Sustaining Human Well-Being Across Time and Space—Sustainable Development, Justice and the Capability Approach

2020 ◽  
pp. 75-102
Author(s):  
Felix Rauschmayer ◽  
Torsten Masson ◽  
Ortrud Leβmann ◽  
Rebecca Gutwald
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
The Capability Approach

scholarly journals Why Affordable Clean Energy Is Not Enough. A Capability Perspective on the Sustainable Development Goals

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafaela Hillerbrand
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Capability Approach

This paper reflects on criticisms raised in the literature on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These have been criticized as creating a dichotomy between the environment and human beings that fails to address the multiple interconnections between the two. This paper focuses on SDG7—“affordable and clean energy”—and suggests that there is in fact a tripartite distinction between the environment, human beings and technology underlying the SDGs. This distinction, we argue, does not adequately represent the multiple interconnections among the various SDGs and hampers their implementation. We contend that the formulation of SDG7 produces a circular definition of sustainability, a difficulty that is currently resolved at the level of the targets and indicators in a way that regards energy technologies primarily as artifacts. By contrast, the literature on ethical aspects of energy systems largely agrees that energy is a paradigmatic example of a sociotechnical system. We contend that, by not considering this sociotechnical nature, the SDGs run the risk of implicitly defending a certain variant of technological optimism and determinism. We argue that this is disadvantageous to the environment, human well-being and technological development. In line with recent critical evaluations of the SDGs, we argue that these (and other) shortcomings can be addressed by better connecting the SDGs to human well-being. Building on recent literature that expands the scope of the Capability Approach as an alternative measure of well-being so as to include considerations of sustainability, we articulate a framework that allows us to elucidate this connection and thus to take advantage of synergies between human well-being and the environment. On the basis of the Capability Approach, we argue that equating sustainable energy with renewable energy—as is done in the transition from SDG7’s goal to its targets—is indefensible because, as part of the overarching energy systems, energy technologies cannot be classified as simply right or wrong. Rather, the indicators and targets within a framework focused on sustainability need to be (more) context sensitive, meaning that, among other things, they may vary by country and with the available technology.

The Capability Approach and the Economics of Labour Law

2019 ◽  
pp. 143-158
Author(s):  
Simon Deakin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Complete Theory ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
The Capability Approach

The implications of the capability approach for the positive and normative analysis of labour law are considered in this chapter. It is argued that the capability approach does not offer a complete theory of labour law and does not, in itself, provide substantive guidance for labour law reform, but that it offers a distinct ontological and methodological perspective which can help to reframe the debate over the economic effects of labour law. In its emphasis on the importance of institutions for creating the conditions for human freedom, and in its advocacy of a range of indicators of human well-being beyond those based on economic growth alone, the capability approach underpins the idea that labour law can play a role in creating the conditions for sustainable development.

scholarly journals A Poset-Generalizability Method for Human Development Indicators

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavio Comim
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Generalizability Theory ◽  
Well Being ◽  
New Method ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Development Policies ◽  
Development Analysis ◽  
The Capability Approach

AbstractThe paper introduces a poset-generalizability perspective for analysing human development indicators. It suggests a new method for identifying admissibility of different informational spaces and criteria in human development analysis. From its inception, the Capability Approach has argued for informational pluralism in normative evaluations. But in practice, it has turned its back to other (non-capability) informational spaces for being imperfect, biased or incomplete and providing a mere evidential role in normative evaluations. This paper offers the construction of a proper method to overcome this shortcoming. It combines tools from poset analysis and generalizability theory to put forward a systematic categorization of cases with different informational spaces. It provides illustrations by using key informational spaces, namely, resources, rights, subjective well-being and capabilities. The offered method is simpler and more concrete than mere human development guidelines and at the same time it avoids results based on automatic calculations. The paper concludes with implications for human development policies and an agenda for further work.

Well-Being, Adaptation and Human Limitations*

2006 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 83-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mozaffar Qizilbash
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Martha Nussbaum ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Reliable Basis ◽  
The Capability Approach

Philosophical accounts of human well-being face a number of significant challenges. In this paper, I shall be primarily concerned with one of these. It relates to the possibility, noted by Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen amongst others, that people’s desires and attitudes are malleable and can ‘adapt’ in various ways to the straitened circumstances in which they live. If attitudes or desires adapt in this way it can be argued that the relevant desires or attitudes fail to provide a reliable basis for evaluating well-being. This is, what I shall call the ‘adaptation problem’. Nussbaum and Sen have—in different ways used this argument to motivate their versions of the ‘capability approach’. However, questions remain about the implications of adaptation for philosophical accounts of well-being.

International Students' Well-Being Achievements through the Lens of the Capability Approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 61-78
Author(s):  
Icy Fresno Anabo ◽  
Iciar Elexpuru-Albizuri ◽  
Lourdes Villardón-Gallego
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Capability Approach

scholarly journals An Integrated Framework for Child Poverty and Well-Being Measurement: Reconciling Theories

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Biggeri ◽  
Jose Antonio Cuesta
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Multidimensional Poverty ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Integrated Framework ◽  
Egyptian Children ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Capability Approach

Abstract Multidimensional child poverty (MDCP) and well-being measures are increasingly developed in the literature. Much more effort has gone to highlight the differences across measurement approaches than to stress the multiple conceptual and practical similarities across measures. We propose a new framework, the Integrated Framework for Child Poverty—IFCP––that combines three main conceptual approaches, the Capability Approach, Human Rights, and Basic Needs into an integrated bio-ecological framework. This integrated approach aims to bring more clarity about the concept and dynamics of multidimensional poverty and well-being and to disentangle causes from effects, outcomes from opportunities, dynamic from static elements, and observed from assumed behaviours. Moreover, the IFCP explains the MDCP dynamics that link the resources (goods and services), to child capabilities (opportunities) and achieved functionings (outcomes), and describes how these are mediated by the individual, social and environmental conversion factors as specified in the capability approach. Access to safe water is taken as a conceptual illustrative case, while the extended measurement of child poverty and well-being among Egyptian children ages 0 to 5 as an empirical example using IFCP. The proposed framework marks a step forward in understanding child poverty and well-being multidimensional linkages and suggesting desirable features and data requirements of MDCP and well-being measures.

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