychological needs. The provision of relationship, even when constrained by the agency setting, has intrinsic value for addressing human needs, in addition to other services provided. Doyal, Len, and Ian Gough. 1991. A theory of human need. New York: Guilford. Theorizes two primary basic needs (health and autonomy) required to avoid serious harm and engage in social participation. Civil, political, and women's rights are prerequisites for culturally specific ways of satisfying intermediate needs, including food, water, housing, a nonhazardous environment, health, childhood security, significant primary relationships, economic security, and basic education. Gough, Ian. 2014. Working paper: Climate change and sustainable welfare: An argument for the centrality of human needs. Paper presented at the Grantham Research Institute Discussion Group. London. http://personal.lse.ac.uk/goughi/sustainable%20welfare%20and%20human%20need %206.pdf Draws on THN to discuss climate change and sustainability. Points out that climate change could result in less intensive demands being made on the environment, producing both more leisure and a refocusing on basic needs. THN can be used in longitudinal research on consumption, environmental decline, and well-being. Ife, James. 2013. Community Development in an Uncertain World: Vision, Analysis and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Suggests a methodology for mobilizing communities to define needs. Defines a needs statement as both normative and descriptive, thus reflecting both preferences for changed conditions and the realities of the present situation, as perceived by the persons making the statement. Constructs a typology of types of needs statements. Ryan, Richard M. and Aislinn R. Sapp. 2007. Basic psychological needs: A selfdetermination theory perspective on the promotion of wellness across development and cultures. In I. Gough & J. A. McGregor (Eds.), Wellbeing in developing countries: From theory to research (1st ed., pp. 71-92). New York: Cambridge University Press. Clarify how THN and SDT posit an objective basis for the human needs and psychological needs, seen as universal across all human cultures, despite being addressed differently. Both theories see autonomy as a basic need and both seen optimal autonomy as required for actualization (SDT) or liberation (THN). Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory (SDT) Self-determination theory (SDT) is the most influential post-Maslowian psychological theory of human need, and is increasingly being utilized in social work research (Blakey, 2012: Law, Shek and Ma, 2013). Self-determination theory identifies autonomy, competence, and relatedness as universal psychological needs (Ryan and Deci 2000, Ryan and Deci 2001). This micro-level approach to human needs is seen as compatible with the overarching Doyal-Gough theory (Gough 2004, Camfield and Skevington 2008). Self-determination theory has roots in the humanistic tradition within psychology, but is also used in personality, developmental, cognitive and social psychology. The theory used at both the macro and micro levels. A large body of hundreds of journal articles and dissertations has drawn on SDT. The theory is eudaimonic in nature, with its focus on self-realization stressing that needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy must met as a condition for psychological growth (rooted in autonomous motivation), human integrity within culturally specific settings, and well-being generally. Well-being in this theory is bounded to the realms of psychological health and life satisfaction. Thus, SDT applies various measures of hedonic well-being, such as indexes of subjective well-being. However, SDT sees such measures as outcome measures for well-being. Satisfaction of basic psychological needs is a perquisite for well-being. The theory distinguishes autonomous and controlled motivation, with the former being valued and volitional and the later being coerced. Given the vast literature on this theory, the reader is advised to consult the accessible lecture of Deci 2012 and the most recent rendition by Ryan and Deci 2011, as well as their earlier works cited above. Blakey, J. M. 2012. From surviving to thriving: Understanding reunification among African American mothers with histories of addiction. Children and Youth Services Review, 34.1: 91-102. Draws extensively on SDT to support research on family reunification. The study concerns the roles of intrinsic motivation and external motivation among AfricanAmerican women. Camfield, Laura, and Suzanne M. Skevington. 2008. On subjective well-being and quality of life. Journal of Health Psychology 13.6: 764–775. Uses the concepts of autonomy and eudaimonism (integration of and realization of actualized potential) as a conceptual bridge between Ryan and Deci 2000 and Doyal and Gough 1991 (in Doyal and Gough's Theory of Human Needs). Deci, Edward L. 2012. Professor Edward Deci on Self-Determination Theory. A. Arvarnitis (Ed.) Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/37460250 In this accessible video, Edward Deci, co-developer of self-determination theory (SDT) explains the basic tenets of the theory and its evolution and applications to research and practice. Explains the similarities of extrinsic motivation and SDT's concept, autonomous motivation. Social learning can produce internalization that leads over time to intrinsic motivation. Gough, Ian. 2004. Human well-being and social structures: Relating the universal and the local. Global Social Policy 4.3: 289–311. Discusses the parallels between Ryan and Deci 2001 and the Doyal-Gough theory of human needs, in particular the mutual stress on autonomy. Law, Ben M. F., Shek, Daniel. T. L., and Cecilia M. S. Ma. 2013. Validation of family, school, and peer influence on volunteerism scale among adolescents. Research on Social Work Practice, 23.4: 458-466. This example of the use of self-determination theory utilizes SDT's discusses the potentially problematic reliance upon extrinsic motivation for social behavior such as volunteering among adolescents. Ryan, Richard M., and Edward L. Deci. 2000. Authors' response: The darker and brighter sides of human existence; Basic psychological needs as a unifying concept. Psychological Inquiry 11.4: 319–338. The authors present their self-determination theory (SDT), in which autonomy, competence, and relatedness are essential to psychological growth and needs fulfillment. Ryan, Richard M., and Edward L. Deci. 2001. On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology 52: 141–166. Distinguishes between hedonic conceptions linking well-being and happiness to pleasure and eudaimonic conceptions correlating well-being with the actualization of human potential. Both conceptions are seen as useful in a multidimensional understanding of well-being. Ryan, Richard M., and Edward L. Deci. 2011. A self-determination theory perspective on social, institutional, cultural, and economic supports for autonomy and their importance for well-being. In V. I. Chirkov, R. M. Ryan & K. M. Sheldon (Eds.), Human autonomy in cross-cultural context (Vol. 1, pp. 45-64). Ryan and Deci summarize self-determination theory. Explain why autonomy is necessary (along with relatedness and a sense of competence) to the achievement of human well-being. Well-being is linked to human relationships, contributions to a community, and pursuit of personal growth. Life goals that distract people from addressing needs thwart the well-being. Nursing Theories As social work becomes increasingly involved in the growing field of interprofessional care, it is helpful to explore how