Studies of economic development and economic history have long been concerned with the relationship between the transparent and supposedly anonymous forces of markets, states and bureaucracies, on the one hand, and the particular local and national forms of social organization in which actors' daily lives are embedded. Economists are quite divided about these latter forces: for some, they are n...

World life expectancy is increasing and many populations will begin to age rapidly. The impeding prevalence of a greater number of older people living longer lives will have significant social and economic implications. It is important to understand how older people make economic and social decisions. Aging can be associated with a "phenomenon of decline" and also greater wisdom. This paper see...

At the World summit for social development in Copenhagen in 1995 the member states committed themselves to “creating an economic, political, social, cultural and legal environment that will enable people to achieve social development” (Commitment 1). This overall commitment was followed by nine additional commitments, which to a large extent can be seen as means to achieve social development; o...