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This work underpins the necessity to consider a receiver´s cultural & individual background in capacity development with an innovative link of Esser´s action theory and Cialdini´s empirical knowledge

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The subject of the book, Capacity Development, is a field of the investment of billions of Dollars. In many cases in the past and present, these development efforts did and do not have effects of sustainability for the receiving countries or regions. This book is a research on the underlying reasons for that phenomenon.
Besides political or geostrategical reasons, the most fundamental cause of these failures is of motivational-psychological nature. The neglection of a receiver´s culture including behavioral norms as well as of culturally founded individual goals is a main reason for a lack of motivation and commitment in development projects. Further, a receiver´s distrust in own capacities and capabilities can be regarded as a main obstacle for a receiver´s development towards sutainability.
This work presented to obtain the grade of a Master of International Education Management highlights the importance of the consideration of subjective motivational aspects in the field of capacity development. It puts practically gained knowledge of experts on a theoretical basis and analysed the influencing factors.
The remarkable innovation of this work is the newly-created link between Hartmut Esser´s basic action theory as a background rational from sociology and the empirically gained psychological knowledge summarized by Robert B. Cialdini.
Understanding the in the book identified relationships and following the provided recommendations for the conduction of capacity development measures shall enable the reader to create development processes with effects of sustainability.

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Simon, Holger
After his first university study of Arab Studies and Indian Studies, Holger Simon worked for some years in the education development sector in the United Arab Emirates. After he had returned to Germany, he decided to gain an additional university degree in the educational sector. He finished as a Master of International Education Management in 2015. His book about Capacity Development was presented as his Master Thesis.

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