No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
The Capability Approach: A Theoretical Survey
Abstract
This paper aims to present a theoretical survey of the capability approach in an interdisciplinary and accessible way. It focuses on the main conceptual and theoretical aspects of the capability approach, as developed by Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum, and others. The capability approach is a broad normative framework for the evaluation and assessment of individual well-being and social arrangements, the design of policies, and proposals about social change in society. Its main characteristics are its highly interdisciplinary character, and the focus on the plural or multidimensional aspects of well-being. The approach highlights the difference between means and ends, and between substantive freedoms (capabilities) and outcomes (achieved functionings).
... Another key issue relates to the question as to what sort of functionings are, in fact, of value such, that they should, in principle, be within reach of every member of a society, and how this should be established. For these and related reasons, the CA has by some been dismissed as an interesting, but unworkable idea (see Robeyns, 2005). In an interview with Ingrid Robeyns, responding to the critique of the impracticality of the CA, Sen recounted the parable of the man who had lost his keys during a walk in the night, looking for them in the light of a lamppost. ...
... Clearly, (monitoring and) assessing the impact of a program or intervention on the capability of its target audience requires some form of operationalization of the capability concept. Some of the difficulties that are associated with this task have been previously recognized (Robeyns, , 2005. Here, we will focus on four such operational challenges associated with assessing impact of interventions or programs on recipients' capability. ...
... A third approach that capability impact researchers can take is to identify and explore the possibility conditions for specific capabilities in a particular context (Robeyns, 2005). When, for instance, cycling has been identified as a specific type of doing that people ought to be capable of, possibility conditions would include the presence of certain motor and sensory capacities on the part of an individual, having a bicycle at one's disposal, the presence of safe cycle paths, etc. ...
Het doel van dit proefschrift was om erachter te komen wat we te weten kunnen komen als je met de capability benadering gaat kijken hoe het met mensen gaat. Een situatie waarin het moeilijk vast te stellen blijkt hoe goed het met iemand gaat, is wanneer iemand ernstig gehoorverlies heeft en hoortoestellen of een CI draagt. Dat komt doordat de apparaten niet altijd goed zichtbaar zijn en de meeste apparaten (gelukkig) zo goed werken dat het gehoor dicht in de buurt van normaalhorende mensen komt. Dit betekent echter niet dat er geen grote impact op het leven kan zijn. De taalontwikkeling kan gestoord zijn, iemand kan zich geïsoleerd voelen, of iemand kan minder goed aan werk komen. Het doel en de verantwoordelijkheid van zorg is om de capability van deze mensen te waarborgen. In dit proefschrift zijn kinderen en (jong)volwassenen met hoortoestellen en CI’s de mensen waar we de capability van proberen te meten.
... CA furthermore foregrounds well-being outcomes and quality of life improvements as measures of transformation. Through the CA, Sen and others have developed an evaluative framework for quality-of-life assessments (Robeyns 2005;Sen 1999). These measures helped us to evaluate transformation among women traders' micro trading businesses, as we outline below in relation to our research findings. ...
... While ST helped us to understand how the social world is interwoven within societal structures and human agency, the CA helped to illuminate (and assess) the human development practice of enhancing the social world. As an evaluative framework, the CA gauges poverty, inequality and quality of life (Robeyns 2005). Quality of life assessments focus on how development projects impact on the poor in relation to achieving well-being outcomes such as getting nourishment, and gaining confidence and autonomy in decision-making (Sen 1999). ...
... Another advantage of working with the CA is that it does not specify or prioritise certain capabilities over others; rather, it allows the poor and marginalised to determine for themselves what they perceive as valuable capabilities. Thus, Sen has subjected this endeavour of developing a rank of capabilities to inclusive democratic processes and social choice procedures (Robeyns 2005(Robeyns , 2006. For the women traders, their narratives illuminated how trading activities improved aspects of their lives and which improvements they perceived as more valuable (Mpofu-Mketwa 2020). ...
