On a Concept of Freedom

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prasanta K. Pattanaik ◽  
Yongsheng Xu
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Strategic Interaction ◽  
Competitive Markets ◽  
Early Contribution ◽  
Major Application ◽  
The Individual ◽  
At Will

A considerable segment of the recent analytical literature on freedom visualizes an individual’s freedom as his/her ability to choose any one of several alternative (mutually exclusive) outcomes available to him/her. A major application of this formulation of freedom is to be found in the functioning and capability approach where an individual’s capability or opportunity set is taken to be a set of functioning bundles any one of which the individual is able to choose at will. Following the lead provided by an early contribution from K. Basu, this chapter explores the limitations of this conception of freedom, both in the framework of perfectly competitive markets and in cases where an individual’s life is determined through strategic interaction among several individuals.

Official Advice Improves Mortgage-Holders’ Perceptions of Switching: Experimental Evidence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane Timmons
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rate ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Switching Process ◽  
Competitive Markets ◽  
Protection Agency ◽  
Change Perceptions ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Individual

Encouraging consumers to switch to lower-rate mortgages is important both for the individual consumer’s finances and for functioning competitive markets, but switching rates are low. Given the complexity of mortgages, one potential regulatory intervention that may increase switching rates is to provide independent advice on how to select good mortgage products and how to navigate the switching process. Working with a government consumer protection agency, we conducted an experiment with mortgage-holders to test whether such advice alters perceptions of switching. The experiment tested how (i) the attributes of the offer, (ii) perceptions about the switching process, (iii) individual feelings of competence and (iv) comprehension of the product affect willingness to switch to better offers, both before and after reading the official advice. The advice made consumers more sensitive to interest rate decreases, especially at longer terms. It also increased consumers’ confidence in their ability to select good offers. Overall, the findings imply that advice from policymakers can change perceptions and increase switching rates. Moreover, the experiment demonstrates how lab studies can contribute to behaviourally-informed policy development.

From Critical Theory to Critical Pragmatism: Capability and the Assessment of Freedom

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 937-952 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bénédicte Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Vocational Training ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Critical Power ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Critical Pragmatism ◽  
Empirical Inquiry ◽  
Policy Level ◽  
Continuing Vocational Training ◽  
The Individual

This article discusses the implications of the double dimension of the capability concept, which is simultaneously normative and descriptive, in sustaining a critical approach toward freedom. Capability may provide a key concept for critical theory. It may also fuel critical pragmatism as anchored in committed empirical inquiry. Building on John Dewey’s pragmatist account, the article advocates a critical approach that is as much a matter of conceptual yardstick as of empirical inquiry. Taking reforms in the area of French continuing vocational training as a case in point, it demonstrates the analytical and critical power, when it comes to the idea of freedom, of a capability approach confronting three levels of inquiry that are usually investigated separately: the institutional (public policy) level, the organizational (in this case company) level, and the individual (biographical) level.

Digitalization and rural entrepreneurial attitude in Indonesia: a capability approach

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fikri Zul Fahmi ◽  
Medina Savira
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rural Entrepreneurship ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Capability Approach

Purpose This paper aims to identify how digitalization affects entrepreneurial attitudes in rural areas in Indonesia, a country in the Global South. The development of digital technology can help entrepreneurs, in that faster and easier information acquisition helps rural communities to identify new opportunities and innovate. Yet, digital development generates higher disparity, and thus, not all people can benefit from digitalization. Although digital technology can facilitate the development of entrepreneurship, its benefits depend on individual preferences. In this regard, the capability approach is used so as to reflect how different valuations of digital technology in rural entrepreneurs influence their attitude with regard to recognizing business opportunities and taking risks. Design/methodology/approach A double case study approach is used in which this study examines two cases of rural entrepreneurs in Indonesia that represent different uses of digital technologies and socio-economic rural contexts: coffee entrepreneurs in Kintamani and craft producers in Kamasan village. In so doing, semi-structured interviews were conducted with local entrepreneurs and communities according to purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The qualitative data were then analysed using a constant comparative technique which allows us to develop a conceptual argument by observing patterns within and between the cases. Findings The findings show that digitalization shapes the attitude of rural entrepreneurs differently, although the same opportunity from using digital technology is present in the village. Social and environmental factors facilitate the rural entrepreneurs to consider using digital technology to develop their businesses. However, as each individual entrepreneur has a different valuation of digital technology, the benefits it offers – such as broader market opportunities and new business ideas – vary. Entrepreneurs who consider digital technology to be a valuable resource for developing their businesses are more curious to explore its benefits. Originality/value The capability approach provides a new perspective in understanding rural entrepreneurship. First, the authors demonstrate that the success of rural entrepreneurship is influenced not only by concrete things (e.g. resources) but also the individual perspective on these resources which may vary across entrepreneurs. Second, the authors show not only the potential differences in socio-cultural contexts in which the capability approach is applied but also how socio-cultural values and collectivism influence the individual valuation of resources that could benefit entrepreneurs.

