scholarly journals Using the capability approach to understand the determinants of subjective well-being among community-dwelling older people in New Zealand

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Polly Yeung ◽  
Mary Breheny
Author(s):  
Flavio Comim

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.


2006 ◽  
Vol 14 (7S_Part_15) ◽  
pp. P796-P797
Author(s):  
Adrian Martinez-Ruiz ◽  
Ying Huang ◽  
Susan Gee ◽  
Hamish Jamieson ◽  
Gary Cheung

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-547
Author(s):  
Barbara Horrell ◽  
Mary Breheny ◽  
Christine Stephens

In this article, we use the capability approach and Nussbaum’s list of essential capabilities to understand the experiences of people providing (informal) care for older people. Nussbaum’s ten essential capabilities were used as a template to analyse contributions to an online forum created for the research. The carers’ posts indicated they valued these capabilities, though, in some instances, struggled to achieve them in the context of providing care. The capability approach provided a useful framework to move beyond caring as beneficial or burdensome, to view care as valued and as influencing other capabilities among carers for older people.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farah Naz ◽  
Dieter Bögenhold

Disenchantment with traditional income-based measures of well-being has led to the search for alternative measures. Two major alternative measures of well-being come from subjective well-being research and the objective capability approach. The capability approach has been largely discussed in the context of development studies and economics and is mainly used within quantitative frameworks, but it also raises many questions that are worthy of discussion from a sociological perspective as well. This study opts for a qualitative approach to transpose capability approach in order to assess the well-being of female homeworkers in the football industry of Pakistan. The aim of this empirical research is to focus on the capabilities of homeworkers in accessing economic, individual, social and psychological aspects of well-being.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Goldin

I contrast formal institutional structures that are part of water resources management policy and practice with more fluid ‘outside’ spaces that I claim are more apt for participatory engagement around food production. I link these ideas to a discussion on hope. I make three distinct contributions. First the paper expands on the theoretical concerns of the Capability Approach by bringing to the fore the linkages between subjective well-being and emotions. The paper thus connects the Capability Approach and discourses of affect and emotions explicit. The Capability Approach (CA) is a helpful entry point into the idea of hope in particular and emotions in general. Second, I claim that emotions are of public concern and that they are embedded structurally. In these spaces the dimension of power is crucial in determining the nature of the emotions that are experienced, and there is a connection between hope and power. I argue that emotions mediate and inform social action and are a function of social processes. Third, I affirm that in the essentially technical and masculinised world of water, rural women farmers are more likely to experience positive feelings, such as self-esteem, hope, pride and dignity, in informal ‘outside’ spaces. Within the context of an ethics of care, the idea of ‘particularism’ places value on concrete circumstances and individual experience and the incorporation of emotions and compassion into a social justice discourse. I propose that hope be considered amongst a range of mental states contributing to valuable and complex social functionings that are relevant for assessing poverty and human development. Looking at emotional life might help answer the question: what makes people do what they do – and whether and in what ways they take on (or do not take on) board opportunities that present themselves? The article concludes that hope is a mental state that helps command commodities and helps achieve functionings. As such hope is an input as important as seeds and fertilizer for small-scale farming.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S578-S578
Author(s):  
Lise Switsers ◽  
Liesbeth De Donder ◽  
Eva Dierckx ◽  
Sarah Dury

Abstract Older people are often confronted with dependence, death of spouse and other loss experience. Nevertheless, older adults generally experience a good well-being. This lack of age-related decline of subjective well-being has been named the ‘paradox of ageing’. One possible explanation for this paradox can be found in the socio-emotional selectivity theory of Carstensen. Thus, we hypothesize that low emotional and/or low social loneliness can act as a buffer for the negative relationship between negative life events and well-being. We use data of the D-SCOPE project that includes 869 older community-dwelling adults at risk of frailty residing in Flanders. By means of regression moderating analyses the research gains insights into the relationships between older people and well-being where the absence of social loneliness is detected as a possible buffer against negative outcomes. The discussion develops the argument that the absence of loneliness is a crucial facet for maintaining a good well-being.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. e36
Author(s):  
K.A. Aaltonen ◽  
S. Horsburgh ◽  
J.S. Bell ◽  
S. Hartikainen ◽  
P. Norris

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 316-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aine M. Ní Mhaoláin ◽  
Damien Gallagher ◽  
Henry O Connell ◽  
A. V. Chin ◽  
Irene Bruce ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTBackground: Life satisfaction is a subjective expression of well-being and successful aging. Subjective well-being is a major determinant of health outcomes in older people. The aim of this study was to determine which factors predicted well-being in older people living in the community as measured by their satisfaction with life.Methods: The relationship between life satisfaction, as measured by the Life Satisfaction Index (LSI-A) and physical, cognitive and demographic variables was examined in 466 older people living in the community using a stepwise regression modelResults: Depression, loneliness, neuroticism, extraversion, recent participation in physical activity, age and self-reported exhaustion, were the independent predictors of life satisfaction in our elderly cohort.Conclusion: Subjective well-being, as measured by the Life Satisfaction Scale, is predicted by depression, loneliness, personality traits, recent participation in physical activity and self-reported exhaustion. The mental and emotional status of older individuals, as well as their engagement in physical activity, are as important as physical functionality when it comes to life satisfaction as a measure of well-being and successful aging. These areas represent key targets for intervention.


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