Grafting selected elements into a primary theory from another theoretical approach can sometimes enhance the theoretical framework to facilitate more refined data analysis. Because of the possible risks of theoretical fragmentation that may result from incorporating elements of different theories into a single framework, we opted for grafting selected elements of one theory into our primary theory, to carefully retain the logical coherence of the main theory. In this paper, we draw on a study of isiXhosa-speaking women traders in Cape Town's Langa Township (hereafter referred as Langa) to argue that grafting elements of Sen's capability approach (CA) into Giddens's structuration theory (ST) enhanced our theoretical framework. This improved the quality of our analysis and enabled us to generate more nuanced findings. Our qualitative study with 25 African women traders investigated how these women exercised agency in responding to structural constraints and opportunities that affected their trading businesses. We used participant observation and in-depth interviews to collect data. Sen's CA (grounded in social justice) expanded on Giddens's notion of structures as constraining and enabling. For this aspect of our theoretical framework, CA informed by Sen's research on women's empowerment projects amplified the intersection of gender, class and race constraints that affected the women traders. Furthermore, CA's emphasis on quality of life and well-being outcomes was useful in helping us assess the transformative capacity of the women traders' agency. This dimension complemented Giddens's ST and therefore our theoretical framework was enhanced by grafting in these elements from Sen's CA.
... El enfoque de capacidades no es una teoría que explica la pobreza, la desigualdad o el bienestar. Se trata de un marco para conceptualizar y evaluar estos fenómenos (Robeyns, 2005(Robeyns, , 2017. ...
... En la Tabla 5 se muestra esta dinámica a lo largo del tiempo, agrupados por periodos en los cuales se mantuvieron vigentes los lineamientos para la acreditación institucional y de programas, e identificando el número y las características asociadas a cada uno de ellos. Periodo 1998-2005Periodo 2006-2012Periodo 2013-20202021 No. de características (5 ...
... Así, algunos ejemplos de capacidades consisten en la oportunidad de votar, de participar en un debate, de donar dinero, y la liberta de expresión(Robeyns, 2017).En cuanto a los funcionamientos, "estos representan partes del estado de una persona, las cosas que logra hacer o ser al vivir (combinación de varios quehaceres y seres)" (Fraile Pascual, 2023). La distinción entre funcionamientos y capacidades está entre lo realizado y la posibilidad efectiva de ser o hacer algo; en otras palabras, entre logros o resultados, por un lado, y libertades u oportunidades entre las que se puede elegir, por otro(Robeyns, 2005(Robeyns, , 2017. Por ejemplo, si se tiene la posibilidad de votar en unas elecciones (capacidad), votar (ejercer el derecho al voto) se convierte en su respectivo funcionamiento. ...
Además de centrarse en aspectos técnicos y profesionales, la formación debe contribuir al desarrollo de habilidades, intereses, aptitudes y capacidades. Este estudio analítico con diseño documental, evolutivo, transversal y contemporáneo abarcó el periodo 1998 a 2021. Tuvo como objetivos: realizar un análisis de la evolución de los lineamientos de bienestar universitario en Colombia, tomando como referente su marco normativo estructurado bajo el enfoque de capacidades, generando un diferencial respecto a otras investigaciones; y profundizar en el aporte de este enfoque al desarrollo integral de la comunidad beneficiaria, para que las actuaciones en materia de bienestar motiven una renovada implementación, difusión y mejoramiento que trascienda el cumplimiento de requisitos. En los resultados, se encontró que los programas de bienestar deben ser pertinentes a las necesidades de la comunidad académica, orientados hacia el desarrollo humano, el mejoramiento de la calidad de vida y enmarcados en principios de pluralismo, diversidad e inclusión, que favorezcan la autorrealización y ampliación de oportunidades. Se concluye que el desarrollo de capacidades y las dimensiones del ser humano permiten alcanzar funcionamientos valiosos que fortalecen el proyecto de vida, dan sentido y plenitud a este y, por tanto, deben ser un tema central en el factor bienestar.
