Capability, Happiness and Adaptation in Sen and J. S. Mill

Utilitas ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
MOZAFFAR QIZILBASH

While there is much common ground between the writings of Amartya Sen and John Stuart Mill – particularly in their advocacy of freedom and gender equality – one is a critic, while the other is an advocate, of utilitarianism. In spite of this contrast, there are strong echoes of Sen's capability approach in Mill's writings. Inasmuch as Mill sees the capability to be happy as important he holds a form of capability approach. He also thinks of happiness as constituted by the exercise of certain capabilities (including the higher faculties). Furthermore, Mill addresses the possibility that people can adapt to limited opportunity, which is central to Sen's critique of some ‘utility’-based views. By contrasting contentment and happiness Mill suggests one way in which a utilitarian might address cases of adaptation. His discussions of capabilities and of adaptation are consistent with his utilitarianism.

Author(s):  
Amanda C. Cote

In 2012, video gaming culture saw an interesting, paradoxical divergence. On one hand, game journalists and trade organizations testified that gaming had significantly diversified from its masculine roots, with women comprising nearly half of all gamers. On the other hand, gaming spaces witnessed increasing, public incidents of sexism and misogyny. Gaming Sexism analyzes the video game industry and its players to explain the roots of these contradictory narratives, how they coexist, and what their divergence means in terms of power and gender equality. Media studies scholar Amanda C. Cote first turns to video game magazines to assess how longstanding expectations for “gamers” are shifting, how this provokes anxiety in traditional audiences, and how these players resist change, at times employing harassment and sexism to drive out new audience members. She follows this analysis by interviewing female players, to see how their experiences have been affected by games’ changing environment. Interviewees reveal many persistent barriers to full participation in gaming, including overtly and implicitly sexist elements within texts, gaming audiences, and the industry. At the same time, participants have developed nuanced strategies for managing their exclusion, pursuing positive gaming experiences, and competing with men on their own turf. Thus, Gaming Sexism reveals extensive, persistent problems in achieving gender equality in gaming. However, it also demonstrates the power of a motivated, marginalized audience, and draws on their experiences to explore how structural inequalities in gaming spaces—and culture more broadly—can themselves be gamed and overcome.


Author(s):  
Safak Oz Aktepe

In this chapter, the author aims to present, through a review of literature, that the gender equality assumption of the human resource management (HRM) approach is not taken for granted. It seems there exist two sides of the same coin, one representing the HRM approach and the other representing the gendered approach to HRM practices. This chapter reviews HRM practices in work organizations as the potential facilitator of gender inequalities in organizations. In addition, the contentious function of HRM practices in maintaining gender inequalities within work organizations is reviewed. In spite of knowing the implication of HRM practices on being a gender-diverse organization, there remain few studies on the relationship between HRM practices and gender inequality in work organizations. Such research will add a different perspective to HRM practices and contribute to the awareness related to the gendered nature of organizations and their organizational practices.


Author(s):  
Theodora-Ismene Gizelis

AbstractThis article reviews the literature on gender, conflict, and peace. In traditional security studies there was not much room for gender or gender equality, while feminist theorists have claimed most of the research on war and peace. The empirical research on gender, conflict, and peace is a relatively new sub-field that brings together diverse traditions from sociology, feminist theory, international relations, and economic development. The common ground of all researchers included in this short review is the effort to systematically understand the role of gender in shaping outcomes of conflict and peace. Despite the increasing number of articles and new datasets, I identify four areas that scholars must address for the research agenda to further grow, deepen, and develop as part of the mainstream study of peace and conflict: women’s status and quality of peace, women’s participation, sexual violence, and gender mainstreaming to promote gender equality in development and peace.


2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liv Tønnessen

AbstractThe fundamental argument put forward by Islamists, who have ruled Sudan since 1989, for not signing the convention is based on cultural relativism; different cultures provide indigenous and local solutions to their women’s problems. Islam is the solution, not Western feminism. But the Islamists’ failure to ratify CEDAW should not be regarded as a complete rejection of Western feminism, however defined. Through a review of the debate on CEDAW and Islam, this article explores the entanglements of ‘Islamic’ and ‘Western’ normative legal orders. It argues that although Islamist feminists’ discourse deems Western tenets of feminism and gender equality to be unessential to Islamic societies and falsely universalising in its premises, it simultaneously draws upon them in order to demonstrate their ‘alternative’ feminism. By analysing a range of Islamist women’s positions, it becomes apparent that on the one hand they reject CEDAW and gender equality, and on the other promote issues which empower women in the Sudanese state and society. But there are important points of criticism to be made regarding Islamic solutions in a multi-religious and class-divided Sudanese society. Sudanese Islamist women’s claims on behalf of Islamic solutions for Sudanese women can paradoxically be critiqued being as universalising in its premises as so-called Western feminism.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-314
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ishaq ◽  
Muhammad Adil ◽  
Owais Anwer

The slogan of gender equality and gender equality is constantly being used today and unfortunately it raises more objections to Islamic injunctions than to women's rights. Although Islam is a compete code of conduct for human life and its rules have taken care of human nature, so in the rules that apply to both men and women, the natural characteristics of both have been taken into consideration. Because of the development of various forms of media today, objections to Islamic injunctions in the name of gender equality are gaining strength. This article seeks to ascertain the validity of these objections and compares the specific provisions of Islamic criminal law regarding women with the existing laws of Pakistan. As a result of this comparison, it has come to light that on the one hand, in some cases, women have been given less rights than men, such as not accepting their testimony in the cases clearly defined by ALLAH (in Qur’an called as حدود الله) and the Diyat  (دیت)of a woman is equal to half of the Diyat (دیت) of a man etc. On the other hand, in most of the rulings, women are given precedence over men, such as in case of fighting in a war along with men, the renouncement of Qisas or any other charges from women, respite in stoning due to pregnancy, the renouncement of Qisas or any other charges in case of forced compulsion by someone else, renouncement of Diyat (دیت) in Qisamat and the condition of being with a Mehram (محرم) in exile etc., and even  where their rights are apparently less evident, there is a clear consideration of their nature in implementing of those laws..


Author(s):  
Patricia Crone

In terms of political thought, as in so many other respects, Muslims today could be said to be bilingual. On the one hand, they speak the global political language of Western derivation marked by key concepts such as democracy, freedom, human rights, and gender equality. On the other hand, they still have their traditional political idiom, formed over 1,400 years of Islamic history and marked by concepts such as prophecy, imamate, and commanding right and forbidding wrong. The Islamic tradition is alien to most Western readers. This chapter attempts to familiarize them with it to make it easier for them to follow the other entries in this volume. The single most important difference between contemporary Western political thinking and the Islamic tradition is that contemporary thought focuses on freedom and rights whereas the Islamic tradition focuses on authority and duties. This separates contemporary political thought from that of all premodern societies, not just that of the Islamic world.


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