Introduction

Henny Romijn
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Henny Romijn: University of Oxford

Chapter 1 in Acquisition of Technological Capability in Small Firms in Developing Countries, 1999, pp 1-8 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In his Commodities and Capabilities (1985a), Amartya Sen argues that economic development should be viewed first and foremost as a process of expansion of people’s capabilities.1 The common practice of focusing on the growth of national production, he points out, may only too easily lead to a commodity-centred approach in which economic progress is pursued as an end in itself rather than as a means towards the higher objective of enriching human life. After all, the quality of human life is not determined by the commodities that people are instrumental in producing; nor is it determined by the goods that they receive —for instance as part of a basic-needs package. Rather, what matters is what people are capable of being, or doing, with the goods to which they have access.

Keywords: Small Firm; Informal Sector; Technological Capability; Technological Learning; Modern Sector (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1057/9780230389809_1

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