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Ashok Natarajan

Natarajan, Ashok

Natarajan, Ashok

Fellow, World Academy of Art & Science; Secretary, The Mother’s Service Society, Pondicherry, India

Job Title

Fellow, World Academy of Art & Science; Secretary, The Mother’s Service Society, Pondicherry, India

Ashok Natarajan is Secretary and Senior Research Fellow at The Mother’s Service Society, a social science research institute at Pondicherry, India, specializing in research on social and economic development. In 2009-10 he co-chaired the World Academy’s e-conference on the Global Employment Challenge. He has written numerous books, articles and working papers on social development, employment and spirituality, including A Study of American Historyand Theory of Social Development. He is also editor of Malarndha Jeeviyam, a monthly journal in Tamil.

ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR

Principles of Social Development   ( Social Science )
Principles of Social Development Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The efforts to evolve a comprehensive, integrated theory of social development have proved to be so difficult that many have concluded it is unattainable. On the surface, it appears that each field of social science is governed by different and often unrelated or contradictory assumptions, concepts and principles that would render a unified theory as unattainable. This article attempts neither to confirm nor deny that possibility....
Human Security – Multifaceted Phenomenon   ( Human Security ), ( Peace and Security ), ( Global Governance & Law )
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This article explores the complex and multifaceted nature of human security, which extends beyond protection from military threats to encompass physical, food, health, financial, community, political, and environmental dimensions. It traces humanity’s historical challenges, including natural disasters, epidemics, and food shortages, and highlights how technological advancements since the Industrial Revolution have eased some threats to security while magnifying...
Human Security, Individualism and Collectivism   ( Individuality ), ( Peace and Security )
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The quest for human security has pitted the individual against the collective throughout history. Individualism and collectivism are two competing philosophical and social movements that have divided the world for centuries and trace their origin back to ancient times. They are founded on different interpretations of the value and place of freedom and equality in society. The individual seeks the protection and support of the collective while at the same time...
Individualism and Collectivism: Reconciling the Values of Freedom & Equality   ( Transdisciplinary theory ), ( Social Science ), ( Knowledge, Science & Values )
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Individualism and collectivism are two competing philosophical and social movements that have divided the world for centuries. Their origins can be traced back to ancient times. They are founded on different interpretations of the value and place of freedom and equality in society. While their rivalry is ancient, it is also evolving and taking on ever new forms. Their evolution reflects a progression of global society from physical to vital-social and increasing...
A Values-based World Order   ( Knowledge, Science & Values ), ( Peace and Security ), ( Global Governance & Law )
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The challenges we face today can be transformed into opportunities if the motivation of short-term, myopic social values is replaced by commitment to psychological values such as unity, harmony, freedom and equality. Values are commonly dismissed as utopian ideals of little practical relevance, whereas in fact they possess an enormous power for self-realisation. A study of history makes this apparent. The utopian values espoused during the American War of...
The Challenges of Social Evolution   ( Social Science )
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The concept of modernization refers to the transition of societies through industrialization, urbanization, and technological sophistication. It is a visible manifestation of the underlying process of global social evolution. Social evolution has a direction. Its cardinal characteristic and driving force is the progressive recognition and enforcement of an increasingly broad range of universal human rights and values encompassing an increasingly broad and...
Quest for Peace & Social Mechanisms for Safeguarding it   ( Peace and Security )
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The world has yet to evolve a coherent theory of peace. As health is commonly understood as the absence of disease, peace is broadly conceived as the absence of war. This is a negative ideal that merely eschews physical violence rather than replacing the urge for aggression with a positive and self-existent sense of security. It addresses the visible symptoms but neglects the essential reality that constitutes the foundations for lasting peace, social stability...
Advantages and Disadvantages of Global Unity & Disunity   ( Law & Human Rights ), ( Global Governance & Law )
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Humanity has evolved from the family and local community over millennia through several stages to finally create the present fractured and unstable global community of nearly 200 nation-states, some of which are barely a few decades old. But already there are signs that the process of social evolution will continue until it eventually results in some form of a unified world community. The major challenges confronting humanity today all result from the...
Ideas that Changed the World
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Ideas have catalytic power to change the world. They are leaders of social evolution. Evolutionary developments in science, religion, art all have at their roots mental ideas that later realize themselves through physical acts. Ideas release the human energy of the collective. That energy is directed into a force for action and becomes effective when it is organized by society. Thus, society is a living organization. History is replete with examples of how...
The Leadership the World Needs   ( Individuality ), ( Law & Human Rights ), ( Social Science ), ( Global Governance & Law )
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract As society evolves in consciousness, the character of its leadership evolves as well. The physical stage of human development is characterized by the rule of physical strength and directed by military leaders with the capacity to mobilize and exercise physical force through violence. In the vital-social stage, leadership shifts to the authority of custom and law backed by a wealthy aristocratic elite which exercises power by virtue of its dominant position...
