From Knowledge to Informational Basis: Capability, Capacity to Aspire and Research

This article explores the way the process of transformation of knowledge into an ‘informational basis’ (of policies and of public choice) represents a good terrain for building an effective exchange and collaboration between the capability approach and other efforts, in the social sciences, to emphasize the crucial role of agency, actors’ critical capacities and voice. Beyond the rhetorical image of our self-claimed ‘knowledge societies’, the analysis of the contemporary characteristics of the relationship between knowledge and an informational basis leads us to reconceive research in terms of a human right to actively participate in the knowledge-making process, enabling citizens’ capacity for voice to intervene in the construction of the informational bases of the collective decision. Starting from focusing on these transformations through research cases about the informational basis framing the relationship between safety and work, the article shows how, beyond labour issues, at stake is the relationship between knowledge and democracy, as the core moment of the latter, before the political choice is the cognitive one. An effective interaction between the capability approach and other social science perspectives of research centred on agency and capacity offers very helpful analytical tools for a critical appraisal and inquiry into these transformations.

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What is Labour Law? Implications of the Capability Approach

The Capability Approach to Labour Law ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198836087.003.0007 ◽

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.

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Education as investment? A comparison of the capability and social investment approaches to education policy

Social Policy and the Capability Approach ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447341789.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 19-40 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jean-Michel Bonvin ◽

Francesco Laruffa

Keyword(s):

Education Policy ◽

Capability Approach ◽

Democratic Citizenship ◽

Social Investment ◽

The Social ◽

Normative Basis ◽

The One ◽

The Right ◽

The Capability Approach

This chapter compares the role of education policy in social investment and the capability approach. Based on an analysis of the document 'Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes' adopted by the European Commission in 2012 (and cited in the 'Social Investment Package'), we argue that the role of educational policy in social investment is mainly that of fostering the right skills for the flourishing of the economy and thus of improving people's productivity as workers. In contrast, the capability approach allows emphasizing the contribution of education not only to workers' employability but also to citizens' autonomy as well as to democratic citizenship. From this viewpoint, the capability approach could improve the normative basis of social investment, allowing to broaden the perspective on education policy beyond the one centred on human capital that currently informs social investment.

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Freedom in Work and the Capability Approach

The Capability Approach to Labour Law ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198836087.003.0016 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 311-331

Author(s):

Robert Salais

Keyword(s):

Capability Approach ◽

Economic Value ◽

Work Organizations ◽

Work Activity ◽

Performance Targets ◽

The Social ◽

Informational Basis ◽

The Many ◽

New Forms Of Work ◽

The Capability Approach

This contribution deals with freedom in work, the importance of which is currently rising. New forms of work organizations call for the engagement by employees of their freedom in work to solve by themselves the many unpredictable uncertainties that emerge during the work process. Especially, but not only from women, claims arise not to be victims of discriminations or of harassments (moral or sexual). Facing such trends, firm managements counteract, either in imposing performance targets to workers, or in editing formal declarations. They deny in practice the social, political, and economic value of effective freedom in work (and of mutual respect and reciprocal commitment). It is argued that, to shed public light on such denials, one should interpret those trends in terms of the capability approach. Several issues are discussed: the nature of work activity (instrumental or of value); the valuation problem for the person in mobilizing Sen’s concept of informational basis of judgment in justice; the interconnected meanings of capability, and so on … Institutionalizing freedom in work should focus on deliberation into valuation processes of work, the capability of public functioning, a conception of rights as goals, and the situated state.

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Poverty and freedom

Human Affairs ◽

10.2478/s13374-014-0224-y ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Gunter Graf ◽

Gottfried Schweiger

Keyword(s):

Capability Approach ◽

Point Of View ◽

Martha Nussbaum ◽

General Level ◽

Amartya Sen ◽

The Social ◽

Moral Point ◽

Social Scientific ◽

The Capability Approach

AbstractThe capability approach, which is closely connected to the works of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, is one possible theoretical framework that could be used to answer the question as to why poverty is a problem from a moral point of view. In this paper we will focus on the normative philosophical capability approach rather than the social scientific and descriptive perspective. We will show that the approach characterizes poverty mainly as a limitation of freedom and that it is precisely this aspect, from its point of view, that makes poverty morally significant. This insight shifts the discussion away from questions regarding specific capabilities or lists of them-questions treated extensively in the literature-to the more general level of what constitutes the normative core of the capability approach. But as we will also discuss and argue, the role of freedom alone does not give us a complete picture of poverty but only presents us with one aspect relevant to evaluating it. A further aspect which we consider has not been adequately recognized and taken into account by most capability theorists is the experience of disrespect and humiliation, or to put it differently, a lack of recognition.