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.

scholarly journals A INEVITABILIDADE DA MUDANÇA: GERADORA DE CONFLITO OU DE COMPLEMENTARIEDADE NOS AMBIENTES ORGANIZACIONAIS?

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-156
Author(s):  
Noemi Bonina ◽  
Jofrina Zinaenda Patrício
Keyword(s):  
Competitive Markets ◽  
Organizational Environments ◽  
Social Pressures ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The World ◽  
Competence Training ◽  
Current Scenario ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
The Individual

Através de um estudo de caso realizado na área da saúde desenvolvemos um trabalho que busca explanar sobre a inevitabilidade da mudança nos contextos de “ser e estar” no mundo, onde a globalização, a competição, os avanços tecnológicos, as mudanças dos consumidores, as novas pressões sociais, reflectem o cenário actual. Através de um olhar sobre as atitudes individuais perante a mudança e suas perspectivas, a aceitação e a resistência ao “novo”, traz-se a reflexão sobre a formação e o seu papel para o desenvolvimento das competências, onde um de seus objectivos é desenvolver e aperfeiçoar o indivíduo no melhor desempenho de produtividade e eficiência que as empresas necessitam para actuar nos seus mercados globais e competitivos. Assim, buscamos lançar esse olhar sobre a interligação entre quatro factores importantes: competência, formação, mudança e competição, que podem ser entendidos como factores de conflito ou como complementares aos ambientes organizacionais.Palavras-Chave: Transformação. Formação. Competências. INEVITABILITY OF CHANGE: GENERATOR OF CONFLICT OR COMPLEMENTARITY IN THE ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS?Abstract: Through a case study in health developed a work that seeks to explain about the inevitability of change in the contexts of "being and be" in the world, where globalization, competition, technological advances, changes of consumers, new social pressures, reflect the current scenario. Through a look at the individual attitudes towards change and its prospects, acceptance and resistance to the "new" brings to reflection on education and its role in the development of skills, where one of his objectives is to develop and improve the individual in the best performance of productivity and efficiency that businesses need to act in their global and competitive markets. Thus, we seek to launch this look on linking four major factors: competence, training, change and competition, which can be understood as factors of conflict or as complementary to organizational environments.Keywords: Transformation. Formation. Skills.

Stresses in anisotropic media with particular reference to problems of rock mechanics

1966 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. C. Zienkiewicz ◽  
Y. K. Cheung ◽  
K. G. Stagg
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Solution ◽  
Good Accuracy ◽  
Transverse Isotropy ◽  
Individual Element ◽  
Stress Distributions ◽  
Axis Orientation ◽  
Point To Point ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Stratified Rock ◽  
At Will

The recently developed finite element method of numerical stress analysis has been previously applied to the analysis of the stress distribution in isotropically elastic materials and is here extended to deal with a particular form of anisotropy. The case of anisotropy considered is that generally referred to as transverse isotropy, i.e. where the material is isotropic in the yz plane but non-isotropic with respect to directions normal to this plane. The analysis is restricted to the consideration of two-dimensional plane strain problems in the xy plane. The individual element axis orientation may be varied at will with respect to the overall co-ordinate system so that problems may be treated where the direction of isotropy varies from point to point within the material. It is suggested that this system of anisotropy is particularly relevant to the analysis of stress distributions in stratified rock masses. Previous approaches to this problem are outlined in Appendix 1. A series of illustrative examples are shown, first, to compare the numerical solution to a problem with a known analytical solution to that analytical solution and, second, to show the application to more complex situations with no known analytical solutions. It is concluded from the first comparison that the method is capable of giving good accuracy.