theories of human need are utilized in other allied health professions, in this case nursing. The philosophy of nursing has long been rooted in conceptualizations of human need (Johnstone, 2011), including the identification by nursing theory pioneer Virginia Henderson of 14 basic needs of patients (Dijkstra, et al. 2011). Fortin 2006 traces the evolution of nursing's use of human needs theory. Recently, there is increased used of formal theories of human need in nursing literature. For instance, a recent debate in nursing about alternatives to positivist perspectives has sought to link a realist ontology with human needs theory (Porter and O'Halloran, 2012). The implications of this theory for patient care are also discussed in terms of informing value-based augmentation of the implications of evidence-based nursing care (Porter, O'Halloran and Morrow, 20112). Powers 2006 is concerned that needs might be construed as deficiencies and that needs-based approaches might result in oppressive approaches to nursing practice. Others, however, use critical theory to propose humanist discourse about need (Holmes and Warelow 1997) or introduce a transcultural approach to reconciling objective human needs with culturally informed nursing practice (Kikuchi 2005). Dijkstra, Ate, Gülendam Hakverdioğlu Yönt, Esra Akin Korhan, Marta Muszalik, Kornelia Kędziora-Kornatowska and Mizue Suzuki. 2012. The Care Dependency Scale for Measuring Basic Human Needs: An International Comparison. Journal of Advanced Nursing 68.10: 2341-48. Uses Henderson's list of patient care needs to construct a Care Dependency scale, without reference to more recent theories of human need. Fortin, Jacqueline. 2006. Human needs and nursing theory. In Nursing theories: Conceptual and philosophical foundations, 2d ed. Edited by Hesook Suzie Kim and Ingrid Kollak, 10–16. New York: Springer. This literature review of human needs theory in nursing is counterpoised in the same edited collection by the critical approach to needs concepts provided by Powers 2006. Holmes, Colin A., and Philip J. Warelow. 1997. Culture, needs, and nursing: A critical theory approach. Journal of Advanced Nursing 25.3: 463–470. Explains how theories of human needs underlie political ideologies and nursing practice. Since theories of needs are ultimately socially constructed, needs must be articulated in a humanistic manner, as part of a theory-practice praxis, ensuring needs don't buttress consumerist notions of infinite demand. Johnstone, Megan Jane. 2011. Nursing and justice as a basic human need. Nursing Philosophy, 12.1: 34-44. doi: 10.1111/j.1466-769X.2010.00459.x Nurse theorists have long drawn on theories of universal human need to clarify nursing's professional responsibilities to patients. Nursing should more fully conceptualize justice a basic need, in order to articulate nursing's responsibilities to oppose unjust treatment of patients and to work for social justice generally. Kikuchi, June F. 2005. Cultural theories of nursing responsive to human needs and values. Journal of Nursing Scholarship 37.4: 302–307. Responds to critiques similar to those later presented by Powers 2006 as well as to proposals for culture-specific theories of nursing. Suggests instead a culturally sensitive transcultural theory of nursing that retains conceptions of objective human needs. Porter, Sam, Peter O'Halloran, and Elizabeth Morrow. 2011. Bringing values back into evidence-based nursing the role of patients in resisting empiricism. Advances in Nursing Science, 342: 106-118. doi: 10.1097/ANS.0b013e31821690d9 Draw upon THN to discus how nursing care can stress patiency empowerment and autonomy. Identify an ethical dilemma faced by proponents of reliance upon evidence-based nursing, between effective means and unacceptable ends. Nursing care decisions require a theoretically informed set of values, not merely a procedural guide to interventions. Porter, Sam and Peter O'Halloran. 2012. The use and limitation of realistic evaluation as a tool for evidence-based practice: A critical realist perspective. Nursing Inquiry, 19.1: 18-28. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1800.2011.00551.x As an alternative to positive approaches to nursing research, propose a realist ontology, and raise substantive questions about conceptualizing need, want and desire. Identify THN as compatible with a realist perspective. Realist ontology and human needs theory can provide nursing with the rational for a re-focus on nursing relationships. Powers, Penny. 2006. The concept of need in nursing theory. In Nursing theories: Conceptual and philosophical foundations, 2d ed. Edited by Hesook Suzie Kim and Ingrid Kollak, 71–88. New York: Springer. Traces the substantial history of needs concepts in nursing. Notes concern that the concept remains undertheorized and that it stresses human deficits. States that needs-based approaches risk perpetuating oppression. Religion, Spirituality, and Human Needs The major Abrahamic religions have all developed conceptions of human needs, including Judaism (Heschel 1965), Islam (Ismail and Sarif 2004), and Christianity (Hugen 2004). Spiritual or religious practices are seen as an important aspect in many conceptions of human needs (Canda 2008). Neither THN nor SDT have an explicit component for understanding human spirituality. However, the theories give significant attention to human relationships and relatedness. Thus, relevant literature includes work such as that of David Gil 2004 on the social/psychological needs for human relationships of the I-Thou type (Buber 1937). Seen from this standpoint, there is conceptual value in more broadly defining human relationships to include those arising from the practice of religious rituals found in all human cultures (Rappaport 1999). Heschel (1965) stressed the importance of feeling needed, and saw the essence of being human as related to face to face concern with addressed the needs of people. In Totality and Infinity, Lévinas stated (1969, p. 78): "There can be no 'knowledge' of God separated from the relationship with man." Although Lévinas approached the relationship between people from third-person standpoint rather than the second-person I-Thou relationships stressed by Heschel and Buber, the substantive implications of human relationships for human spirituality are arguably similar. For Lévinas, the root of religion is the encounter between the being here below of the I, and the transcendent being represented by the face of the elevated other. It is here where the moral dimension enters the ethical relationship. In the thought of Buber, Heschel, and Lévinas, the path to the divine is blocked in the absence of those very relationships with our fellow humans seen as a basic human need by contemporary human needs theory. Buber, Martin 1937. I and Thou. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. The "I-Thou" relationship was something fundamental to relationships among people, with such relationships invoking as well a relationship with God. Canda, Edward R. 2008. Human needs: Religion and spirituality. In Encyclopedia of social work, 20th ed. Edited by Terry Mizrahi and Larry E. Davis, 413–418. New York: Oxford Univ. Press and National Association of Social Workers. Describes how social work has increasingly recognized spirituality and religion as important aspects of human needs and diverse cultures. Gil, David G. 2004. Perspectives on social justice. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 10.Fall: 32-39. Grounds his perspective on human needs within the context of human relationships, which are seen as fundamental both for human survival, for selfactualization, and for addressing spiritual needs. Heschel, Abraham Joshua. 