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Mediasi Kepuasan Kerja dan Stres Kerja pada Hubungan antara Program Jamsostek dan Kinerja Karyawan Studi Kasus pada Perusahaan Swasta di DIY dan Solo

Jurnal Maksipreneur Manajemen Koperasi dan Entrepreneurship ◽

10.30588/jmp.v3i1.89 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 75

Author(s):

Eny Sulistyowati ◽

Totok Danangdjojo

Keyword(s):

Job Satisfaction ◽

Social Security ◽

Job Stress ◽

Work Stress ◽

Program Performance ◽

Social Security Program ◽

Mediating Role ◽

The Social ◽

The Relationship

This study aims to explain the influence of the Social Security program on performance and job satisfaction and job stress as a mediating variable. In addition, this study also describes the effect of job satisfaction on the performance and the effect of work stress on performance. The relationship of each variable in this research is to be measured by conducting a survey on 145 employees of private companies that included in Social Security program on DIY and Solo. Then the path analisys used to test the effect of social security program performance in mediation by job satisfaction, performance and job stress, job satisfaction, and examines the effect on the performance and the effect of work stress on performance. The results showed that the social security program significant positively affects job satisfaction and performance. Job satisfaction was also positively and significantly affect performance. Even though mediating role of job satisfaction in the relationship between social security program performance partial. Because merely direct relationship between social security program with greater performance than the mediating role of job satisfaction. Social Security program did not significantly affect the stress of work, as well as job stress did not significantly affect performance. Therefore, the mediating role of work stress on the relationship between social security program with the performance did not occur. Individual differences and work experience may be a factor that causes no significant relationship between the two variables.

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War Widows and Welfare Queens

The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Sociology ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190273385.013.31 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 584-605

Author(s):

Brittany Pearl Battle

Keyword(s):

Policy Development ◽

Social Welfare Policy ◽

Cultural Representations ◽

The Poor ◽

The Social ◽

The Family ◽

Deserving Poor ◽

Analytical Tools ◽

The Relationship ◽

Undeserving Poor

This chapter examines the sociocognitive dimensions of cultural categorizations of deservingness. The social issue of poverty has been a persistent source of debate in the American system of policy development, influenced by conceptual distinctions between the “haves” and “have-nots,” “working moms” and “unemployed dads,” and the “deserving poor” and the “undeserving poor.” Although there is a wealth of literature discussing the ideological underpinnings of stratification systems, these discussions often focus on categorical distinctions between the poor and the nonpoor, with much less discussion of distinctions made among the poor. Moreover, while scholars of culture and policy have long referenced the importance of cultural categories of worthiness in policy development, the theoretical significance of these distinctions has been largely understudied. I expand the discourse on the relationship between cultural representations of worth and social welfare policy by exploring how these categories are conceptualized. Drawing on analytical tools from a sociology of perception framework, I create a model that examines deservingness along continuums of morality and eligibility to highlight the taken-for-granted cultural subtleties that shape perceptions of the poor. I focus on social filters created by norms of poverty, welfare, and the family to explore how the deserving are differentiated from the undeserving.

