It is interesting to think about how the most commonly understood context of development has been dehumanised. Aldo Leopold has this very good comment that does justice:
"Civilisation has so cluttered this elemental man-earth relationship with gadgets and middleman that awareness of it is growing dim. We fancy that industry supports us, forgetting what supports industry."
At what point, development has come to be associated with economic growth? And that is has cast aside the humans who make up of this? Human Development as it is recognised here refers to a psychosomatic growth of an individual in terms of his | her perceptions, feelings, emotions, ideas, and so on. In academic terms, it refers to Developmental Psychology and Education. It envisions not just how people learn from, interact with, and shape natural environments, nonhuman animals, other humans, symbols and concepts, but also how those elements shape the human behaviours and attitudes, perceptions, actions, ideas, technologies, and spirituality. Learning is the essential component of Human Development for every organic species are learning creatures. Today, human development is a subject of immense importance. Not just because we desire to halt our experiential detachment from the natural world, but also to recognise how the technologies we have created may get out of our hands and come to oppose our developmental potentials.
The research interests of our group at U of C are currently focuses around three nascent aspects of human development:
- Human relationship with Nature.
- Organisational learning and complexity.
- Environmental design and sustainability.