... Tais aspectos também tornam o saneamento básico um tema importante ao debate sobre o desenvolvimento humano. Este, segundo Amartya Sen e Martha Nussbaum, deve ser entendido simplificadamente como o processo de extinções de privações à liberdade (SEN, 2000(SEN, , 2001NUSSBAUM, 2011;ROBEYNS, 2005). ...
... A seletividade é justificada pela cultura técnica da burocracia, que pode considerar que as prioridades estatais devem refletir a estrutura social ou pela busca de apoio político e oportunidades eleitorais pelos governantes, que privilegiariam certos grupos devido à maior influência no processo eleitoral. Defende-se, ainda, que a seletividade pode ser espacial, priorizando certas áreas que, ao se valorizarem, fazem com que os "mais pobres" se desloquem a locais sem cobertura (FIZSON, 1990;AMES, 1995;GRADSTEIN;JUSTMAN, 1999;MARQUES, 2000;BICHIR, 2009;OLIVEIRA, SAIANI, 2021 A hipótese testada é a de que os "mais pobres", por terem menos conhecimento e poder aquisitivo para a adoção de ações alternativas, como de higiene pessoal, e maiores deficiências nutricionais que os tornam fisicamente mais vulneráveis, seriam mais suscetíveis às enfermidades relacionadas ao saneamento (WAXLER et al., 1985;HELER, 1997 educação básica e incentivo e aperfeiçoamento de iniciativas (SEN, 1980(SEN, , 1996(SEN, , 2000(SEN, , 2001NUSSBAUM, 2011;ROBEYNS, 2005). ...
... Por efeitos aleatórios, as regressões são feitas por Mínimos Quadrados Generalizados (MQG), assumindo 6 Grosso modo, capacitações são combinações de funcionamentos, entendidos como quaisquer estados e ações valorizados pelas pessoas por lhes gerarem bem-estar (qualidade de vida). As capacidades para realizar funcionamentos são liberdadesoportunidades reais ou substantivas para obter bem-estar (SEN, 1996(SEN, , 2000(SEN, , 2001NUSSBAUM, 2011;ROBEYNS, 2005). 7 Os efeitos fixos podem ser controlados por dummies para cada município ou, como é feito no presente estudo, pelo estimador Withinvariáveis de cada município inseridas como desvios em relação às suas respectivas médias (BALTAGI, 2001 (BRISCOE, 1985(BRISCOE, , 1987. ...
... Moreover, Robeyns (2005) elucidated this methodology as a means to assess policies by considering their influence on individuals' capabilities. Additionally Sen (1985Sen ( , 2002 characterized capabilities as freedoms seen as tangible opportunities, setting his perspective apart from earlier authors. ...
... Furthermore, excellent health and its link to CA highlight the capacity to live by a particular set of values. Moreover, according to Robeyns (2005), this method makes it easier to assess policies in terms of how they affect people's capabilities. ...
... The measurable objectives are commonly accounted for, whereas the self-accomplished characters are overlooked (Sen, 2002). Furthermore, Robeyns (2005) stated the significance of pragmatic considerations when analyzing capacities and functions in health. As an example, the concrete chance of attaining a specific level of health (capabilities) or the achieved level of health (functionings). ...
Indonesia currently holds the position of the fourth most populous country globally, facing persistent challenges such as poverty, hunger, gender inequality, and disparity. In response, a family planning program was initiated in the 1980s to regulate population growth. Using the capability approach, this research investigates the impact of Indonesia's family planning policy on women, emphasizing gender disparity resulting from inadequate support for human rights in population and family development. Conversion factors play a significant role in shaping women's freedom and capabilities. The study critically examines the strengths and weaknesses of the family planning policy, revealing obstacles for women related to governance shifts, conflicting policies, government inefficiencies, and BKKBN's limitations. The study underscores the importance of effective implementation across all sectors and agencies to address gender inequality in women's health
... The Capability Approach has several advantages over Rawslian models (Vaughan, 2007;Walker & Unterhalter, 2007). It adopts a broader understanding of equity than resource-based models, as capabilities are inherently pluralistic (Flores-Crespo, 2007;Nussbaum, 2011;Robeyns, 2005). The distinction between capabilities and functionings captures choice, and it includes the differing potential that individuals have to convert resources into capabilities via conversion factors (Liu, 2011;Vaughan, 2007;Wilson-Strydom, 2015). ...