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Using Social Media in Tourist Sentiment Analysis: A Case Study of Andalusia during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13073836 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 3836

Author(s):

David Flores-Ruiz ◽

Adolfo Elizondo-Salto ◽

María de la O. Barroso-González

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Sentiment Analysis ◽

Cost Savings ◽

Mass Scale ◽

Tourism Sector ◽

The Social ◽

Analytical Tools ◽

Media Data

This paper explores the role of social media in tourist sentiment analysis. To do this, it describes previous studies that have carried out tourist sentiment analysis using social media data, before analyzing changes in tourists’ sentiments and behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the case study, which focuses on Andalusia, the changes experienced by the tourism sector in the southern Spanish region as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are assessed using the Andalusian Tourism Situation Survey (ECTA). This information is then compared with data obtained from a sentiment analysis based on the social network Twitter. On the basis of this comparative analysis, the paper concludes that it is possible to identify and classify tourists’ perceptions using sentiment analysis on a mass scale with the help of statistical software (RStudio and Knime). The sentiment analysis using Twitter data correlates with and is supplemented by information from the ECTA survey, with both analyses showing that tourists placed greater value on safety and preferred to travel individually to nearby, less crowded destinations since the pandemic began. Of the two analytical tools, sentiment analysis can be carried out on social media on a continuous basis and offers cost savings.

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The Failure of Functional Theologies of Ministry and the Promise of a Relational Alternative

Ecclesiology ◽

10.1177/1744136605052778 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 27-43

Author(s):

Graham Buxton

Keyword(s):

Pastoral Theology ◽

Pastoral Ministry ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Theological Method ◽

Systematic Theology ◽

The Social ◽

Practical Ministry ◽

Pastoral Theory ◽

The Relationship

AbstractThe author critiques inductive approaches to pastoral theology that rely on the empirical methodology of the social and human sciences, and presents an alternative Christocentric praxis model of pastoral ministry. The result is an attempt to integrate pastoral theory and practice that shifts the perspective away from functionally-determined theologies of ministry to a relationally oriented and hermeneutically coherent model of orthopraxis in which theory and practice interact in a way that is intended to both deepen faith and transform lives. Some of the key themes that inform the discussion are the importance of theological method, the role of the community as the context for care, the relationship between practical ministry and systematic theology, and the notion of praxis in articulating the nature and scope of practical theology today.

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Ethics, National Sovereignty and the Control of Immigration

International Migration Review ◽

10.1177/019791839603000114 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 171-197 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Myron Weiner

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Moral Obligation ◽

Human Right ◽

National Sovereignty ◽

Migration Policies ◽

Open Borders ◽

The Relationship

This paper examines the debate as to whether migration is a basic human right or if the claims of outsiders are superseded by the principle of national sovereignty – the moral obligation of states to do the best for their own citizens. In evaluating migration and refugees it focuses on issues of open borders, migration selectivity, the capacity of sovereign states to control entry, the claims of refugees, the relationship between sovereignty and justifiable intervention, and the role of public opinion and morals throughout migration policies.

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Beyond social capital: a capability approach to understanding Refugee Community Organisations and other providers for “hard to reach” groups

International Journal of Migration Health and Social Care ◽

10.1108/ijmhsc-11-2013-0039 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 61-72 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Jennifer Clarke

Keyword(s):

Capability Approach ◽

Service Providers ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Content Type ◽

Refugee Community ◽

Community Organisations ◽

Purposive Sample ◽

The Capability Approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of the “capability approach” as an alternative framework for understanding and conceptualising the role of Refugee Community Organisations (RCOs) and other providers for groups conventionally considered “hard to reach”. Design/methodology/approach – A study of the education services of RCOs, drawing primarily on semi-structured interviews with 71 users, is put forward as a case study for how the capability approach can be operationalised. Findings – The capability approach is found to offer various valuable insights, relating to its appreciation of the multi-dimensional nature of human wellbeing, the significance of individual diversity, and the importance of human agency. Research limitations/implications – The case study is based on a relatively small purposive sample, and may have limited external validity. As the research design proved strong for exploring how RCOs develop their users’ capabilities but weak for exploring if and how they may also constrict them, further research in this area is required. Practical implications – A number of valuable attributes of the capability approach are highlighted for broadening the understanding, the role of RCOs and other service providers. Social implications – The paper outlines the potential of the capability approach to contribute to policymaking related to RCOs and other providers, and to debates relating to social exclusion, cohesion and integration. Originality/value – The paper draws attention to the value of the capability approach within the field of migration research.

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