1965. The problem of needs. In Between God and man: An interpretation of Judaism. Edited by Fritz A. Rothschild, 129–151. New York: Free Press. Discusses human needs in relationship to both rights and obligations. Although there is a minimum of needs for all people, there is no maximum level common to all. Heschel stresses the need to be needed and the needs of people in relationship to the needs of God. Hugen, Beryl. 2004. The geography of faith: Mapping the features of faith-based practice. Social Work and Christianity 31.1: 3–24. Discusses the role of faith-based practice in responding to people in need. Ismail, Yusof, and Suhaimi M. Sarif. 2004. An Islamic response to Herzberg's twofactor motivation theory. In Islam: Past, present, and future. Edited by Ahmad Sunawari Long, Jaffar Awang, and Kamaruddin Salleh, 1145–1178. Bangi Selangor, Malaysia: Department of Theology and Philosophy, Faculty of Islamic Studies, University Kebangsaan Malaysia. Stresses that human needs transcend the material and that the motivation to work is and should be subordinate to the need to serve God. Levinas, Emmanuel. 1969. Totality and infinity: an essay on exteriority. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press. As opposed to second-person "I-Thou" relationships, stresses third person relationships. There is a fundamental ethical (as opposed to informational) force that requires a person to respond to the expressions of the third person other. Stresses an intersubjective, transcendent, asymmetrical responsibility to the other, rather than a reciprocal responsibility. Rappaport, Roy A. 1999. Ritual and religion in the making of humanity. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press. This anthropological work integrates the author's lifetime of research on the centrality of religious ritual across many cultures. Religious practices are shown to be central to the evolution of human culture. Social Work Practice There are few extant models for social work practice that have human needs as a central concept. Reynolds 1992 distinguishes between the needs of people and the needs of society. Joseph 1986 contends that human needs concepts should be central to community organizing. The strengths perspective is often seen as an alternative to focusing on needs (Saleebey 2006), but one human strength is our persistent pursuit of the satisfaction of our needs and wants. The goodness of fit approach of the ecosystems-based life model of practice incorporates needs concepts (Germain and Gitterman 1980). Dover and Joseph 2008 conclude that with further development both the strengths perspective and the ecosystems perspective can provide the basis for further integrating human needs concepts into social work practice theory. In the first peer-reviewed article on human needs to appear in a major social work journal in recent decades, Jani and Reisch 2011 advance the discourse on human needs in social work by critiquing implicit assumptions in human behavior literature that fail to recognize the culturally variant manner in which human needs are addressed. They go on to present a transformational integrative multidimensional evolutionary (TIME) model which conceptualizes human needs in a developmental manner that incorporates cultural diversity. As one example of how relevant recent advances in the philosophy of human need are for social work practice, Brock 2009 asks a question of central importance for social work and other helping professions. A needs-based ethicist, she points out people have a moral responsibility to help others to address their needs. Brock then asks (2009, p. 900): "What is it to enable someone to meet a need?" Despite the sparse current literature on human needs and social work practice, answers to the question posed by Brock require further conceptual development within social work theory. Brock, Gillian. 2009. Global justice: a cosmopolitan account. New York: Oxford University Press. Institutional arrangements must be in place to enhance a person's own capacities, expand opportunities and provide for changes in social structures and the social and natural environment. Interventions vary depending on age and other aspects of a person's ability to be enabled. Dover, Michael A., and Barbara Hunter Randall Joseph. 2008. Human needs: Overview. In Encyclopedia of social work, 20th ed. Edited by Terry Mizrahi and Larry E. Davis, 398–406. New York: Oxford Univ. Press and National Association of Social Workers. The authors contend that human needs are realized or restricted at the intersection of the individual and the social environment. Human needs theory and research could enrich the ecosystems perspective and contribute to a unifying paradigm for social work practice. Germain, Carel B., and Alex Gitterman. 1980. The life model of social work practice. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. Criticizes approaches that tend to fit people's needs into the practice model being used. Emphasizes goodness of fit between life tasks, needs, goals, resources, and stimuli. Jani, Jayshree and Michael Reisch. 2011. Common human needs, uncommon solutions: Applying a critical framework to perspectives on human behavior. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 921: 13-20. Call for re-thinking how needs are conceptualized. Social workers should recognize that human behavior involves a diverse set of adaptions within a changing environment, and adopt models for critical thinking about oppression. The authors present a conceptual model for enriching existing social work theoretical perspectives across multiple levels of intervention. Joseph, Barbara Randall. 1986. Taking organizing back to the people. Bertha Capen Reynolds Centennial issue, Smith College Studies in Social Work 56.2: 122–131. Argues that human needs should be an organizing principle for community organizing practice. This may require restructuring our society toward a more equitable approach to meeting needs. Reynolds, Bertha Capen. 1992. Re-thinking social casework. Journal of Progressive Human Services 3.1: 73–84. Originally published in 1938. Points out that Virginia Robinson's more psychological approach to social casework promised a more egalitarian relationship with clients than previous instrumentalist, economic need–oriented approaches did. Identifies conflicting needs to which social work responds: the needs of clients and the need of society. Saleebey, Dennis, ed. 2006. The strengths perspective in social work practice. 4th ed. Boston: Pearson, Allyn, and Bacon. Saleebey is concerned that stigmatizing clients as needy could in turn lead to their disempowerment. However, the model's focus on client assets is consistent with the capabilities approach in human needs theory. Social Policy The Gil 1992 approach to policy analysis has long provided a tool for needs-based social policy analysis and advocacy. Despite earlier work that distinguished between service needs and human needs and introduced the concept of human capabilities, McKnight 1995 later criticizes needs assessment approaches that stress deficiencies. However, new approaches to needs assessment based upon human needs theory have evolved. For instance, O'Brien 2010 concludes there is value for research in using theory of human need and also recognizing the need for struggles over the interpretation of needs. Gough 2000 explains that most nations have mixed economies in which the needs of people and the needs of capital could be reconciled, given advances in social production and social policy. Skevington 2009 points out that measures of quality of life often employ indexes that do not utilize theories of human need that recognize universally relevant and often unmet basic needs. Axford, Nick; Victoria Green, Annemieke Kalsbeek,, Louise Morpeth, and Chris Palmer. 