Public policy: from welfare to empowerment of women in India

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Indira Mahendravada
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Sample Surveys ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Women In India ◽  
The Capability Approach

This chapter examines the paradigm shift in public policy from welfare to the empowerment of women in Karnataka, India. Drawing on data collected through sample surveys from two districts in rural Karnataka, it considers the impact of policy interventions on the empowerment of women in Karnataka at the micro level by using the capability approach. The study tests whether the policy of involving non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the empowerment of rural women positively affects the autonomy of women measured in terms of capabilities. The chapter first presents an overview of the capability approach, its application to women's empowerment and agency, and indicators to measure autonomy before discussing the findings from the study of Karnataka women. The study provides evidence that the policy of involving NGOs in delivering inputs for the empowerment of women has enhanced the capabilities of women in Karnataka.

Approccio delle capacitŕ e sociologia economica: un matrimonio vincente per lo studio delle politiche

2009 ◽  
pp. 66-79
Author(s):  
Gianluca Busilacchi
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Economic Sociology ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Empirical Level ◽  
The Capability Approach

- Over the last year the capability approach has been widely used by social scientist. Its success is mainly due to the richness of its theoretical framework and the possibility to enrich the interdisciplinary researches also at the empirical level. However the empirical applications in the field of public policy, especially social policy, are still very limited: what is the reason? And which is the role of economic sociology in contributing to the analysis of social policy endorsing the capability approach? The first part of the paper concerns the explanation of the theoretical framework of the capability approach, through an analysis of its main concepts and empirical applications. Then we will try to see why the capability approach can be especially used by economic sociology, and why this social science can be enriched by the capability approach to analyse social policy with a richer toolbox.Keywords: social policy, capability approach, economic sociology, public policy, Amartya Sen, poverty

Human development, capabilities and the ethics of policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Uwe Otto ◽  
Melanie Walker ◽  
Holger Ziegler
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
National Level ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Parts ◽  
The Capability Approach

This book examines policy interventions driven or influenced by human development or human security concerns and how a capability approach can be implemented to achieve more just societies and foster equal opportunities for individuals and groups across the social and class spectrum. It also analyses the discrepancies and obstacles that actual policies present to what a capability approach could mean in social policy practice. The primary goal of the capability approach is to advance democracy at the community, local and national level in ways that promote genuine possibilities for agency to enable everyone to actively participate in shaping public policy. The book considers how the capability approach has been conceptualised and operationalised into practice in different parts of the world, including India, Buenos Aires, South Africa, England and New York City.

The Analysis of Conflict: A Micro-Level Perspective

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Verwimp ◽  
Patricia Justino ◽  
Tilman Brück
Keyword(s):  
Global Perspective ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Civilian Population ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Core Message ◽  
Armed Actors

This article introduces a special issue on the micro-level dynamics of mass violent conflict. While most analyses of conflict typically adopt a regional, national or global perspective, often using country-level data, this special issue takes an explicit micro-level approach, focusing on the behaviour and welfare of individuals, households and groups or communities. At a fundamental level, conflict originates from individuals' behaviour and their repeated interactions with their surroundings, in other words, from its micro-foundations. A micro-level approach advances our understanding of conflict by its ability to account for individual and group heterogeneity within one country or one conflict. The contributors to this special issue investigate the nature of violence against civilians, the agency of civilians during conflict, the strategic interaction between civilians and armed actors, the consequences of displacement, the effectiveness of coping strategies and the impact of policy interventions. The core message from these articles is that in order to understand conflict dynamics and its effects on society, we have to take seriously the incentives and constraints shaping the interaction between the civilian population and the armed actors. The kind of interaction that develops, as well as the resulting conflict dynamics, depend on the type of conflict, the type of armed actors and the characteristics of the civilian population and its institutions.

scholarly journals Serious Games, Mental Images, and Participatory Mapping: Reflections on a Set of Enabling Tools for Capacity Building

Informatics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teodora Iulia Constantinescu ◽  
Oswald Devisch
Keyword(s):  
Capacity Building ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Building Process ◽  
Participatory Processes ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City ◽  
The Capability Approach

Increasing complexity of societal questions requires participatory processes that engage with capable participants. We adopted Horellis’ stance on participation as not an isolated event but a constant communication between different groups that can be assured by using enabling tools. We applied the Capability Approach to frame a capacity-building process and understand how this framework can support a collective of entrepreneurs to become aware of their capabilities (and the impact of an ongoing urban renewal process on these capabilities). The Capability Approach emphasizes the personal and structural conditions that impact a person’s capability to choose—the conditions that affect the process of determining what a person values. The paper builds on a two year capacity-building process conducted in Genk, Belgium, and proposes a conceptual framework for building capacities, in which the process and outputs collide with ideas of choice, ability, and opportunity, notions central to the Capability Approach. The case study looks at one of the main commercial streets of the city (Vennestraat) and reflects on a set of enabling artefacts used to engage proprietors in the capacity-building process. This capacity-building process, characterized by the idea of space and capabilities, advances a critical viewpoint on issues related to participatory processes and gives practitioners a set of enabling tools to start a conversation over complex urban transformations, such as the one in Vennestraat.

scholarly journals L’incidence du milieu d’études sur les possibilités de choix de femmes autochtones : typologie de parcours scolaires

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 57-68
Author(s):  
Jo-Anni Joncas ◽  
Annie Pilote
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Indigenous Women ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
The Other ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Capability Approach

This paper aims to assess the impact of the study environment on the opportunities of Indigenous women to complete the school pathway desired. During individual interviews, we collected 19 stories of Indigenous women’s experiences at two Quebec universities, one with several initiatives for indigenous students and the other with few. Through a typological analysis, four types of school pathways are presented according to the impact of the study environment; the pathway with: 1) pre-existing opportunities; 2) opportunities highlighted by the study environment; 3) rebound opportunities; and 4) driven by external impulses. Inspired by the capability approach, the results highlight the importance of focusing not only on the services and measures available to these students, but also on their ability to use them to achieve the desired academic path. This requires considering the factors that enable them to make effective use of educational resources for the purpose they choose.

Hope as a Critical Resource for Small Scale Farmers in Mpumalanga

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Goldin
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Emotional Life ◽  
The Capability Approach

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.

scholarly journals ATHLETIC POLICY, PASSIVE WELL-BEING: DEFENDING FREEDOM IN THE CAPABILITY APPROACH

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Begon
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
The Public ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Capability Approach ◽  
Athletic Policy

Abstract:G.A. Cohen has criticized the capability approach for focusing on individuals’ freedom – their capability to control their lives – and ignoring benefits achieved passively. He argues that this view of well-being is excessively ‘athletic’. However, if the capability approach is employed to guide egalitarian public policy, capabilities are the appropriate goal of just distributive policies, not just components of individual well-being. When understood as a policy-guide, I argue that the capability approach's focus on ‘athletic’ individual freedom and control is justified: in the public domain, it is important not just that individuals receive benefits, but that they participate in their achievement.

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