Having faced not one financial car crash but several in less than a generation, it is little wonder today’s risk-takers, investors, households and corporates alike, are sticking rather than twisting, saving not spending, braking not accelerating, their animal spirits anaesthetised. Although collectively damaging, this is the individually prudent thing to do. We are facing a twenty-first-century ‘paradox of thrift’, whose psychological scars might easily persist as long as those of its twentieth-century counterpart. The upstream effects of this reduced risk-taking can be clearly seen in the damped dynamism and caged animal spirits of both businesses and households. In the words of Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, the forces of ‘creative destruction’ have been significantly and persistently diminished by the sequence of crises, stunting innovation, enterprise and hence the dynamism of our economies. For businesses, those caged animal spirits have manifested themselves in reduced numbers of firms entering and, just as importantly, exiting the market. Entry and exit rates for UK firms are around a third lower today than at the time of the GFC. Entrepreneurs are more fearful of starting new businesses, despite them being the wellspring of innovation and jobs.

The discovery and analysis of immature Neandertal remains have yielded significant insights into Neandertal growth and development, despite numerous historical challenges in the curation and study of these fossils. The relatively large number of immature Neandertal remains, attributed in part to their practice of intentional burial, has allowed for extensive ontogenetic studies. Early research focused on the timing of Neandertal trait emergence, and recent studies have expanded to include aspects such as birth, gestation, and growth rates. Notable differences between Neandertals and modern humans have been observed, particularly in craniofacial growth, brain development, and dental formation. Despite some evidence suggesting accelerated dental development in Neandertals, there is still considerable debate. Postcranial studies have highlighted distinctive features that emerge early in Neandertal growth, although discrepancies between dental and skeletal maturity remain. Future research is poised to benefit from integrated approaches that combine cranial, dental, and postcranial data and consider a wide range of comparative samples. Understanding Neandertal growth within a developmental context not only enhances our knowledge of Neandertals but also provides broader insights into human evolutionary biology.

The function, composition and processes underlying the formation and maturation of the skeleton, bone the organ and bone the tissue, are the focus of this chapter. Knowledge of the immature infant skeleton and its inherent weaknesses and susceptibility to physical injury, facilitates understanding the morphologic manifestations of bone injury and the body’s response to associated tissue damage. The skeleton is a complex structure that plays a variety of different roles crucial to life. It is composed of many individual bones that are constructed of proteins, minerals and the cells specific to bone, namely, the families of osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Bones form through enchondral and intramembranous ossification, and these processes are complex and tightly regulated by molecular genetics and cell-signaling pathways. Understanding the structure of the skeleton and its growth and development provides the foundation to understand its susceptibility to trauma and the pathology induced by injury and tissue damage.

India was a poor and unequal country in 1947. Much of its labour force was in low-productivity agriculture, but it had a significant, if small, industrial sector. A plausible trajectory going forward was that rapid industrial growth would draw labour into higher-productivity areas, reducing poverty and inequality. But India went down a different path, beginning with an emphasis on heavy industry. This increased the economy’s productive capacity, but did not generate enough jobs to dent poverty and inequality. Over-regulation and neglect of exports contributed to slow growth until 1980, though agricultural productivity rose with the introduction of new high-yielding varieties of crops in some areas. After 1980, and especially after 1991, policies became more friendly to markets and business and India grew rapidly, led by growth in the services sector. This, however, did not create jobs at the same rate, because the growth was skill- and capital-intensive. Poverty fell substantially, but inequality spiked, and job creation remains a big concern.

It has been a remarkable journey for India from the nation’s independence in 1947 to now. Economic performance has been mixed, with growth remaining sluggish during the first three decades, and picking up only after the mid-1990s. On the political front, with free media, secularism and a vibrant democracy, India was an outlier in the developing world; it resembled some of the most advanced economies in the world. This chapter is a study of this unusual growth path, over the last seventy years, with a focus on how the economy and politics impacted each other. It is argued that, while early political choices may have slowed growth during the early decades, they played a vital role in India rising to be among the world’s fastest-growing nations in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

Pakistan’s seventy-five-year economic history can be divided into three distinct periods. The first decade after 1947 was a period of low growth, but one in which a functioning state was set up from scratch and rapid industrialization occurred. The 1960–1990 period saw high economic growth but high costs, including the secession of Pakistan’s eastern wing (now Bangladesh), the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the ensuing civil war, which spilled over into Pakistan. Between 1990 and 2022, growth halved, primarily due to the continuing conflict in Afghanistan – this time with the US- led invasion after 9/11 – coupled with poor economic management in dealing with recurring balance-of-payments crisis and frequent recourse to the IMF. The key factors responsible for these changes are identified through ten turning points, which capture major events both internal and external and the ensuing structural changes, including in the composition of the ruling elite. Failure to undertake economic reforms was a key factor in Pakistan’s overall disappointing performance after a promising start.