scholarly journals Explaining the Varieties of Volunteering in Europe: A Capability Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Enjolras
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Structural Indicators

AbstractVolunteer rates vary greatly across Europe despite the voluntary sector’s common history and tradition. This contribution advances a theoretical explanation for the variation in volunteering across Europe—the capability approach—and tests this approach by adopting a two-step strategy for modeling contextual effects. This approach, referring to the concept of capability introduced by Sen (Choice, welfare and measurement, Oxford University Press, 1980/1982), is based on the claim that the demand and supply sides of the voluntary sector can be expected to vary according to collective and individual capabilities to engage in volunteering. To empirically test the approach, the study relied on two data sources—the 2015 European Union (EU) Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), including an ad hoc module on volunteering at the individual level, and the Quality of Government Institute and PEW Research Center macro-level data sets—to operationalize economic, human, political, social, and religious contextual factors and assess their effects on individuals’ capability to volunteer. The results support the capability hypothesis at both levels. At the individual level, indicators of human, economic, and social resources have a positive effect on the likelihood of volunteering. At the contextual level, macro-structural indicators of economic, political, social, and religious contexts affect individuals’ ability to transform resources into functioning—that is, volunteering.

scholarly journals Place Memory and the Body

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 32-44
Author(s):  
Margaret Kerr
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Altered States Of Consciousness ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Psychological Pain ◽  
Place Memory ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Embodied Practice ◽  
At Will

Christopher Bache’s work, Dark Night Early Dawn (2000) draws on his experiences in altered states of consciousness to illustrate how the individual psyche is deeply interlaced with the minds, emotions and life events of others across time and space. He suggests that this interconnectedness enables us to go beyond healing personal psychological pain, to help heal individual and collective suffering. Bache’s account concentrates on what might be called the world of “spirit” rather than matter. The current paper is an endeavour to extend his work into the world of matter through theoretical exploration and physical engagement with body and land. To this end, I present a heuristic enquiry into two psycho-geographic journeys made at sites of collective suffering in rural Scotland. While working in altered states of consciousness and engaging in somatic practice, I felt residues of what seemed to be this suffering, coming to consciousness through my body. The work of understanding and honouring this involved performance, ritual and artwork. My suggestion is that such embodied practice allows both a profound acknowledgement of historical events and a therapeutic release of pain. Working in this way may also show us how deeply our bodies and minds are woven into the rest of nature. Once we experience this, places can come alive to us in a different way. Matter is no longer a dead substance for humans to use at will. It is a mystery that we are all part of, and one that invites our deepest respect and care. KEYWORDS interconnectedness, parapsychology, altered states of consciousness, ecopsychology, place memory.

scholarly journals Meninjau Tanggungjawab Sosial Perusahaan dalam Pendekatan Kapabilitas

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Pinurba Parama Pratiyudha
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Third World ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
The Capability Approach

This paper departs from the discourse of the paradigm of social development in third world countries. The first discourse reviews the critics of the broad state in social development. It supports the non-state actors to take a part in development through corporate social responsibility (CSR). The second discourse departs from economic development which weakens the capability of the individual in achieving development itself. The concept of the capability approach in human development emerged as a solution to create inclusive welfare. This paper itself raises these two things in one discussion related to the role of CSR in relation to the development of human capabilities. Taking an analysis of the Program Desa Mandiri Energi by PJB UP Paiton, the study examines the role of CSR activities in supporting community capabilities. This paper argues that the existence of CSR provides a strong contribution to strengthening the capabilities of the community that has developed from the past. However, in the subsequent findings, there are several aspects of CSR programs that still several actions to be developed and improved human capabilities.

Metrics of Justice

2019 ◽  
pp. 51-85
Author(s):  
Ali Mehdi
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Sen’S Capability Approach ◽  
Social Level ◽  
The Capability Approach

This chapter characterizes and critiques the relevant aspects of various metrics of justice put forth by major theories of justice, with a special focus on Amartya Sen’s capability approach. It then goes on to discuss some of the relevant issues pertaining to the measurement of justice within the capability framework. For instance, justice is to be eventually measured at the individual and not the social level, although our choice will be governed by the evaluative purpose. It ends with a conceptual assessment of the capability approach, highlighting some of its challenges.

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