Western and Eastern Values are Complementary   ( Individuality ), ( Social Science ), ( Knowledge, Science & Values )
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract All values are spiritual in their essence, even those that appear to be physical. For all values seek perfection of the whole. The widest and highest perfection is based on the totality and oneness of reality. Such a perfection is comprehensive and inclusive. It is founded on truths that complete other truths rather than compete with them. Despite their vast cultural differences, Eastern and Western values reflect complementary aspects of a unified whole....
Human Attitudes that Prevent the Advance of Human Progress and Civilization   ( Mind, Thinking & Creativity ), ( Knowledge, Science & Values )
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Human civilization is a long record of the evolution of human thought Rationality enables civilizations to progress. Since the time of Socrates, human advancement has relied heavily on the power of logic and reason. Logic involves study while reason involves implementation. Converting reason into action would require not so much new creativity but a greater strength. If reason is implemented with the required clarity, it has the power to save the world...
Peace, Security, Globalisation & Cultural Diplomacy   ( Knowledge, Science & Values ), ( Peace and Security )
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This article argues for a positive, comprehensive conception of peace that goes beyond the mere absence of war and a more integrated conception of human security that encompasses a wider range of issues than threats of physical violence. Education is one of humanity’s most effective social institutions for redirecting the violent physical energies of destruction into higher avenues of civilization and culture as an instrument of conscious social evolution....
Relevance of Spiritual Principles for Resolving Social Problems   ( Global Governance & Democracy ), ( Transdisciplinary theory ), ( Social Science ), ( Knowledge, Science & Values ), ( Global Governance & Law )
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Society unknowingly follows the course of spiritual evolution. Spirituality is the quest for self-existent order and harmonious perfection. The evolution of society is driven by an irrepressible aspiration for the values that are the translation and embodiment of that order. The history of civilization is a record of its progressive emergence. Spirituality is the quest for a unifying reality that transcends all limitations, distinctions and differences; an...
Viable Solutions for seemingly Intractable Problems   ( Economic Theory ), ( New Economics ), ( Knowledge, Science & Values )
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Life is filled with seemingly intractable problems. But life wisdom affirms that if there is a problem, there must be a solution. Or better yet, the solution to the problem lies within the problem itself. Problems have their roots in disharmony. Disharmony arises when a part separates itself from the whole and acts independently of the wider reality of which it is a part, as financial markets have separated themselves from the real economy and economy has...
Is the World Floundering or Has She a Vision?
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract To all appearances the world seems to be floundering without leadership, direction or even a clear formulation of goals and processes. Yet, paradoxically, amidst the apparent chaos and confusion, evolutionary patterns of advance somehow seem to emerge, universal values become ever more prevalent and powerful as deep drivers and determinates, a more than conventional wisdom seems to guide situations where conventional wisdom is stymied or blinded by dogma and...
The Conscious Individual   ( Individuality ), ( Transdisciplinary theory ), ( Mind, Thinking & Creativity ), ( Social Science ), ( Knowledge, Science & Values )
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This article traces the evolutionary development of human consciousness and its increasingly complex and sophisticated organization as human personality from the instinctive behavior of the animal and the subconscious conformity characteristic of early forms of human civilization through progressive stages of transition from physical to social to mental levels of awareness and from the undifferentiated social consciousness of the member of the tribe to the...
Creative Consciousness   ( Education ), ( Knowledge, Science & Values )
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Consciousness is creative. That creativity expresses in myriad ways – as moments in time in which decades of progress can be achieved overnight, as organizational innovations of immense power for social accomplishment; as creative social values that further influence the evolution of organizations and society; as the creativity of individuality in the leader, genius, artist and inventor; as social creativity that converts raw human experience into...
Original Thinking   ( Education ), ( Mind, Thinking & Creativity )
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract History that comes to us as a chronology of events is really a collective existence that is evolving through several stages to develop Individuality in all members of the society. The human community, nation states, linguistic groups, local castes and classes, and families are the intermediate stages in development of the Individual. The social process moves through phases of survival, growth, development and evolution. In the process it organizes the...
Rising Expectations, Social Unrest & Development   ( Peace and Security )
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract: The relationship between peace and development holds the key to effective strategies for addressing the roots of social unrest. Rising expectations are the principal driving force for social development. However, the faster and higher aspirations rise, the greater the gap between expectations and reality. That gap promotes a sense of frustration, depravation and aggression leading to social unrest and violence. The opposite is also true: rising economic...
Theory & Strategies for Full Employment   ( Employment ), ( New Economics )
Get Full Text in PDF Table of Contents The Need for New Theory and Strategies Necessity of Full Employment New Theoretical Perspectives Available Tools for Full Employment Endnotes 1. The Need for New Theory and Strategies From October 2009 to March 2010, the World Academy of Art & Science launched an e-conference on the Global Employment Challenge (GEC). The conference included video webcast presentations and formal papers by innovative thinkers combined with open discussion between...