Abstract: In this chapter, English examines Human Nature and Conduct (1922) through the lens of Dewey’s broader theory of how humans learn. The chapter shows how Dewey’s emphasis on the productive role of uncertainty in human learning processes relates to how he differentiates between a habit as “a vital art” and a habit as “a mechanical routine.” The chapter then examines how Dewey expands his critique of traditional education by showing how traditional schooling separates habits from thought, creating mechanistic habits that do not allow for young people to learn the habit of learning – the habit to grow through encounters with difference. Using an example of classroom dialogue, English discusses how classrooms can become educational environments that foster the types of habits associated with educative growth. The chapter concludes by emphasizing that Human Nature and Conduct offers insight into not only the education of young people but also the education of grown-ups. Accordingly, adult society must construct environments for themselves that nurture thought and thereby help them develop rich perceptions of interdependencies between humans. Ultimately, the chapter provides an understanding of why making learning a habit is essential for the growth of an equitable, democratic future of education and society.

Abstract: This chapter examines John Dewey’s concept of moral education as growth, emphasizing its implications for moral development beyond his earlier work. While Moral Principles in Education (1909) presents Dewey’s approach to moral education through social participation, it does not incorporate his later view of growth as the sole moral end. Waks points to the need for the reconstruction of Dewey’s moral education theory in light of Human Nature and Conduct (1922), where he defines morality as the expansion of conduct in meaning. As Waks illustrates, Dewey’s later theory of growth introduces a tension between cooperative participation and individual moral development. The chapter shows how, for Dewey, true moral growth requires openness to new experiences, creative problem-solving involving new ends and new means, and self-transformation, sometimes in conflict with established social norms and cooperative action. This challenges educators to cultivate both group cooperation and individual moral experimentation. Waks concludes that a reconstructed Deweyan moral education must balance social engagement and cooperation with fostering independent growth, requiring educators to create environments that encourage both communal participation and personal moral discovery.

Abstract: In Human Nature and Conduct (1922), Dewey writes that bad habits are ones that have a “command over us” making us “do things we prefer not to do,” because as he puts it, “we are the habit.” In this chapter, Striano describes how education has a role in our understanding of the command of habit over our lives. The chapter considers how within the process of growth we can start reshaping our habits, making them increasingly intelligent so as to inform “intelligent dispositions.” Intelligent dispositions are central to helping us come to perform new, more reflective, courses of action in the world. The chapter concludes with the ideas that such intelligently reconstructed habits − ones that have been channeled through educative experiences which account for both human plasticity and the changes and “obstacles” in our environment − have the power to determine an effective transformation of our attitudes, behaviors, and understandings and, therefore, of our selves.

Abstract: In this chapter, Saito examines what the contemporary significance of Deweyan growth can be, if indeed it continues to have significance. In Human Nature and Conduct (1922), John Dewey elaborates his apparently paradoxical idea that growth means growing, “continued growth.” Today, the word “growth” has become something of a fad, in a somewhat perverse way. In the boom of what in Japan is known as Jiko-Keihatsu (whose literal translation is self-enlightenment, self-development, or self-improvement) people aspire to more growth and are encouraged to think that growth is to be achieved by brushing up their knowledge and skills. This chapter explores the significance of Dewey’s perfectionist idea of growth in the age of self-enlightenment and attempts to reclaim this idea of growth in terms of philosophy as a way of life. By doing so, the chapter elucidates the practical nature of pragmatism, exploring a third way, beyond neoliberal conceptions of utility and the potentially reactionary turn into self-cultivation in traditional liberal arts education. The chapter concludes by considering the contemporary significance of Deweyan growth lies in the fact that it opens up a way beyond the self, toward an idea of growth based not upon fear and anxiety but upon trust.

Abstract: In this chapter, Waks examines John Dewey’s concept of growth in Human Nature and Conduct (1922) and its relation to the good. Growth, for Dewey, is not biological or economic but an evolving moral and intellectual responsiveness to changing circumstances. Dewey defines morality as the “growth of conduct in meaning,” linking ethical life to an expanding awareness of action’s conditions and consequences. As Waks shows, Dewey argues that meaning develops through experience as habits are reconstructed in response to feedback. Conduct, unlike mere behavior, involves conscious ends-in-view, and growth occurs when experience expands our meanings – that is, deepens our understanding of how means connect to our ends. Waks distinguishes between proto-meanings in instinctual behavior and the fully articulated meanings made possible by language. Dewey defines the good as the expansion of meaning resulting from the resolution of conflicting impulses into a unified course of action, rejecting moral absolutism in favor of norms shaped by lived experience. Waks concludes by connecting personal growth with democracy as a moral ideal. The good person, in this view, is one who adapts, learns, and creatively responds to new social challenges and freely communicates with others – that is, the person with a democratic personality.

Abstract: This chapter discusses Dewey’s understanding of change developed in Human Nature and Conduct (1922), with particular focus on the impact of evolutionary theory on his thinking. How does Dewey define the connection between individual development and changes in society? And, centrally, what is the role of education therein? Dewey rejects the categorical division between individual and environment underpinning the two common perspectives that change begins in either the individual or the environment. He proposes a third, interactive view of change. Nardo argues in this chapter that Dewey’s “third view” is grounded significantly in his engagement with evolutionary theory. She shows how Dewey rethinks human behavior, ethics, and morality as evolving in relation to the environment rather than as fixed metaphysical principles. Dewey terms this process “growth.” The chapter shows how creating environments for growth, where the formation of intelligent habits is made possible, is central to the work of the teacher. Nardo discusses how schools can be places where albeit not ideal but at least improved circumstances can be imagined and created to direct individual and societal growth, such that the school, for Dewey, is the realm of (admittedly small) revolutions.