2009. Measuring children's needs: How are we doing? Child & Family Social Work, 14.3: 243-254. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2206.2008.00591.x Study needs assessments of children's needs and concluded that future research should draw upon human needs theory such as that of Doyal and Gough, study outcomes such as well-being rather than outputs such as various measures of process and satisfaction, and better portray the seriousness of children's unmet needs. Gil, David G. 1992. Unravelling social policy: Theory, analysis, and political action towards social equality. 5th. ed., rev. and enlarged. Rochester, VT: Schenkman. Typologizes human needs as biological material, social psychological, productive creative, security, self-actualization, and spiritual in nature. Views social welfare policy from the standpoint of contributions to the meeting of human needs, which is required for achieving social justice. Gough, Ian. 2000. Global capital, human needs, and social policies: Selected essays, 1994–99. New York: St. Martin's. Discusses the needs of people and the needs of capital in light of recent empirical research guided by theory of human need. The first chapter contains an over view of the Doyal-Gough theory. Gough, Ian and J. Allister McGregor. Eds. 2007. Wellbeing in developing countries: From theory to research (1st Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. This edited collection suggested a new paradigm for research on well-being, based upon concepts related to human functioning, capabilities and needs, resource use and livelihoods, and subjective well-being and happiness. McKnight, John. 1995. The careless society: Community and its counterfeits. New York: Basic Books. Criticizes the focus by helping professions on needs as deficiencies and proposes instead a focus on human assets. O'Brien, Michael. 2010. The conceptualization and measurement of need: A key to guiding policy and practice in children's services. Child & Family Social Work, 15.4: 432-440. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2206.2010.00689.x Drawing on THN, points out the need to identify further specific objective health and autonomy needs and need satisfiers as well those subjective need interpretations. Stresses that needs should be seen both as requisites and as goals, and to use both developmental and ecological perspectives in address needs. Skevington, Suzanne M. 2009. Conceptualising dimensions of quality of life in poverty. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 19.1: 33-50. doi: 10.1002/casp.978 Studies quality of life in relation to poverty. Utilizes domains derived from human needs theory such as physical health (broadly conceived to include safe environment, food and water, shelter, etc.), as well as psychological factors, autonomy and independence, social relations, family life, spiritual practices, political and social rights, and other aspects of the social environment. Research Given the relatively recent development of theories of human needs that are amenable to empirical testing (something that was less feasible for earlier theories that were lists of disparate needs), it is only in recent years that empirical research based upon theories of human needs has begun to develop. This section includes a selective examination of research related to direct practice, gerontology, crossnational comparative social welfare, and needs assessment, focusing on works that draw explicitly upon various theories of human needs. Practice-Relevant Research Parallel to theoretical and discursive approaches to human needs, empirical research seeks to apply human needs theory to the conceptualizing concepts such as quality of life and subjective well-being that have important practice implications. For instance, efforts have continued to apply Maslow's theory of needs to practice (Harper, et al. 2003) and self-determination theory to the study of disclosure of HIV status (Gillard and Roark 2013). Research on subjective well-being and quality of life research has now evolved that explicitly integrates more recent human needs theory (Camfield and Skevington 2008; Karademas et al. 2008), including the Doyal-Gough theory (Little, et al. 2004; McMunn, et al. 2006). Camfield and Skevington 2008 point out that the concepts of autonomy and eudaimonism (integration of and realization of actualized potential) provide a conceptual bridge between self-determination theory and theory of human need. In one of the first empirical studies in a major social work journal, Social Work in Health Care, Thomas, Gray, and McGinty 2012 draws on self-determination theory and the theory of human need as well as other needs theory in their research on homelessness. Camfield, Laura and Suzanne M. Skevington. 2008. On subjective well-being and quality of life. Journal of Health Psychology, 13.6: 764-775. Recognize objective and subjective aspects of well-being and quality of life. Conclude that based upon research findings, subjective well-being (SWB) and subjective QoL are really synonymous. The authors differ on whether subjective well-being research is increasingly superfluous, given the quest to better theorize the multidimensional nature of quality of life. Gillard, Ann and Mark F. Roark. 2013. Support for basic psychological needs in the context of HIV disclosure for older youth. Children and Youth Services Review, 35.1: 102-111. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2012.10.021 Apply the basic needs component of self-determination theory to research on levels of autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Higher levels of needs satisfaction were found to be positively correlated with disclosure of HIV status. Harper, Frederick D., Jacqueline A. Harper, and Aaron B. Stills. 2003. Counseling children in crisis based on Maslow's hierarchy of basic needs. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling 25.1: 11–25. Children in crisis are children whose basic needs have not been met. The authors criticize prevailing Western mental health approaches for failing to utilize needs concepts. They propose a cross-cultural counseling approach that focuses explicitly on ensuring that a child's material and psychological needs are met. Karademas, Evangelos C., Argyro Bakouli, Anastasios Bastounis, Fani Kallergi, Panagiota Tamtami, and Maria Theofilou. 2008. Illness perceptions, illness-related problems, subjective health and the role of perceived primal threat: Preliminary findings. Journal of Health Psychology 13.8: 1021–1029. This empirical report of a study of perceived primal threats is based upon a combination of two theories of human needs that include four components of basic needs: social integration, self-preservation, personal identity and growth, and worldview. Little, Michael, Nick Axford, and Louise Morpeth. 2004. Research review: Risk and protection in the context of services for children in need. Child and Family Social Work 9.1: 105–117. The authors report that in England and Wales legislation promotes the use of needs concepts in assessment and intervention. Using the Doyal-Gough theory to assess needs of children at risk, they explain that the related concepts of risk and protective factors are one basis for the assessment of needs during child development. McMunn, Anne, Mel Bartley, and Diana Kuh. 2006. Women's health in mid-life: Life course social roles and agency as quality. Social Science and Medicine 63.6: 1561–1572. Their theory of role quality centers on agency, seen as synonymous with autonomy. Unmet autonomy needs can prevent the meeting of health needs. Patriarchal structuration of family and work roles can limit the ability to express agency (in other words, achieve autonomy), thus negatively impacting health outcomes. Thomas, Yvonne, Marion A. Gray and Sue McGinty. 