scholarly journals Understanding and Fighting Poverty – Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach and Related Theories

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alban Knech
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Resource Theory ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Welfare Institutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Sen’S Capability Approach ◽  
The Capability Approach

Abstract This article scrutinises the usefulness of Sen’s capability approach and other related theories for understanding poverty and traceability of social-welfare interventions. In addition to the capability approach three macro level approaches are discussed: the welfare regime approach of Esping-Andersen, the social investment approach and a new resource theory. While the strength of the capability approach is the interpretation of worldwide data, and welfare regimes better explain the tangible function of welfare institutions, the social investment approach focuses on the meaning of human capital. Resource theory describes the welfare interventions by analysing their effects on equipping individuals with a broad range of resources. Two further approaches show the mode of operation of micro level interventions. Resource orientation and empowerment are social work techniques which improve the situation of disadvantaged people by emancipation. The article concludes that macro level and micro level considerations must be combined to understand, and then fight poverty

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

2019 ◽  
pp. 19-40 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals A Capability Approach to Understanding Sport for Social Inclusion: Agency, Structure and Organisations

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naofumi Suzuki
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Inclusive Society

Despite the global diffusion of the term social inclusion, as well as the use of sport to promote it, questions have been raised regarding the extent to which sport is able to contribute to transforming the exclusive nature of the social structure. The lack of analytical clarity of the concept has not helped to address these questions. This article proposes a conceptual framework based on Amartya Sen’s capability approach, considering social exclusion as the denial of social relations that leads to serious deprivation of important capabilities. A person’s capabilities could potentially be improved through micro-, meso-, and macro-level social processes. At the micro level, sport-based social inclusion programmes could offer such social relations to varying degrees, though sport’s values are only relative to other leisure activities. The scale of impact depends primarily on the meso-level processes, in which the size and quality of each programme can be improved through organisational learning, and secondarily on the macro-level processes whereby the organisational population is institutionalised. It is argued that more research needs to be done on the meso and macro levels, as they are concerned with the ultimate potential of sport to facilitate structural transformation towards more socially inclusive society.

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.

The Social Relations of Anywhere Working

2017 ◽  
pp. 22-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Berrell
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
Work Spaces ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Traditional Work

The idea of anywhere working provides opportunities to utilize non-traditional work spaces and new employment relationships. However, the new employment relationships ensuing from the work practice have implications for both employees and employers. While thinking about the nature of anywhere working tends to focus on macro-level issues and micro-level practices, the social relations of anywhere working is a peripheral concern. This chapter reviews some of the images and meanings attached to work through the ages. Subsequently, the dominant ideas in the anywhere working literature emerge as employee centric, employer centric and technology centric themes. The notion of a sociological paradigm frames the discussion and analysis of anywhere working in its broadest context. Given its rapid spread, anywhere working may be represented as a watershed in employment relations and work practices. In this light, new ways of thinking about the social relations and the nature of work itself are required.

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.

scholarly journals Alleviation or Politicization of Poverty in Africa? A Critique of Nigeria’s Social Investments Programs under Buhari-led Administration, 2015-2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-231
Author(s):  
Anthony Chinedu Ugwu ◽  
Dr. Al Chukwuma Okoli
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
National Development ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Wealth Creation ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The Social ◽  
Local Politicians ◽  
Balance Of Trade ◽  
Micro Level

The study interrogates the politics of poverty alleviation amidst the prevalence of poverty in Africa, focusing on Nigeria. Nigeria currently ranks among the poor countries in the world. While many studies have examined aspects of poverty mitigation within the national development frameworks, the politics underlying such endeavors have been under-explored. This study narrows this gap by investigating how politicians bastardize social investment programs through tokenish material 'hand-outs' designed to serve immediate political ends. The study is based on textual and contextual analysis of secondary sources, as complemented by corroborated anecdotes. Appropriating Marxian production theory, the study posits that the prevalence of poverty in Africa has been occasioned by macro and micro-level politics. At the macro-level, the balance of trade cum balance of payment asymmetries has reproduced conditions that perpetuate dependency and underdevelopment in the developing countries in general and Nigeria in particular. At the micro-level, local politicians trivialize social investments by exploiting the poverty situation of the populace for electoral gains through ad hoc material 'hand-outs.' This has weakened the social investment policy environment and alienated the citizenry in decision-making concerning wealth creation, distribution, and social investments priorities. The study recommends mainstreaming social investment governance into national development programing for sustainability.

The Roots of a Crisis: Marx, Sen, and the Capability Deprivation of the Left Behind

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-289
Author(s):  
V. P. J. Arponen
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
The West ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
The Social ◽  
Job Polarization ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
Capability Deprivation ◽  
Sen’S Capability Approach

The emergence of the two great late modern crises—economic and environmental—has prompted calls for a return to Marx. This article describes a Marxian account of the 2008 economic crisis relating it to the phenomena of job polarization, de-industrialization, the decline of the middle class, and political populism in Europe and elsewhere. These are argued to spring from political mobilization due to certain kinds of capability deprivations as understood in Amartya Sen’s capability approach. The article demonstrates the continued relevance of Marx for philosophy of the social sciences as well as for a better understanding of the future challenge of maintaining societal stability in the West.

Ask rather than assume: the capability approach in the practitioner setting1

2019 ◽  
pp. 107-124
Author(s):  
Jana Javornik ◽  
Mara A. Yerkes ◽  
Erik Jansen
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Features ◽  
The Capability Approach

This chapter investigates the relationships between science and society, in particular social policy 'practice', by consulting the social policy actors (i.e. researchers, professionals and practitioners who deal with or implement diverse policy decisions). The purpose of the chapter is to develop our innovative communication initiative, in which we engaged with social policy professionals and practitioners in a two-way, mutually enriching theory-practice dialogue. Using the capability approach as an analytical lens hereallows for a fresh look at social policy implementation and delivery and helps to better understand how social policies in their entirety play out in different contexts. The historical and political contexts of social policies and people's different needs and values, the cornerstone of the CA, are increasingly recognised by policy practitioners and professionals who have first-hand experience with policy delivery or application at the local level. This chapter demonstrates that their experience with multiple access and eligibility-related issues on the ground sheds new light on the applicability of the CA, and how this approach may help to identify key features grounded in local knowledge, be it around social policy design, delivery or implementation.

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.

scholarly journals The family accompaniment of persons with dementia seen through the lens of the capability approach

Dementia ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Le Galès ◽  
Martine Bungener
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The Past ◽  
People With Dementia ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Person With Dementia ◽  
The Capability Approach

Using the capability approach initially developed by A Sen as a theoretical framework, this paper analyses both what people with dementia and their families do in response to difficulties in their daily life brought about by the disease, and the reasons they give for acting as they do. Individual and collective interviews and ethnographic observations with 15 persons with dementia and one or more of their family members were conducted. Follow-up interviews were possible for nine families. Results highlight a great diversity in ways of doing things and in accompaniment by family members. Daily adjustments are often hidden or minimized, at least at the onset of the dementia. Later, they become more frequent, repetitive and indispensable but remain influenced by the social and gender roles that existed prior to the illness. The inventiveness of families, in a context marked by various kinds of constraints, is primarily motivated by their desire to maintain the apparently intact abilities of the person with dementia but especially to preserve forms of liberty and what counted for the person, what that person valued before the disease. There are some ways of living with dementia, even when accompanied, which may long remain preferable to others, which better answer to the past and present aspirations of persons with dementia and the purposes of the accompanying persons. It is thus essential that health professionals, as well as society in general, recognize and address this issue.

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