This document stems from the work carried out in different countries in Latin America by a team of researchers, which is essentially transdisciplinary in nature. The authors of the work are Manfred Max-Neef, the Chilean sociologist Antonio Elizalde and Chilean philosopher Martin Hopenhayn, in collaboration with Felipe Herrera, Hugo Zemelman, Jorge Jatoba and Luis Weinstein. It was carried out in 1985 and 1986 with the assistance of professionals from Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Canada and Sweden. Their expertise consisted of academic disciplines such as economics, sociology, psychiatry, philosophy, political science, geography, anthropology, journalism, technology and law. The participants formed a stable core group that guaranteed continuity in the processes of collective research and reflection during the project. The discussions of the workshops and the working documents drawn up by the participants form the basis of this document. Eventually it was discussed during a seminar at the Dag Hammarskjöld Center in Uppsala. The English translation of the article, expanded with "A Note on Methodology", was published in Development Dialogue in 1989.