2012. An Exploration of Subjective Wellbeing among People Experiencing Homelessness: A StrengthsBased Approach. Social work in health care, 51.9: 780-797. doi: 10.1080/00981389.2012.686475 Utilizes a strengths-based approach and human needs theory to research on subjective well-being among homeless people. Gerontological Research Gerontological research has been an area in which human needs theory has been utilized (Schröder-Butterfill and Marianti 2006). One sociologist of aging explicitly endorses the theory of human need of Doyal and Gough (Estes 2008). Increasingly convergence between human needs theory–based research and more data-driven approaches has developed (Blane, et al. 2004; Wiggins, et al. 2008). THN has been utilized in quantitative research designed to compare quality of life in one country (Ireland) to international data (Layte, Sexton, and Savva, 2013). This study and numerous other studies rely upon the CASP-19 index of quality of life amongst older persons, which was developed with reference to THN. Blane, D., P. Higgs, M. Hyde, and R. D. Wiggins. 2004. Life course influences on quality of life in early old age. Social Science and Medicine 58.11 2171–2179. Their needs theory–based measure of quality of life has two domains: control (freedom from) and autonomy (freedom to). Quality of life in early old age is largely independent of the circumstances of early life, and it is therefore possible to design policies that can enhance quality of life in early old age. Estes, Carroll. 2008. A first generation critic comes of age: Reflections of a critical gerontologist. Journal of Aging Studies 22.2: 120–131. From a gerontological perspective, states agreement with the Doyal-Gough theory that human needs are universal and transcultural. Layte, Richard, Eithne Sexton and George Savva. 2013. Quality of Life in Older Age: Evidence from an Irish Cohort Study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 61:S299-S305. doi: 10.1111/jgs.12198. Utilizing the CASP-19 index, measures of physical and mental health informed by needs theory, along with levels of social and financial circumstances were strongly associated with levels of quality of life. Schröder-Butterfill, Elisabeth, and Ruly Marianti. 2006. A framework for understanding old-age vulnerabilities. Ageing and Society 26.1: 9–35. Applies both the capabilities approach and the Doyal-Gough theory to the development of a conceptual framework for understanding vulnerabilities among older adults. Platts, Loretta G., Gopalakrishnan Netuveli, Elizabeth Webb, Marie Zins, Marcel Goldberg, David Blane and Morten Wahrendorf. 2013. Physical Occupational Exposures during Working Life and Quality of Life after Labour Market Exit: Results from the GAZEL Study. Aging & Mental Health 17(6):697-706. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2013.781120. Using the CASP-19 scale and citing human needs theory, this study found that physical occupational exposures affected quality of life through it impact on physical health and mental health. Wiggins, R. D., G. Netuveli, M. Hyde, P. Higgs, and D. Blane. 2008. The evaluation of a self-enumerated scale of quality of life (Casp-19) in the context of research on ageing: A combination of exploratory and confirmatory approaches. Social Indicators Research 89.1: 61–77. Relying upon the Doyal-Gough theory of needs, derives an empirical model to conclude that both biological and social needs satisfaction are important for a selfenumerated quality of life measure, which includes control, autonomy, selfrealization, and pleasure. Cross-National Comparative Research One major application of human needs theory has been in cross-national comparative research on human well-being and needs satisfaction. More recently the empirical findings of the human capabilities approach have been assessed (Clark 2005; Nussbaum 2000; Sen 1985). This research has been compared to findings based on the Doyal-Gough theory (Clark and Gough 2005). The value for crossnational well-being research of a variety of interdisciplinary macro and micro theoretical perspectives has also been discussed (Gough and McGregor 2007). Research has proceeded using human needs theory for cross-cultural comparative researching, via both qualitative and quantitative methods (Chen 2012; Skevington 2009). Chen, Henglien Lisa. 2012. Cross-national qualitative research into the long-term care of older people: Some reflections on method and methodology. European Journal of Social Work, 15(4), 449-466. doi: 10.1080/13691457.2012.708903 Sought to portray the value of solo researcher cross-national comparative study of long-term care policies. The conceptual underpinnings of the study were human needs theory and theories of successful aging. Clark, David A. 2005. Sen's capability approach and the many spaces of human well-being. Journal of Development Studies 41.8: 1339–1368. Sen 1985 reconciles utilitarian approaches that focus on mental constructs of optimal well-being and resource approaches that emphasize the material foundation of well-being. Agrees with THN about the need for expanding the list of capabilities and distinguishing how they reinforce or conflict with each other. Clark, David A., and Ian Gough. 2005. Capabilities, needs, and wellbeing: Relating the universal and the local. In Rethinking Wellbeing. Edited by Lenore Manderson, 45–68. Perth, Australia: Australian Public Intellectual Network. Nussbaum's model (Nussbaum 2000) comes under scrutiny in this chapter. Compares her model to Sen's more open-ended approach to capabilities (Sen 1985), to work on identifying human needs (Doyal and Gough 1991), and to Clark's empirical approach to the values of particular groups (Clark 2005). Doyal, Len, and Ian Gough. 1991. A theory of human need. New York: Guilford. The Doyal/Gough theory was designed from the outset for its value in crossnational comparative research, although it is applicable at a number of levels of observation. Gasper, Des. 2009. Needs and Well-Being. Pp. 348-57 in Handbook of Economics and Ethics, edited by J. Peil and I. VanStaveren. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. Summarizes the relationship of various theories of human needs and human rights, as applied to cross-national research on levels of human well-being. Gough, Ian, and J. Allister McGregor, eds. 2007. Wellbeing in developing countries: From theory to research. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press. This edited collection suggests a new paradigm for research on well-being based upon concepts related to human functioning, capabilities and needs, resource use and livelihoods, and subjective well-being and happiness. Nussbaum, Martha Craven. 2000. Women and human development: The capabilities approach. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press. Builds on Sen 1985 in order to further explain the concept of human capabilities. Draws conclusions regarding the utility of this approach for social policy development. Sen, Amartya Kumar. 