scholarly journals Two views of assistance

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (10) ◽  
pp. 998-1021
Author(s):  
Pietro Maffettone ◽  
Ryan Muldoon
Keyword(s):  
Global Justice ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Attractive Alternative ◽  
International Assistance ◽  
Strong Case ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Capability Approach

The article makes two substantive contributions to the existing literature on the ethics of international assistance and global justice. First, it builds what we take to be a widely held set of propositions about international assistance into a consistent view (i.e. the relief view), and articulates a strong case against its desirability. Second, it sketches a more attractive alternative (i.e. the development view). To do so the article uses Sen’s idea of agent-oriented development as a starting point while at the same time providing a generalization of Sen’s account and a justificatory framework that does not rely on the capability approach.

scholarly journals A capability framework for financial market regulation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rutger Claassen
Keyword(s):  
Financial Markets ◽  
Market Failure ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Martha Nussbaum ◽  
Market Regulation ◽  
Financial Market Regulation ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Regulation Of Financial Markets ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Capability Approach

This chapter is about normative justifications for regulating markets. In leading handbooks as well as in the academic literature, a split is often made between economic justifications (based on the theory of market failure) and social justifications (mainly around considerations of paternalism and distributive justice). The chapter questions this dichotomy and calls for the development of an ethically coherent framework for market regulation. To do so, the chapter proposes to build on the capability approach, first developed by economist Amartya Sen and philosopher Martha Nussbaum. A capability approach to regulation would hold that markets should be regulated to the extent necessary for realizing a set of basic capabilities. The chapter discusses existing applications to property law and contract law and extends them into the outlines of a general theory of regulation. The final part illustrates the promises of such an approach with respect to the regulation of financial markets.

What is Labour Law? Implications of the Capability Approach

2019 ◽  
pp. 122-140
Author(s):  
Brian Langille
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Legal Subject ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Scope Of Application ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Capability Approach

Creating real capabilities to engage in decent work is a vital social project. Labour law is best conceived of as that part of our law which seeks to remove obstacles to, and to nurture, such capabilities. Labour law’s undertaking is thus part of the larger project of human development—of advancing the cause of substantive human freedom conceived of as the real capacity to lead a life we have reason to value. On this view, the world of labour law is large (it is concerned with all who work) and its mission one which is both important and coheres with our basic values in all aspects of our lives. But labour law has, at present, another account of itself, long successful, but which is narrower and less ambitious. The legal starting point for that view is contract, and labour law’s mission is to control contract power. This is an important but narrower normative vision, which both restricts our understanding of what labour law is and limits its scope of application. Attempts to advance labour law’s self-understanding by appealing to the capability approach have been made, but met with resistance. In this chapter, this encounter is reviewed and assessed by examining the role of the capabilities approach (CA) in constituting labour law as a legal subject. In so doing, this chapter draws attention to another issue—the relationship between the normative narrative underpinning a discipline such as labour law (whatever it may be) and its expression in law.

The capability approach and a child standpoint

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Bessell
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Workforce Participation ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Capability Approach

This chapter examines what the capability approach can do for realising the Australian ideal of the ‘fair go’—expounding the strongly held values around egalitarianism and ensuring that people have a reasonable opportunity to make what they want of their lives. It first acknowledges social policy as a normative enterprise, seeking not only to ‘develop and deliver services for people in order to meet their needs for welfare and wellbeing’, but to do so in ways that privilege particular ideas and values. It then considers how a ‘fair go’ resonates with a capability approach, with synergies between the expansion of capabilities and freedom to live the life one values and Australian ideas of egalitarian individualism. It also explains how a child standpoint can be useful in rethinking social policy to move beyond the narrow agenda of workforce participation to an agenda of social inclusion, social justice and opportunity.

Designing for empowerment – An investigation and critical reflection

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-65
Author(s):  
Hanna Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Application Area ◽  
Health Records ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Activity Trackers ◽  
Conceptual Clarity ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Capability Approach

Abstract Technology bears the potential to empower people – to help them tackle challenges they would otherwise give up on or not even try, to make experiences possible that they did not have access to before. One type of such technologies – the application area of the thesis presented here – is health and wellbeing technology (HWT), such as digital health records, physical activity trackers, or digital fitness coach applications. Researchers and companies alike often claim that HWTs empower people to live healthier and happier lives. However, there is reason to challenge and critically reflect on these claims and underlying assumptions as more and more researchers are finding that technologies described as empowering turn out to be “disempowering”. This critical reflection is the starting point of the thesis presented here: Can HWTs really empower people in their everyday lives? If so, how can we design for empowerment? In my cumulative dissertation, I combine studies on existing HWTs, such as patient-controlled electronic health records and personalized mobile fitness coaches with the development of novel prototypes such as transparent digital fitness coaches that communicate their rationale to the user. By reflecting on these case studies, I come to revisit the sometimes washed-out meaning of “empowerment” in “empowering technologies”; I introduce a framework to establish conceptual clarity; and I suggest three principles to design for empowerment based on my own work and the Capability Approach by Sen and Nussbaum that aim to inform and inspire research on HWTs and beyond.

Transforming Global Justice Theorizing

2020 ◽  
pp. 162-180
Author(s):  
Krushil Watene
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Indigenous Methodologies ◽  
Kaupapa Māori ◽  
The Capability Approach

Indigenous philosophies are essential to indigenous peoples’ self-determination, and essential to the pursuit and realization of justice for indigenous peoples globally. Given this contention, the absence of indigenous philosophies in mainstream global justice theorizing is problematic for the continued relevance of global justice theorizing today. The aim of this chapter is to think seriously about how to remedy this problem, and to begin to provide some of the solutions for moving forward, focusing particularly on Māori philosophies and Kaupapa Māori theory. More specifically, following a discussion of the importance of indigenous philosophies for global justice, we explore (1) why even the strongest (in intercultural terms) mainstream approach to justice—the capability approach—has so far fallen short, and (2) why indigenous methodologies remain vital to the appropriate articulation and inclusion of indigenous philosophies in justice theorizing. In so doing, the chapter highlights some of the opportunities within, and challenges to, mainstream justice theorizing—and philosophy more generally—for remedying this shortfall.

Competenza ad agire insieme e senso di iniziativa: il tirocinio per attraversare i confini tra studio e lavoro

2020 ◽  
pp. 93-102
Author(s):  
Fabrizio d'Aniello
Keyword(s):  
Professional Growth ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Boundary Crossing ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Knowledge Models ◽  
Internship Experience ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity ◽  
The University ◽  
And Training ◽  
The Capability Approach

The pre-eminent motivation behind this contribution lies in the intention to offer students of three-year degree course in education and training sciences and master's degree in pedagogical sciences of the University of Macerata a further support than those already existing, aimed at expanding the educational meaningfulness of the internship experience. The main criticality of such experience is connected with the difficulty in translating knowledge, models, ideas into appropriate activities. This notably refers to the conceptual and educational core of the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship and, consistently, to the skill to act. Therefore, after a deepening of the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, followed by related pedagogical reflections based on the capability approach, the paper presents an operative proposal aimed at increasing young people's possibilities of action and supporting their personal and professional growth. With regard to this training proposal, the theoretical and methodological framework refers to the third generation cultural historical activity theory and to the tool of the boundary crossing laboratory, variant of the change laboratory

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