A process for creating and managing intellectual capital within an organization has the following stages: (1) inquire about causes and effects and infer the implications; (2) invent solutions and inspire others with a cause for change; and (3) install solutions and inspect over the long term to see what is and is not working. (JOW)

By applying Amartya Sen's capability approach, this article questions the functionalist idea that suggests that education can precipitate economic growth and development. It will be argued that the freedom-centred perspective advances the concept of human capital and that it allows a deeper understanding of the relationship between higher…

It must be acknowledged that the present system of higher education in Russia does not have a system to evaluate the quality of the specialists who are being produced. Three years ago, an order of the education minister approved an appropriate procedure. Seemingly everything is in place: an overall aim, a hierarchical rating system, a structure of…

In this essay, Alexander Sidorkin offers a conceptual critique of the human capital theory that makes erroneous assumptions about the nature of student work and the private cost of schooling. Specifically, human capital theorists underestimate the private cost of schooling by taking low-level manual labor as the basis for estimating students'…

Evaluates the United Nations 1990 Human Development Report's portrayal of Brazil. Attributes missed human development opportunities cited in the report to the Brazilian military rule of 1964 to 1984 and subsequent redemocratization. Cites possibilities for human development, particularly in education. Questions whether Brazil will be among the…

Education is an international must, a veritable human right, yet education--especially higher education--in the land of the free is still remarkably elusive. The author has witnessed the many obstacles associated with preparing students for college. Advanced courses are rarely offered in these schools due to a lack of perceived eligible students,…

The significant imbalance between individual demand for higher education and societal demand for highly educated labor, leading to unemployment and underemployment of the intelligentsia, poses serious socioeconomic and psychological problems for individuals and society. Both an alternative to the human capital theory and analysis of government…

Higher education is in flux as governments around the world seek to use it as an instrument to enhance national economies, and the half-life of knowledge steadily decreases. Lifelong learning is presented as critically important to the development of human capital, but its implications for first-cycle higher education have yet to be fully…

Over the last two decades, there has been a surge in public policies seeking to give low-income families more choice about where to send their children to school. These changes in policy have both reflected and accommodated an influx of new educational providers, including school operators, technology firms, back-office service providers, tutors,…

The topic of education, which is accorded lofty significance from time to time, has become topical and relevant again. Education is the focus of one of the national projects and a topic of discussion at this year's first meeting of the State Council, and Russia has finally proposed that it be placed at the top of the agenda for the upcoming G8…

Suggests that total factory integration through computer networks, even when technically feasible, might be unwieldy, inefficient, and uneconomical because the human factor and accumulated know-how of the work force tend to be overlooked. (Author/JOW)

In education and the workplace, people are the most valuable resource. Developing human capital can produce competitive advantages for employers and employees. (SK)

The Department of Labor is considering changing accounting rules to allow companies to treat training expenditures as investments rather than expenses. Human asset accounting could be a powerful incentive to increase business investment in training. (SK)

Outlines problems in Australian adult literacy policy; considers whether policy perverts or perfects democracy. Concludes that workable policy offers a conjunction of information, ideology, and interests. (SK)

Max Weber attributed the higher economic prosperity of Protestant regions to a Protestant work ethic. We provide an alternative theory, where Protestant economies prospered because instruction in reading the Bible generated the human capital crucial to economic prosperity. County-level data from late 19th-century Prussia reveal that Protestantism…