Tikhоnova N.E. Human Potential: People for Economy or Economy for People? Book review: Ovcharova L.N., Anikin V.A., Sorokin P.S. (eds.) (2023) Human Potential: Modern Interpretations and Research Results. Moscow: VCIOM. The Journal of Social Policy Studies. 2024. Vol. 22. No. 4. P. 757–762.

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: https://jsps.hse.ru/article/view/24360 (дата обращения 10.01.2025)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the book "Human Potential: Modern Interpretations and Research Results", published in the winter of 2023-2024. It analyzes the peculiarities of the methodology and the subject of research, the results of which are presented in this book, and briefly describes its content. It is noted that the specificity of the authors' approach to human potential is that it is understood not so much as the most important resource for successful economic development, including knowledge and health, but as a reflection of the overall level of human well-being, which is crucial for the sustainable development of society as a whole. Using data from a range of scientific disciplines, the book demonstrates that the idea of the objective nature of the growing role of human development and well-being in the evolution of society is confirmed in practice. It also assesses various components of the human potential of Russians, from their subjective well-being to their health status and educational opportunities. The review also emphasizes that the monograph is a kind of "inventory" of approaches to human potential and reflects the specificity of the concept when analyzed at the macro, meso and micro levels. At the same time, the book familiarizes the reader with a huge amount of factual material accumulated in different fields of knowledge on this subject. In the course of the discussion, we note the ambiguity of the interpretation of the subject of research and the concept of "human potential" in its various chapters, the absence in the monograph of a number of key issues related to the human potential, in particular, the assessment of the return on investment in it, which allows to create the necessary motivations for its formation at the micro level, as well as insufficient attention to the works of Russian and Soviet authors devoted to this subject.