1985. Commodities and capabilities. New York: Elsevier. Sen presented the concept of capabilities and compared them to rights, which may not be realized in the absence of the ability to function in various broad and more specific manners. Needs Assessment Research The reduction of human needs to service needs is decried by McKnight (1989), although his work is better known for its stress on assessing community assets. One review of the place of needs theory within needs assessments in health care stresses the need for more theoretically informed needs assessments (Harrison, Young, Butow and Solomon 2013). There is some research support for the view that clients and providers differ in their views of needs. For instance, Darling, et al. 2002 find that when conceptions of needs of clients and providers are compared, clients are more focused on basic human needs and providers are more concerned with the service needs they perceive clients to have. Some needs assessment research that does distinguish between service needs and human needs, using a human needs theory–guided approach. The Doyal-Gough theory is used in two book-length approaches to community-based needs assessment (Percy-Smith and Sanderson 1992; Percy-Smith 1996). The more recent emergence of theory-informed community profiling in Great Britain has now been applied to social work education (Baldwin and Teater 2009). Needs theory is also beginning to be used in social work journals for needs assessment (Axford, Green, Kalsbeek, Morpeth and Palmer 2009; O'Brien 2010; Axford, Nick; Victoria Green,; Annemieke Kalsbeek, Louise,Morpeth, and Chris Palmer. 2009. Measuring children's needs: How are we doing? Child & Family Social Work, 14.3: 243-254. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2206.2008.00591.x The authors review needs assessments of children's needs and conclude that future research should draw upon human needs theory such as that of Doyal and Gough. Research should focus on outcomes such as well-being rather than outputs such as various measures of process and satisfaction. Baldwin, Mark J., and Barbra A. Teater. 2009. Exploring the learning experiences of students involved in community profiling projects. Social Work Education 28.7: 778–791. Discusses the field education potential of a community profiling research project that utilized the Doyal-Gough theory of human needs. Darling, Rosalyn Benjamin, Mark A. Hager, Jami M. Stockdale, and D. Alex Heckert. 2002. Divergent views of clients and professionals: A comparison of responses to a needs assessment instrument. Journal of Social Service Research 28.3: 41–63. Research on client views shows that they are more concerned with basic human needs than providers, who are more focused on service needs related to domestic violence, child abuse, and substance abuse. Harrison, James D., Jane M. Young, Phyllis N. Butow and Michael J. Solomon. 2013. Needs in Health Care: What Beast Is That?. International Journal of Health Services 43.3: 567-85. doi: 10.2190/HS.43.3.l. Reviews the pros and cons of various theoretical perspectives on human needs and calls for more theoretically informed needs assessment of health care need. McKnight, John. 1989. Do no harm: Policy options that meet human needs. Social Policy 20.1: 5–15. Distinguishes between service needs and human needs and stresses the identification of human assets and capacities. O'Brien, Michael 2010. The conceptualization and measurement of need: A key to guiding policy and practice in children's services. Child & Family Social Work, 15.4: 432-440. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2206.2010.00689.x Concludes that human needs should be seen both as requisites and as goals that inform ecological and developmental approaches to child welfare practice. Starting with THN, suggests also studying additional specific objective health and autonomy needs and need satisfiers, as well as the subjective interpretation of needs. Percy-Smith, Janie, ed. 1996. Needs assessments in public policy. Philadelphia: Open Univ. Press. This two-part book begins by discussing theoretical and methodological aspects of needs assessment, drawing upon Doyal and Gough 1991 (see Cross-National Comparative Research), and others. The second part discusses needs assessment related to housing, health, and other areas. Percy-Smith, Janie, and Ian Sanderson. 1992. Understanding local needs. London: Institute for Public Policy Research. This study applies the Doyal-Gough theory of human needs to community-based needs assessment, producing findings that distinguish both the extent of met and unmet universal human needs and the nature of expressed needs in Leeds, England. Human Needs and Other Key Social Work Concerns One aspect of social work's neglect of the concept of human needs has arisen from a lack of intellectual clarity about the relationship of human needs to other key concepts of concern to social work, including human rights, social justice, cultural diversity, and oppression. Arguably human needs is a foundational concept, one that underlies each of these other social work commitments. The nature of the relationship of human needs to each of these concepts has often been neglected. Alternatively human needs has been counterpoised to other concepts in a way that has either denied the centrality of human needs or placed more priority on the theoretical or political importance of the countervailing concept. There have, however, been several efforts to reconcile and clarify the relationship of human needs with other key social work concerns. Human Rights and Human Needs In social work, Witkin 1998 concludes that our concern for human rights is linked ultimately to our commitment to the right to human needs satisfaction. Reichert 2003 points out that declarations of human needs were originally at the root of promulgations of international human rights. Wronka 2008 adds that human rights provide the legal framework for insisting that human needs be met. Other disciplinary perspectives with value for social work consideration recognize the relationship of needs to rights and conclude that the human obligation (responsibility) to meet needs should be prioritized (O'Neill 1998). Reexamining the relationship between rights and needs, Noonan 2005 suggests the path toward a fuller social democracy, in which needs take primacy over some property rights. More recently, there is a more fully theorized recognition that human rights theory would benefit from a grounding in conceptualizations of human need (Dean 2008; Miller 2012; Floyd 2011). Dean, Hartley. 2008. Social Policy and Human Rights: Re-Thinking the Engagement. Social Policy and Society 7.1:1-12. Draws upon the concept of needs interpretation and on THN to argue that human needs can be translated into claims and asserted as rights. Floyd, Rita. 2011. Why We Need Needs-Based Justifications of Human Rights. Journal of International Political Theory 7.1: 103-15. Reviews three books on human rights which fail to ground rights in objectively demonstrable and universally valuable human needs. Argues that work rooted in human needs theory would help establish consensus for the enforcement of human rights. Miller, David. 2012. Grounding Human Rights. CRISPP: Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 15.4: 407-27. Human rights should be based on conceptions of human need. Discusses how to resolve three problems with doing so: defining objective needs at the individual and societal levels; resolving conflicts between the needs of some and those of others, and preventing any over-focus on material needs from weakening the importance of social participation rights. Noonan, Jeff. 2005. Modernization, rights, and democratic society: The limits of Habermas's democratic theory. Res Publica: A Journal of Legal and Social Philosophy 11.2: 101–123. Explores how Western conceptualizations of rights often prioritize property rights in a way that can ultimately prevent the meeting of human needs. O'Neill, Onora. 