... Even if redistributive finance is available to disadvantaged groups, individuals may still experience barriers accessing that finance, or the finance may not be sufficient to overcome other structural aspects of disadvantage (Msigwa, 2016;Wilson-Strydom, 2015). The Capability Approach also respects diversity of personal and socio-environmental influences via conversion factors and individual choice but does not encapsulate aspects such as procedural justice (Robeyns, 2005). ...
... Theo and Ayesha's achievements (functionings) are seen as equivalent when calculating the gap, but their differential capability to achieve is not reflected. The gap also ignores individual and socioenvironmental influences expressed through personal choice (Robeyns, 2005). Theo's social privilege gives him the freedom to choose sport over studying. ...
Equity is increasingly seen as a core value for higher education systems around the world. (In)equity is often measured through construction of achievement gaps, quantifying the relative outcomes of two populations of students. Institution-level gaps are embedded in the policy landscape of HE, becoming performance metrics in their own right. These gap metrics increasingly inform the actions of governments, regulators, institutions and educators. This theoretical article scrutinises the technical and conceptual construction of achievement gaps through using the dominant UK conception of the institution level degree classification ‘awarding gap’. Drawing on Adam’s Equity Theory of Motivation, Rawls’s Distributive Justice and the Capability Approach as theoretical perspectives, I highlight multiple structural weaknesses in the conception of the awarding gap. I illustrate the implications of this metric by analysing simulated awarding gap data for a fictional institution, and through the perspectives of five idealised stakeholders. I identify multiple technical and theoretical limitations of the institution level awarding gap metric, including examples where the threshold-based nature of the awarding gap fails to capture statistical differences between groups, thereby undermining its utility in identifying inequity. I call on the sector to develop metrics that more accurately capture (in)equity of outcomes and align better with theoretical frameworks, thereby creating more powerful explanatory metrics that can inform meaningful action.
... Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum are credited as being the pioneers of the Capability Approach, which places an emphasis on the skills and capacities of people (Alkire, 2005;Robeyns, 2005). This theory is consistent with the Feminist Empowerment Theory because it places an emphasis on the significance of agency, functioning, and the transformation of resources into results that are of value (Alkire, 2005;Robeyns, 2005). ...
... Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum are credited as being the pioneers of the Capability Approach, which places an emphasis on the skills and capacities of people (Alkire, 2005;Robeyns, 2005). This theory is consistent with the Feminist Empowerment Theory because it places an emphasis on the significance of agency, functioning, and the transformation of resources into results that are of value (Alkire, 2005;Robeyns, 2005). ...
This chapter explores the dynamic intersection of women's empowerment and social enterprise as a powerful catalyst for positive societal transformation. As the world grapples with persistent gender disparities, innovative approaches are essential to create opportunities for women to thrive economically , socially, and personally. Social enterprises, with their unique blend of purpose-driven missions and sustainable business models, emerge as a promising avenue to address these challenges. The chapter begins by delving into the theoretical framework of women's empowerment. It then transitions into a review of case studies and real-world examples; the chapter illustrates the transformative impact of social enterprises on women's lives. These enterprises not only provide economic opportunities through skills development, employment, and entrepreneurship but also contribute to the creation of supportive ecosystems that foster self-esteem, leadership, and community engagement.
... Here the FBO focuses on what people are capable of doing and the kind of lives people value which agree with the CA vision. However, as established in literature (Robeyns 2005;Çakmak 2010), the CA has been criticised for being too individualistic and thus unable to deal with shared values. Hence, in this established role of the FBO in relation to the values of the host community the question remains: what is the process through which the FBO and the community arrive at shared values? ...
