The Lisbon Strategy gave a central role to human investment in the realisation of the objective for the European Union to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economic area with social inclusion in the world. Moreover, the Lisbon process introduced the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) intended to facilitate policy learning between member states in a number of areas of public policy, including human investment, by means of benchmarking and establishment of best practice. This raises a pressing question for European policy makers: How do we conceptualise and operationalise human investment for the purposes of the OMC and the Lisbon process? It is to this question that the thesis attempts to provide an answer. In so doing, the thesis develops a conceptualisation of human investment that takes account of the changing nature of human investment provision occurring as part of the wider socio-economic changes of the New Economy. The changing nature of human investment is captured in a framework of lifelong learning, with a number of new dimensions to human investment provision. On the basis of the conceptual framework, a number of variables are specified. After having taken stock of available data sources, statistical indicators are, in as far as possible, identified for each of the specified variables. The thesis then goes on to explore the picture of human investment provision in the European Union emerging from these indicators, with particular emphasis on how this picture differs from the findings arrived at from more traditional indicators of human investment. The thesis concludes by discussing the implications of the study for the measurement and analysis of human investment. In addition, the thesis explores wider implications for the use of benchmarking as a tool in economic and social policy, the OMC and the Lisbon Strategy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:415396 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Dencik, Jacob |
| Publisher | University of Bath |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0022 seconds