1998. Rights, obligations, and needs. In Necessary goods: Our responsibility to meet others' needs. Edited by Gillian Brock, 95–112. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Explores the relationship between human needs and human rights and suggests the value of considering human obligations. Reichert, Elisabeth. 2003. Social work and human rights: A foundation for policy and practice. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. Reveals how declarations of need were the basis of statements about human rights, such as article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Witkin, Stanley L. 1998. Human rights and social work. Social Work 43.3: 197–201. Explores how social work's concern for human rights is rooted in its concern for human needs and the role of rights in upholding and fostering needs. Wronka, Joseph. 2008. Human rights and social justice: Social action and service for the helping and health professions. Los Angeles: Sage. Views human rights as the cornerstone of social justice and recognizes that human rights provide the legal mandate for meeting human needs. Social Justice and Human Needs There is growing philosophical consensus that social justice cannot be conceptualized or achieved without incorporating the concept of human needs (Brock 2005). Wakefield 1988a and Wakefield 1988b draw upon human needs theory to discuss of the use of the concept of distributive justice within the helping professions. Olson 2007 conceptualizes a needs-based formulation of social justice for the social work profession. Gil 2008 reiterates that better conceptualizations of social justice are needed, that they must rest upon conceptualizations of human need, and that they must be better articulated. Political science research has found that people tend to adopt a view of social justice that recognizes needs and fairness (Oppenheimer 2012). Similarly, research on social workers views show a multidimensional and contextual viewpoint towards social justice as fairness, respect and access to resources (McLaughlin 2011). The theory of human need of Doyal and Gough 1991 was designed specifically to amend theories of distributive justice by insisting that social inequality can not exceed those levels of goods and services available to all which optimize human needs satisfaction at levels that permit people to flourish. Brock, Gillian. 2005. Needs and global justice. In The philosophy of need. Edited by Soran Reader, 51–72. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press. Discusses empirical thought experiments that support the view that basic needs concepts and standards are required for a plausible view of global justice. Doyal, Len and Ian Gough. 1991. A Theory of Human Needs. New York: Guilford. Minimally optimal levels of basic human needs for health and autonomy are possible in societies that have not institutionalized systems of civil and political rights and rights to need satisfiers. However, such rights and the cross-cultural communication and critical autonomy they permit are required for socially just levels of social participation. Gil, David G. 2008. Meeting Universal Human Needs as the Foundation of Individual and Social Development and of Social and Global Justice: Comments upon Receipt of the Justice Studies Association's 2008 Noam Chomsky Award. Contemporary justice review 11.4: 323-30. Grounds the conceptualization of social justice in his developed theorization of human needs and human relations. Olson, Jeffrey J. 2007. Social work's professional and social justice projects: Discourses in conflict. Journal of Progressive Human Services 18.1: 45–69. Suggests a needs-based conceptualization of social justice based upon Maslow's theories as the basis for restoring social work's commitment to social justice. McLaughlin, Anne Marie. 2011. Exploring Social Justice for Clinical Social Work Practice. Smith College Studies in Social Work 81.2-3: 234-51. doi: 10.1080/00377317.2011.588551. Contends that one way social workers can pursue their obligation to advance social justice is via relationships with clients that utilize transformative respect and actively address human needs and human rights. Oppenheimer, Joe A. 2012. Principles of Politics: A Rational Choice Theory Guide to Politics and Social Justice. New York: Cambridge University Press. Proposes an important factor for evaluating levels of social justice is how well any society addresses the core human needs of citizens. Used thought experiments to show there are universally similar ways in which people understand of social justice as a mix of prioritization of need, efficiency, and just deserts. Wakefield, Jerome C. 1988a. Psychotherapy, distributive justice, and social work: Part 1; Distributive justice as a conceptual framework for social work. Social Service Review 62.2: 187–211. Proposes a minimal distributive justice approach to the prevention of deprivation as social work's organizing value. Wakefield's concern with natural primary goods (health and mental health) involves consideration of social and psychological needs. No concept is more central to social work than needs, which should be distinguished from wants. Wakefield, Jerome C. 1988b. Psychotherapy, distributive justice, and social work: Part 2; Psychotherapy and the pursuit of justice. Social Service Review 62.3: 353– 382. Wakefield draws upon Braybrooke 1968 to stress the importance for social work of a concern for universal and fundamental course-of-life needs (needs found in all people throughout the life course). Cultural Diversity and Human Needs Etzioni 1968 contends that human needs can be universal and yet met in culturally specific ways. Within social work this has been recognized at the theoretical level (Guadalupe and Freeman 1999), at the pedagogical level (Blake 1994), and at the level of the mission of the field as a whole (Mullaly 2001). There is growing recognition in the social work literature that of the importance of recognizing both human commonalities and cultural diversity, (Brydon 2012). For instance, an early pioneer of cultural competent practice has stressed the importance of understanding cultural common denominators (Vontress 2001). Also, one discussion of empathy and rapport in social work practice work concludes that understanding human similarities such as common human needs as well as human differences in how needs are addressed in various cultures are both important for culturally competent social work practice (Dover 2009). Blake, Richard. 1994. Diversity, common human needs, and social welfare programs: An integrative teaching strategy. Journal of Teaching in Social Work 10.1: 129–135. Stresses the importance of including content about both common human needs and human diversity in social work education. Brydon, Kerry. 2012. Promoting Diversity or Confirming Hegemony? In Search of New Insights for Social Work. International Social Work 55.2: 155-67. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0020872811425807. Recognizes all human cultures represent indigenous ways of address basic human needs. Dover, Michael A. 2009. Rapport, empathy and oppression: Cross-cultural vignettes. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 15.4: 21-29. Drawing on vignettes of practice, problematizes the theoretical assumptions that cultural familiarity is necessary for establishing rapport, which in turn is required for effective empathy. Empathic relationships can be rooted in understanding human needs and barriers to addressing needs rooted in oppression, dehumanization and exploitation. Etzioni, Amitai. 