... Notably, activities are chosen and directed with community partners' participation. This agrees with a CA understanding (Kallhoff & Schlick 2001;Sen 2003;Robeyns 2005;Mooney 2005) of involving recipients of developmental aid in the strategies established by agents. In this, capability building efforts become a communitarian project and there is no incidence of violating individual autonomy, which is a negative aspect of paternalist agency (Salvat 2014). ...
Post-apartheid governments in South Africa have, through many strategies, tried to curb poverty and underdevelopment in the country. Despite some success stories, certain areas of the country still experience serious cases of poverty and underdevelopment. In the KwaZulu-Natal Province, poverty, inequality, unemployment and decrepit social services system constitute the main challenges to be tackled by the government. When state agents fall short in delivering poverty alleviation and development measures, non-state actors like FBOs sometimes assume the position of providing the necessary public goods to society. Hence, the role that FBOs play in liberal democracies, and how they can possibly help in poverty alleviation and human development, have taken centre stage in scholarly discussions on the politics of the state. Against this backdrop, this study adopts qualitative empirical methods and Sen's Capability Approach as an evaluative framework to assess the role that two FBOs, one Muslim and one Christian, play and the strategies they use in poverty alleviation and human development in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. The study's analysis finds that these two FBOs do benefit aid recipients, but that they also (like other NGOs) practice varying forms of paternalism. Further research on these and other FBOs is necessary for a more sustained analysis of the whether and how the CA approach can provide a complete picture of aid recipients' well-being.
... 124 See Robeyns (2005, p. 93) and the references therein. 125 Some basic references can also be found in Basu and Lopez-Calva (2011), and the already-mentioned Alkire (2002) and Robeyns (2005), among others. 126 See Foster and Sen (1997, pp. ...
... This idea of capabilities has been formalized and surveyed by various authors, so a good account can be found inRobeyns (2005). ...
This book explores the philosophical foundations of what we today understand as “justice”. Here we understand the present tendency in the world to see everything as a class struggle, yet the lack of effectiveness of that view in social arrangements, and for that, a renewed Jewish perspective is offered instead. The book argues that the classical understanding of equality as justice is tainted by an anti-Semitic portrayal of richness, which is completely rejected here. From an economic methodology perspective, it discusses how our present Hellenic view of equality does not do much to help those in need, and proposes a new mechanism of poverty alleviation based on generalized responsibility to help vulnerable neighbors, such as orphans, widows, aliens, the elderly, the sick and the oppressed, then putting the ordinary citizen at the center of social responsibility.
... We adopt a micro-level perspective to study mechanisms through which high-growth firms create or destroy value for their stakeholders. We ground our study in the broader literature on corporate social responsibility and conceptualize value along the lines of Ali and Cottle's (2021) stakeholder capability framework, combining insights from stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984) and the capability approach (Robeyns, 2005;Sen, 1999). Our research question is twofold: through which mechanisms do high-growth firms create and destroy value for their stakeholders and what role does firm growth play in this process? ...
... Essentially, the capability approach is about the extent to which people have the ability to live a life they deem worth living (Robeyns, 2005). The capability approach distinguishes between what people can do (capabilities) and what they actually do (functionings) (Robeyns, 2017 To apply the capability theory to value creation by firms, it is useful to think through the lens of stakeholder capabilities proposed by Ali and Cottle (2021). ...
High-growth firms are known to contribute extraordinarily to economic growth and job creation, but concerns have been raised about their exclusionary focus on creating shareholder value. This paper adopts a stakeholder capability perspective to investigate social value creation by high-growth firms. Interviews with founders and CEOs of high-growth firms in the Netherlands provide insight into the mechanisms through which these firms create and destroy value for their stakeholders. We find that the rapid growth these firms experience can be a driver of some unique growth-related value creation mechanisms and serves as an amplifier of more general value creation mechanisms. The value creation of high-growth firms is shaped by certain firm attributes. This results in a typology of high-growth firms from a stakeholder value perspective, indicating three types: profit-driven high-growth firms, conscious high-growth firms, and mission-driven high-growth firms. While rapid growth presents firms with unique challenges and trade-offs between stakeholders, we argue that, if directed well, it also creates opportunities to substantially increase their social value creation. The heterogeneity of high-growth firms with respect to stakeholder value creation raises the question whether targeting high-growth firms in general is good entrepreneurship policy.
