Interpersonal relationships, human development, and the trajectory of economic change: a social constructionist perspective

Mattia Tassinari ()
Additional contact information
Mattia Tassinari: University of Macerata

International Review of Economics, 2023, vol. 70, issue 2, No 2, 177-193

Abstract: Abstract The development of the human being and of the institutional and economic structures in which he or she lives does not take shape from the single individual, nor from society as a whole, but from the relationships between people within their daily life contexts, where aspirations, ideals, values, suffering, love, and solidarity, amongst other things, can be expressed and regarded. By adopting a social constructionist perspective, this article aims to describe the peculiar, irreplaceable role of interpersonal relationships in human development and economic change. By transmitting specific meanings, values, knowledge, and skills to individuals, interpersonal relationships—as highly personalised human interactions—can directly bolster people’s well-being, empowerment and resilience, foster cooperation, and prosocial behaviours, and shape the actions taken at the social, political and economic levels. This approach enriches the perspective on human development advanced by the literature on the capability approach and is adopted in the paper as a profitable lens for interpreting the process of structural change, making explicit the relevance of interpersonal relationships in shaping the trajectory of economic change.

Keywords: Interpersonal relationships; Human development; Institutions; Economic structure; Structural change; Social constructionism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A14 D02 D60 I30 O10 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12232-023-00414-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:inrvec:v:70:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s12232-023-00414-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cy/journal/12232/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s12232-023-00414-x

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Economics is currently edited by Luigino Bruni

More articles in International Review of Economics from Springer, Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().