1968. Basic human needs, alienation, and inauthenticity. American Sociological Review 33.6: 870–885. Contributing to sociological discussions of the oversocialized conception of humankind, Etzioni makes an explicitly sociological contribution to human needs theory. He views human needs as universal, met in culturally specific ways, and amenable to empirical testing. Gough, Ian. 2004. Human well-being and social structures: Relating the universal and the local. Global Social Policy 4.3: 289–311. Criticizing postmodernist and cultural relativist approaches, Gough concludes that universal needs can be understood in the context of local needs satisfiers and of culturally specific subjective understandings of these needs and their satisfiers. Guadalupe, J. L., and M. L. Freeman. 1999. Common human needs in the context of diversity: Integrating schools of thought. Journal of Cultural Diversity 6.3: 85–92. Explores how common human needs should be considered along with individual human differences. By drawing upon the need to consider both cultural similarities and differences, both modern and postmodern frameworks are relevant to cultural diversity. Mullaly, Bob. 2001. Confronting the politics of despair: Toward the reconstruction of progressive social work in a global economy and postmodern age. Social Work Education 20.3: 303–320. Explains that social work's emancipatory mission requires recognition of universal human needs as well as the culturally specific ways they are met. Vontress, Clemmont E. 2001. Cross-cultural counseling in the 21st century. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling 23.2: 83–97. Advocates for recognizing cultural common denominators as part of efforts to advance cross-cultural counseling. Oppression, Dehumanization, and Exploitation and Human Needs Recent theoretical developments in philosophy and the social sciences have enabled the development of a social work–relevant typology of theories of oppression, dehumanization, and exploitation that has relevance for understanding the sources of injustice (Dover 2008). Each of these three sources of injustice can inhibit the ability of people and communities to meet their human needs in a way that is consistent with their human rights and with their culturally valued way of life. Gil 2013 defines oppression as incorporating economic exploitation and views social injustice as characterized by dehumanization. Van Wormer, Kaplan and Juby 2012 adopt a definition of oppression that incorporates exploitation, as does Appleby, et al. 2007. Marsiglia and Kulis 2009, however, conceptualize oppression as being group based. This is also done by the feminist philosopher Ann E. Cudd, in the first full-length univocal theory of oppression (Cudd 2006). Cudd restricts oppression to group-based domination that is systematically coercive and unjust, and has material as well as psychological components. Cudd's definition of oppression, while consistent with a theory of animalistic dehumanization, is inconsistent with theories of mechanistic dehumanization (Haslam and Loughnan 2014). Cudd also clearly differentiates between oppression and economic exploitation. She denies that all forms of economic exploitation are inherently coercive. Hahnel 2006 identifies the manner in which systematic economic exploitation can take place in any social system characterized by the existence of economic inequality. As a result of these theoretical advances, oppression, dehumanization, and exploitation are theoretically differentiated (Dover 2008), and are utilized to develop a theory of systemic inequality that produces unjust restrictions on the ability of people and communities to address human needs in their culturally preferred manner (Dover 2013). These emerging conceptualizations of human need; human rights; social justice; social injustice; and oppression, dehumanization, and exploitation reinforce the central role for human needs theory in social work values, theory, and practice. Cudd, Ann E. 2006. Analyzing oppression. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. In presenting the first univocal theory of group-based oppression, Cudd contends that oppression has a common set of material and psychological features. She distinguishes oppression from exploitation, which she argues is not necessarily coercive and therefore is not necessary oppressive. Dover, Michael A. 2008. Oppression, dehumanization, and exploitation: Connecting theory to experience. In Diversity education for social justice: Mastering teaching skills, 2d ed. Edited by Dorothy Van Soest and Betty Garcia, 296–310. Alexandria, VA: Council on Social Work Education. Introduces a typology of theories of oppression (Cudd 2006), dehumanization (Haslam 2006), and exploitation (Hahnel 2006) in conjunction with the presentation of a student-generated compendium of words and affective phrases associated with the experience of moments of oppression, dehumanization, and exploitation. Dover, Michael A. 2013a. The Primacy of Needs. in Paper presented at the Social Welfare Action Alliance 28th Anniversary National Conference. University of Oklahoma School of Social Work: Social Welfare Action Alliance. Augments the original theory chart of human need of Doyal and Gough (1991). Draws on a previous typology of three sources of injustice: oppression, dehumanization and exploitation (Dover, 2008). Adds a third column to the theory, to the left of its existing portrayal of the requirements for basic and just levels of needs satisfaction, illustrating a partial theory of systematically unequal access to needs satisfiers. Gil, David G. 2013. Confronting injustice and oppression: Concepts and strategies for social workers, 2nd ed. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. Defines oppression broadly to include relations of domination and exploitation. Oppression is seen to include relations among individuals, groups, classes, and societies. Injustice is seen as involving the existence of dehumanizing and discriminatory states imposed by oppressors. Hahnel, Robin. 2006. Exploitation: A modern approach. Review of Radical Political Economics 38.2: 175–192. Describes how unjust outcomes are produced by transactions between unequal parties who have a formal social relationship in the context of an institutionalized environment. The resulting outcome should be considered a product of exploitation. Haslam, Nick and Steve Loughnan. 2014. Dehumanization and Infrahumanization. Annual Review of Psychology 65.5: 399-423. doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-010213115045. Review of theories of dehumanization, including discussion of earlier work that on a theory of animalistic dehumanization (in which one group treats another group as animals, that is, as subhuman) and of mechanistic dehumanization (which is group independent and which involves treating people as automata, that is, as nonhuman). Marsiglia, Flavio Francisco, and Stephen Kulis. 2009. Diversity, oppression, and change: Culturally grounded social work. Chicago: Lyceum. Employs a group-based paradigm of oppression, one that does not seek to expand the concept of oppression in a way that attributes all injustice to oppression. Van Wormer, Katherine S. Kaplan, Laura and Cindy Juby. 2012. Confronting oppression, restoring justice: From policy analysis to social action, 2nd Edition. Alexandria, VA: Council on Social Work Education. Uses a broad definition of oppression that incorporates exploitation as an economic form of oppression. Injustice is linked to economic inequities, to unequal power relations, and to the denial of human rights.