... The effective use of mobile phones could be seen as part of an individual's capability set: enabling a person to take advantage of other resources to further their valued goals in life (Sen, 2010). However, this process depends on the presence of certain personal, social, and environmental conversion factors, which enable a person to transform a resource such as a mobile phone into capabilities, which may then be realized to achieve functionings (realized achievements and fulªlled expectations; Robeyns, 2005). The approach has strong links with feminist scholarship: Nussbaum suggests the approach is particularly wellsuited to approach issues of gender justice in that it allows us to understand how women may display adaptive preferences by making choices about their lives which do not maximize their wellbeing, but are adjusted to their lack of status in society and to traditional norms and opportunities (2003). ...
... For the women who were homeless or socially isolated because they were at home with small children, their mobile phones were a vital means of accessing emotional and social support. Within the theoretical framework of the capability approach, mobile phones can be seen as part of the "resources" that might affect respondents' capabilities to lead lives they valued, but different conversion factors affected this process (Robeyns, 2005). These conversion factors are typically categorized as personal (e.g., skills, intelligence), social (e.g., public policies, social norms, discriminatory practices, gender roles), and environmental (e.g., climate, geographical location). ...
Background
The use of mobile technologies in fostering health promotion and healthy behaviors is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon in global health programs. Although mobile technologies have been effective in health promotion initiatives and follow-up research in higher-income countries and concerns have been raised within clinical practice and research in low- and middle-income settings, there is a lack of literature that has qualitatively explored the challenges that participants experience in terms of being contactable through mobile technologies.
Objective
This study aims to explore the challenges that participants experience in terms of being contactable through mobile technologies in a trial conducted in Soweto, South Africa.
Methods
A convergent parallel mixed methods research design was used. In the quantitative phase, 363 young women in the age cohorts 18 to 28 years were contacted telephonically between August 2019 and January 2022 to have a session delivered to them or to be booked for a session. Call attempts initiated by the study team were restricted to only 1 call attempt, and participants who were reached at the first call attempt were classified as contactable (189/363, 52.1%), whereas those whom the study team failed to contact were classified as hard to reach (174/363, 47.9%). Two outcomes of interest in the quantitative phase were “contactability of the participants” and “participants’ mobile number changes,” and these outcomes were analyzed at a univariate and bivariate level using descriptive statistics and a 2-way contingency table. In the qualitative phase, a subsample of young women (20 who were part of the trial for ≥12 months) participated in in-depth interviews and were recruited using a convenience sampling method. A reflexive thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the data using MAXQDA software (version 20; VERBI GmbH).
Results
Of the 363 trial participants, 174 (47.9%) were hard to reach telephonically, whereas approximately 189 (52.1%) were easy to reach telephonically. Most participants (133/243, 54.7%) who were contactable did not change their mobile number. The highest percentage of mobile number changes was observed among participants who were hard to reach, with three-quarters of the participants (12/16, 75%) being reported to have changed their mobile number ≥2 times. Eight themes were generated following the analysis of the transcripts, which provided an in-depth account of the reasons why some participants were hard to reach. These included mobile technical issues, coverage issues, lack of ownership of personal cell phones, and unregistered number.
Conclusions
Remote data collection remains an important tool in public health research. It could, thus, serve as a hugely beneficial mechanism in connecting with participants while actively leveraging the established relationships with participants or community-based organizations to deliver health promotion and practice.
