Biggeri Mario, Ferrannini Andrea. Sustainable Human Development: A New Territorial and People-Centred Perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan,2014. — 243 p.. 2014
In a world in which we constantly question what determines our well-being and happiness, the fundamental intuition is that the economy does not simply regard minimizing the production cost of goods or maximizing the profits. Rather, we are required to consider more explicitly the maximization of human satisfaction, derived from the utilization and consumption of goods and services, and the enjoyment of different kinds of social relations. The appropriate laws and institutions for governing the market that enable humankind to live and grow have always been at the heart of economic theory. The general theory of social value therefore falls outside the sphere of price and production costs: It is not limited to the minimization of production costs or the price of a certain commodity, or a basket of goods. Instead, it involves the optimal allocation - even in spatial terms - of human beings, through the formation of social groups that share values and aspirations in any given geographical context.