scholarly journals A critique of the Capability Approach’s potential for application to career guidance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie Egdell ◽  
Peter J. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Career Guidance ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Guidance Theory ◽  
Sen’S Capability Approach

Abstract In this article, we provide a balanced critique of Sen’s Capability Approach (CA) with reference to its potential to inform career guidance theory and practice. There are varying understandings and interpretations of the CA. Some see capabilities as universal, whilst others favour a more relativist view. The CA is also vulnerable to misunderstanding. Critiques based on misunderstanding are easily dismissed, so our focus is on substantive conceptual and practical critiques. Three main challenges are explored: conceptual debates about the nature of freedom and justice; limitations arising from the disciplinary origins of the CA; and challenges in operationalising the CA.

scholarly journals Can the capability approach be evaluated within the frame of mainstream economics?: A methodological analysis

2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Çakmak Karaçay
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Mainstream Economic ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Sen’S Capability Approach ◽  
The Capability Approach

The aim of this article is to examine the capability approach of Amartya Sen and mainstream economic theory in terms of their epistemological, methodological and philosophical/cultural aspects. The reason for undertaking this analysis is the belief that Sen's capability approach, contrary to some economists' claim, is uncongenial to mainstream economic views on epistemology and methodology (not on ontologically). However, while some social scientists regard that Sen, on the whole, is a mainstream economist, his own approach strongly criticizes both the theory and practice of mainstream economics.

Deploying Creative Thinking to Strengthen Entrepreneurial Capability Among University Students in Nigeria

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-108
Author(s):  
Akinjide Aboluwodi
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
University Students ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Entrepreneurship Education ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Entrepreneurial Opportunity ◽  
Sen’S Capability Approach

Most of the students studying entrepreneurship in Nigerian universities lack entrepreneurial capability- that is, they lack the freedom to pursue and achieve entrepreneurial opportunity. Freedom is seen here in terms of those conditions that must be in place for students to be able to carry out their entrepreneurship studies. These are conditions that support the well-being of the students and may be seen as having good shelter, being well nourished, being healthy, being able to do their normal studies among others. The paper examined why the presence of these conditions is likely to assist students to improve their creative thinking and strengthen their entrepreneurial capability. It explored Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach, focusing on freedom, opportunities, and functionings to explain the required favourable conditions that make learning worthwhile for students, and how it accounts for students’ ability to strengthen their entrepreneurial capability. The paper argued for the deployment of creative thinking to strengthen entrepreneurial capability among students of entrepreneurship in universities in Nigeria. It concluded by urging universities in Nigeria to adopt relevant curriculum in addition to providing students with a decent learning environment to enable them to develop creative thinking that could be used in entrepreneurship education.

Gendered Dimensions and Capabilities: Opportunities, Dilemmas and Challenges

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 883-898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Hobson
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Multidimensional Approach ◽  
Dynamic Framework ◽  
Sense Of Entitlement ◽  
Sen’S Capability Approach

Looking through the lens of gender, this article engages with the opportunities, dilemmas and challenges posed by Sen’s framework to sociological research. Sen’s capability approach offers sociological research a dynamic framework through its concept of agency and its multidimensional approach. It also poses dilemmas, revealed in the tensions within agency and choice and the challenges in operationalizing Sen’s framework: adapting it to sociological models and applying it to empirically grounded research. Through conversion factors and processes, a central component in the capabilities approach, I reveal the potential of Sen’s approach for developing more dynamic frameworks in sociological research, with respect to (1) changes in gendered norms (how new norms are seeded); (2) how entitlements are converted into a sense of entitlement to make claims; and (3) how the capabilities approach can lead toward a more dynamic institutional analysis of welfare states. My contribution to Sen’s framework involves elaborating two mechanisms in the conversion of capabilities to agency freedoms and achievements: the sense of entitlement to make claims and the perceived scope of alternatives in exercising rights.

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