... Le varie combinazioni di funzionamenti che sono alla portata di una persona possono essere descritte come le varie prospettive di vita che le si aprono, il suo capability set: le capacità di una persona indicano la sua libertà di scegliere di condurre una vita cui essa attribuisce valore. Ci sono molte combinazioni di funzionamenti ottenibili per una persona che costituiscono la sua libertà di star bene, mentre l'unica opzione che l'individuo sceglie è il suo well-being achievement 2 . 1 Sen non provvede a fornire una lista generale dei funzionamenti da usare nelle analisi di well-being, ma insiste piuttosto sul selezionare i funzionamenti di volta in volta in funzione del contesto, per poter rispettare le varie concezioni individuali nella vita buona (Robeyns, 2005). 2 C'è un aspetto importante della libertà che è stato spesso trascurato da chi si è concentrato solo sull'aspetto processuale (Sen, 1982, pp. ...
https://series.francoangeli.it/index.php/oa/catalog/book/1147
... Sen's 29 capability approach emphasizes the importance of capability and access for development, framing financial inclusion as a mechanism for augmenting individual capabilities and choices, which aligns with the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). This perspective is further supported by the work of Robeyns 49 , who argues that the capability approach provides a comprehensive framework for assessing gender inequalities and their impact on development outcomes. However, the application of these theoretical frameworks to the study of gender disparities in financial inclusion in the specific context of Pakistan remains limited. ...
This study investigates the determinants of gender disparities in financial inclusion in Pakistan using Global Findex 2021 survey data. We aim to quantify gender gaps in financial access and use, and to analyze the socio-economic factors influencing these disparities. Grounded in Sen’s capability approach and behavioral economics, we employ logistic regression to examine how gender influences the ownership and usage of financial products. Our results reveal significant gender gaps: only 13% of Pakistani women have financial accounts compared to 34% of men, with similar disparities in digital finance. Socio-economic variables like education, income, and employment are found to influence financial inclusion differently for men and women. While generally supportive of financial inclusion, these factors have a weaker effect for women, suggesting deeper societal barriers. This study adds to the global financial inclusion discourse by providing a comprehensive analysis of gender disparities in Pakistan. Our findings highlight the need for gender-sensitive policies that address these disparities to achieve Sustainable Development Goals related to gender equality and economic empowerment.
... Ainsi, il s'oppose au marché externe régi par la confrontation de l'o re et de la demande de travail. DOSSIER À la suite de Robeyns (2005), on distingue trois types de facteurs de conversion (ou d'obstruction selon le cas). Les facteurs personnels renvoient aux caractéristiques des individus (sexe, niveau de formation…) ; les facteurs sociaux renvoient à l'origine sociale et plus largement au contexte socio-politique et culturel ; les facteurs environnementaux concernent les opportunités/contraintes géographiques et institutionnelles (taux de chômage territorial, interactions avec les acteurs ou actrices de la politique de l'emploi …). ...
Cet article éclaire la manière dont l’expression d’une aspiration individuelle à changer de métier émerge pour les jeunes les moins qualifié·es (ayant au plus un baccalauréat) en début de parcours et dans quelle mesure cette aspiration pourrait jouer un rôle sur les changements effectifs de métier. À partir de l’enquête Génération 2010 du Céreq à sept ans, on montre qu’elle est importante dès les premières années de vie active, puisqu’elle concerne 40 % de ces jeunes, mais qu’elle ne se transforme en réalisation effective que pour les jeunes les plus doté·es, à la fois scolairement et professionnellement. Les jeunes sans titres scolaires ont une moindre propension à aspirer, et lorsque celle-ci s’exprime, elle ne se réalise que pour celles et ceux déjà en emploi qualifié.
... In this study, COVID-19-induced learning loss negatively impacts rural English FAL learners' well-being and hampers their academic development. It also focuses on personal, social, and environmental conversion factors to address challenges facing human well-being (Robeyns, 2005). Moreover, this approach allows people to use their abilities and resources to achieve the desired outcomes (Voget-Kleschin, 2013;Heckman & Corbin, 2016). ...
