Gendered Dimensions and Capabilities: Opportunities, Dilemmas and Challenges

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 883-898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Hobson
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Multidimensional Approach ◽  
Dynamic Framework ◽  
Sense Of Entitlement ◽  
Sen’S Capability Approach

Looking through the lens of gender, this article engages with the opportunities, dilemmas and challenges posed by Sen’s framework to sociological research. Sen’s capability approach offers sociological research a dynamic framework through its concept of agency and its multidimensional approach. It also poses dilemmas, revealed in the tensions within agency and choice and the challenges in operationalizing Sen’s framework: adapting it to sociological models and applying it to empirically grounded research. Through conversion factors and processes, a central component in the capabilities approach, I reveal the potential of Sen’s approach for developing more dynamic frameworks in sociological research, with respect to (1) changes in gendered norms (how new norms are seeded); (2) how entitlements are converted into a sense of entitlement to make claims; and (3) how the capabilities approach can lead toward a more dynamic institutional analysis of welfare states. My contribution to Sen’s framework involves elaborating two mechanisms in the conversion of capabilities to agency freedoms and achievements: the sense of entitlement to make claims and the perceived scope of alternatives in exercising rights.

Deploying Creative Thinking to Strengthen Entrepreneurial Capability Among University Students in Nigeria

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-108
Author(s):  
Akinjide Aboluwodi
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
University Students ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Entrepreneurship Education ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Entrepreneurial Opportunity ◽  
Sen’S Capability Approach

Most of the students studying entrepreneurship in Nigerian universities lack entrepreneurial capability- that is, they lack the freedom to pursue and achieve entrepreneurial opportunity. Freedom is seen here in terms of those conditions that must be in place for students to be able to carry out their entrepreneurship studies. These are conditions that support the well-being of the students and may be seen as having good shelter, being well nourished, being healthy, being able to do their normal studies among others. The paper examined why the presence of these conditions is likely to assist students to improve their creative thinking and strengthen their entrepreneurial capability. It explored Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach, focusing on freedom, opportunities, and functionings to explain the required favourable conditions that make learning worthwhile for students, and how it accounts for students’ ability to strengthen their entrepreneurial capability. The paper argued for the deployment of creative thinking to strengthen entrepreneurial capability among students of entrepreneurship in universities in Nigeria. It concluded by urging universities in Nigeria to adopt relevant curriculum in addition to providing students with a decent learning environment to enable them to develop creative thinking that could be used in entrepreneurship education.

Aristóteles Contra o Bem dos Economistas

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-234
Author(s):  
Mário Maximo
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Real Function ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Ethical Naturalism ◽  
Human Form ◽  
The Real ◽  
Weak Points ◽  
The Capability Approach

Despite its origins within moral philosophy, economists think their science has nothing to do with the good. They appeal to some kind of Hume’s guillotine that divides the descriptive and the normative. With that in hand, they affirm the solely descriptive aspect of their discipline. I argue this is not the case. Economists have, as they need to, an all encompassing notion of the good. I suggest going back to Aristotelian arguments to show the shortcomings of this good of economists. Aristotle is helpful because of his analysis of chrematistics and the real function of money. Hence, the loosely utilitarian good of the economists is confronted with a robust sense of the good and the human form. The capability approach is the first to identify these weak points on economic theory and to propose a sort of Aristotelian comeback. However, I claim the capabilities approach itself doesn’t follow the Aristotelian arguments used to attack economists to its necessary conclusion. Therefore, I suggest that the recent advances in neo-Aristotelian ethical naturalism can be used to reformulate economics by dispossessing economists of their sumo bonnun.

HEALTH-SAVING TECHNOLOGIES AS SOCIAL PRACTICES IN THE MODERN RUSSIAN FAMILY

2021 ◽  
pp. 12-19
Author(s):  
Krul A.S.
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Healthy Lifestyles ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
The Family ◽  
Methodological Principles ◽  
Modern Russian

The paper presents a study of modern social practices of health care in the family. The problem of research is determined by the need to implement health-saving technologies such as living conditions and family life, as well as the introduction of social practices of healthy lifestyles in primary groups. The relevance of the topic is determined by the conditions for the development of modern Russian society, which are characterized by the need to form a social institution of healthy lifestyle and mandatory components in the form of social practices for informal groups. From this perspective, the natural course of development is the institution of the family, which takes on the task of introducing a healthy lifestyle as a system of daily activities. The study is based on the institutional analysis of health-preserving technologies in the family, the basis for the analysis was the theoretical and methodological principles of studying society as a social system (T. Parsons, N. Luhmann). The model for representing health-saving technologies in the everyday practices of the modern Russian family is based on the model of systems of social actions by T. Parsons and the model of the functioning of the family as a social institution by R. Merton. The empirical base is based on the author's sociological research: a survey, an expert survey, document analysis, macrosociological analysis and modeling (from 2016 to 2021), as well as the results of studies conducted by All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), The Levada Center (2018). As a result of the research, an analysis of the social practices of a healthy lifestyle in a modern Russian family was carried out; the components of a healthy lifestyle were presented as a condition for the development of health-saving technologies in the daily actions of an individual. The model of social practices of healthy lifestyles in a modern Russian family is based on the institutional analysis of the family.

PAR and Digital Inclusion, An Analysis Using the Capabilities Approach and Critical Pedagogy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1120-1135
Author(s):  
Sammia Cristina Poveda Villalba
Keyword(s):  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Digital Inclusion ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Adaptive Preference ◽  
The Capability Approach

This paper draws upon the capability approach and critical pedagogy to analyse the value of using Problem-posing Education, a participatory action research method, in a digital inclusion initiative in Brazil. First it the capability approach and explains why using critical pedagogy is a valuable way to deal with issues of power, collective conscientisation and adaptive preference. Freire's pedagogy is then presented and conscientisation is explained as a process of raising critical awareness and praxis. The case study, presents empirical work conducted in Campinas, together with a NGO named CDI, which offers free internet access and basic ICT skills using a Freire's inspired methodology. Findings are then explained and discussed using the theoretical framework. This paper concludes that there is great value in using Freire's critical pedagogy for digital inclusion, but that further research is necessary to identify less resource intense solutions that can provide students with both conscientisation and skills.

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