Defined as the attempt at improving the rates of social investment from all denizens of the world population (Guiding social investment, 2015), global social progress is an essential concept that helps locate the mistakes that have been made in the past I terms of economic and political solutions, assess the effects that the recent R&D related breakthroughs have had on the quality of life, measure the current living standards and come up with the characteristics of the current stage of progress that the humankind has achieved.
Global social progress can and should be measured in order to identify the issues that need to be addressed and locate the strategies, which can be used for handling the emerging problems. Moreover, the global social progress concept provides an opportunity to look at the development of the humankind as the process enhanced by a combination of multiple factors instead of the process that is geared mostly by political, or economic, or social factors.
Traditionally, the rates of global social progress are measured by analyzing the poverty rates that each country displays, and defining the average percentage of the people, who live beyond the threshold of poverty (Porter, 2014). The given instrument can be considered rather adequate, as poverty defines social development – or, to be more exact, the lack thereof – to a considerable degree, creating obstacles on people’s way to getting proper education, providing for themselves and their families, and being able to start their own business or have the career options that will propel them to being successful in the contemporary business world (Collier, 2012).
It should be born in mind, though, that the very concept of social progress embraces a range of factors to be taken into account, including the social, the economic, the political and the cultural ones. Therein the need to adopt a more flexible and general approach emerges; in other words, it is imperative that the influence that every single factor mentioned above has on the global social progress should be evaluated accordingly.
The global social progress can also be enhanced by the promotion of corporate citizenship. Corporate citizens, in fact, play a major role in the process of promoting the global social progress. Affecting media, corporate governance and public policy, corporate citizenship creates the basis for the social responsibility that is required for enhancing the progress. Indeed, as long as people realize that the future progress depends on them, they assume the responsibilities that are related to enhancing the speed of progress (Nelson, 2005).
Unlike the rest of measurement tools that are suggested for evaluating the success of the global social progress, the approach that is based on sustainability will help identify the links between the key political, social, economic and cultural events in people’s lives, as well as the effect of the above-mentioned factors on the living standards and the poverty rates across the globe. Therefore, when it comes to defining the tool that may be used for the purposes of measuring the global social progress, one must mention the assessment of sustainability rates among the basic instruments for the general progress measurement (Social progress imperative: FAQ, 2015).
Created for assessing the overall progress of the humankind, the global social progress needs to be measured with the help of a variety of tools, including the ones that concern global economy, multiculturalism and financial issues. It is only after embracing every single factor and defining its influence on the global poverty rates that one can come up with solutions to the present-day issues.
Reference List
Collier, P. (2012). Global social progress. Web.
Guiding social investment. (2015). Social Progress Imperative. Web.
Nelson, J. (2005). Corporate citizenship in a global context. Web.
Porter, M. (2014). Social progress index 2014. Web.
Social progress imperative: FAQ. (2015). Web.