scholarly journals The Value of Autonomy for the Good Life. An Empirical Investigation of Autonomy and Life Satisfaction in Europe

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonie C. Steckermeier
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Financial Security ◽  
Individual Life ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Linear Regressions ◽  
The Capability Approach

AbstractThis paper examines the association of opportunity and choice enhancing societal conditions and perceived autonomy with life satisfaction in Europe. Building on the capability approach, I investigate whether the positive effects of six basic functionings—safety, friendship, health, financial security, leisure, and respect—on people’s life satisfaction are weaker when people have more opportunity and choice. This paper addresses two main questions: (1) Are people more satisfied with their life when they have more opportunity and choice? (2) Do basic functionings play a smaller role for life satisfaction in societies that enable more opportunity and choice and for individuals with more perceived autonomy? The analyses are based on the European Quality of Life Survey (2016), covering 36,460 individuals in 33 European countries and using multilevel linear regressions. My study finds that both choice and opportunity enhancing societal conditions and individual’s perceived autonomy are positively associated with on life satisfaction. Further, all six basic functionings are conducive to individual life satisfaction. The positive effects of health, financial security, respect, and friendship are reduced when people experience a great deal of autonomy over their lives. Societal conditions that provide people with more opportunity and choice further lower the positive effects of financial security, leisure, respect, and safety on individual life satisfaction. This corroborates the importance the capability approach attributes to individual opportunities and freedom of choice.

scholarly journals Towards a Capability-Oriented Eco-Social Policy: Elements of a Normative Framework

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jean-Michel Bonvin ◽  
Francesco Laruffa
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Normative Framework ◽  
Normative Basis ◽  
The Capability Approach

In this article we explore the potential of the capability approach as a normative basis for eco-social policies. While the capability approach is often interpreted as a productivist or maximalist perspective, assuming the desirability of economic growth, we suggest another understanding, which explicitly problematises the suitability of economic growth and productive employment as means for enhancing capabilities. We argue that the capability approach allows rejecting the identification of social progress with economic growth and that it calls for democratically debating the meaning of wellbeing and quality of life. We analyse the implications of this conceptualisation for the design of welfare states.

scholarly journals Quality of life in a broader perspective: Does ASCOT reflect the capability approach?

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 1181-1189 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. S. van Loon ◽  
K. M. van Leeuwen ◽  
R. W. J. G. Ostelo ◽  
J. E. Bosmans ◽  
G. A. M. Widdershoven
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
The Capability Approach

scholarly journals Beyond Equality of What: Sen and neutrality

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-235
Author(s):  
Christopher Robert Lowry
Keyword(s):  
Good Life ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Third Space ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Primary Goods ◽  
Political Liberal ◽  
Sen’S Capability Approach ◽  
The Capability Approach

Based on a close reading of the debate between Rawls and Sen on primary goods versus capabilities, I argue that liberal theory cannot adequately respond to Sen’s critique within a conventionally neutralist framework. In support of the capability approach, I explain why and how it defends a more robust conception of opportunity and freedom, along with public debate on substantive questions about well-being and the good life. My aims are: (i) to show that Sen’s capability approach is at odds with Rawls’s political liberal version of neutrality; (ii) to carve out a third space in the neutrality debate; and (iii) to begin to develop, from Sen’s approach, the idea of public value liberalism as a position that falls within that third space.

Human rights, the capability approach and Quality of Life: an integrated paradigm of support in the quest for social justice

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 156-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica De Maeyer ◽  
Hanne Vandenbussche ◽  
Claudia Claes ◽  
Didier Reynaert
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
Worth Living ◽  
Life Worth Living ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Capability Approach

Purpose This paper highlights the integrative character of orthopedagogics. Quality of Life (QoL), as guiding the normative framework in orthopedagogics is explicitly connected with the framework of human rights and the capability approach (CA) in the quest for social justice and human dignity. The purpose of this paper is to question that how these three specific frameworks can cross-fertilize each other and result in the development of an integrated normative foundation for supporting people living in socially vulnerable situations. Design/methodology/approach This paper reflects on the question on how the human rights framework, the CA and the framework of QoL can be integrated in the support of people who find themselves in a socially vulnerable situation. Findings The core features of each framework are described. Originality/value To conclude the paper, commonalities and the added value of integrating these three frameworks are explored. By integrating these three frameworks, they could function as a shared agenda that gives direction to the daily actions of professionals, with attention for aspects at the micro, meso and macro levels. Each framework and their interrelatedness urge for an integrative approach of orthopedagogics where the strengths of different frameworks are recognized and used in order to support people in socially vulnerable situations to achieve a life worth living.

Too Soft for Economics, Too Rigid for Sociology, or Just Right? The Productive Ambiguities of Sen’s Capability Approach

2013 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milena I. Kremakova
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Martha Nussbaum ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Policy Studies ◽  
Academic Fields ◽  
The Capability Approach

AbstractThe capability approach has been developed by Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum and others as a human-centred normative framework for the evaluation of individual and group well-being, quality of life and social justice. Sen and Nussbaum’s ideas have influenced global, national and local policy and have been further developed in a number of academic disciplines, but so far have remained largely unnoticed in sociology. This article examines recent capability-informed theories and empirical applications in the sociology of human rights and other academic fields adjacent to sociology, focussing on examples of social policy studies in the fields of welfare, the labour market, health and disability, and education. The article outlines several potential areas in which capability-informed frameworks are relevant for critical social theory, public sociology and global sociology.

scholarly journals HUBUNGAN KUALITAS PERNIKAHAN DENGAN KEBAHAGIAAN DAN KEPUASAN HIDUP PRIBADI: STUDI PADA INDIVIDU DENGAN USIA PERNIKAHAN 1-5 TAHUN DI BANDUNG

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 106
Author(s):  
Lenny Kendhawati ◽  
Fredrick Dermawan Purba
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Marital Quality ◽  
Married Couple ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Status ◽  
Spearman Correlation Test ◽  
The City

Marriage is proven to be related to health and well-being of those involved in it. However, the status of marriage is not the most important, but how the quality of the marriage is the key to its positive effects. This study aims to examine a relationship between marital quality with happiness and life satisfaction. Data collection was conducted on 189 participants who have married with less than five years, said to be a critical period, which are living in the city of Bandung. The marital quality was measured using the Quality Marriage Index/QMI (6 items; α= .91), happiness was measured using the Happiness Thermometer at three time points (3 items; α= .83), and life satisfaction was measured using the Self-Anchoring Cantril Striving Scale at three time points (3 items; α= .47). The Spearman correlation test found that there was a significant positive relationship between the marital quality and happiness at three time points: today (rs= 0.431), last month (rs= 0.409), and throughout life (rs= 0.415) and life satisfaction at two time points: now (rs= 0.460) and next five years (rs= 0.281). In addition, life satisfaction of five years ago when subjects were still single was reported to be significantly lower compare to their life satisfaction this moment and predicted five years from now (p<0.001). These findings suggest that married couple giving more attention to improving the quality of their marriage relationship in order to be happier and satisfied with their life.

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