Towards the construction of a territorial human development index. An approach from the metropolitan perspective

Abstract

“The true wealth of a nation is in its people” – this was the starting point for the United Nations’ Development Programme which was to have tangible implications on the development of countries. This conception has since evolved to meet national demands and has been oriented towards expanding the capacity of populations to freely engage in activities of their choice. The index measuring human development has been used as a tool for quantifying the degree to which given environment gives human beings the possibility of enjoying their lives. It is based on three essential elements: longevity, knowledge, and decent standards of living, although certain adjustments have been made to its methodology, such as putting emphasis on strategic elements and adaptations to various territorial scales. Still, it has been approached mostly as a simple average of numerical data, without much regard to the true concept of territory and territoriality, which should lie at the foundations of the analysis of a topic as relevant as human development. Hence, the objective of the present work is to analyse the human development index in the metropolitan areas of Mexico from a territorial perspective and present a proposal for how it should be studied.