1993 Review of A Theory of Human Need.pdf

The recent publication of Len Doyal and Ian Gough's A Theory

of Human Need represents a significant advance in human

needs theory, one which has a number of implications for social

work practice, research and activism. Both British academics,

Doyal is a professor of philosophy at Middlesex University, and Gough a professor of social policy and social work at Manchester

University. The book has received both the Myrdle Prize and the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Award.

Dover, M. A. (1993). A theory of human need: A review of the book by Len Doyal and Ian Gough. BCR Reports: Publication of the Bertha Capen Reynolds Society, 5(2, Fall), p. 10.

The theory outlines the societal circumstances necessary for the

meeting of two universal human needs, physical health and

autonomy. These circumstances, or preconditions, include the

capacity to engage in agricultural and other forms of commodity production, the societal capacity to successfully reproduce biologically, the ability to culturally transmit to the next generation the skills to produce and reproduce, and the existence of some kind of

political authority to ensure that all of this can occur.