In the post-pandemic era, the ongoing discourses are centered around finding innovative ways to sustain teaching and learning as well as reversing COVID-19-induced learning loss, especially in critical areas, such as reading in English First Additional Language (FAL). As a contribution to these discourses, the current study explored how teachers prepared rural English FAL learners for self-directed learning to mitigate COVID-19-induced learning loss and to sustain learning in the 'new normal'. The study followed a qualitative approach and adopted phenomenology as a research design, while the Capability Approach was used for theoretical framing. Three teachers of English FAL in one primary school were conveniently selected to participate in the semi-structured focus-group interviews. A thematic analysis revealed that teachers prepared English FAL learners to use self-directed learning by apprising learners of their active role in learning English FAL, identifying learners' weaknesses, strengthening the home-school connection, and encouraging collaboration and problem-solving. These findings imply that self-directed learning could be a useful strategy for mitigating COVID-19-induced learning loss and improving reading skills in rural primary schools.
... A narrow body of literature has explored GI cooling service impact on human wellbeing grounded in the capability approach (Sen, 1999), which is evidenced as one of the most effective ways conceptualising the wellbeing impacts of nature both on theoretical and practical grounds ( Fig. 1) (Sangha et al., 2018;Chaigneau et al., 2019). First, goods and services are of interest to wellbeing as their characteristic enable people to obtain certain functions (Robeyns, 2005), of which GI for UHI mitigation effect is our focus, entered as the capability inputs. The aesthetic value, opportunities for recreation, relief from stress and anxiety, offered by GI relaxing residents, especially for urban dwellers, are entered as the capability inputs as well. ...
... In contrast to the positive psychological theory of well-being, the capabilities approach 'calls attention to the objective circumstances of a person's life' , and identifies an individual's opportunities, freedom, and agency -i.e. capabilities -to do and to be what they truly value as indispensable for the living of a good life (Choo 2018;Crosbie 2014;Giovanola 2005;Koggel 2013;Nussbaum 2011;Robeyns 2005;Sen 1999Sen , 2005Wilson-Strydom and Walker 2015, p. 313). It is an information pluralist approach where capabilities represent a set of alternatives of what one could desire to do and to be (Anand et al. 2005), and it '[favours] the creation of conditions in which people have real opportunities of judging the kind of lives they would like to lead' (Sen 1999, p. 63). ...
... Both Lee's model of migration and the CA focus on human mobility and comprise key elements that are linked to this study. The Capability Approach is a broad normative framework for evaluating individual well-being, social change and arrangements in society (Robeyns, 2005). Besides, this framework gives several reasons why an individual could be hindered from attaining desired goals and aspirations. ...
... To define the capabilities, they first introduced the concepts of the functioning of individuals, which refer to doings(activities) and beings (states) that individuals find valuable to do or achieve. Doings (or activities) may include eating, drinking, going to the hospital, working, etc., and beings (or states) may include staying healthy, staying safe, staying happy, etc. Capabilities thus describe the genuine opportunities or freedom open to individuals to achieve functioning (activities and states), depending on the individuals' available resources, characteristics, and social and environmental conversion factors [66]. An individual's capability is a collection of functioning under certain conditions; the greater the individual's capability, meaning that more activities in the collection can be achieved, the greater the freedom of choice of life (functionings) available to the individual, and further the greater the well-being. ...
Infrastructure systems play a critical role in providing essential products and services for the functioning of modern society; however, they are vulnerable to disasters and their service disruptions can cause severe societal impacts. To protect infrastructure from disasters and reduce potential impacts, great achievements have been made in modeling interdependent infrastructure systems in past decades. In recent years, scholars have gradually shifted their research focus to understanding and modeling societal impacts of disruptions considering the fact that infrastructure systems are critical because of their role in societal functioning, especially under situations of modern societies. Exploring how infrastructure disruptions impair society to enhance resilient city has become a key field of study. By comprehensively reviewing relevant studies, this paper demonstrated the definition and types of societal impact of infrastructure disruptions, and summarized the modeling approaches into four types: extended infrastructure modeling approaches, empirical approaches, agent-based approaches, and big data-driven approaches. For each approach, this paper organized relevant literature in terms of modeling ideas, advantages, and disadvantages. Furthermore, the four approaches were compared according to several criteria, including the input data, types of societal impact, and application scope. Finally, this paper illustrated the challenges and future research directions in the field.
... Concepts of food security and food sovereignty have changed significantly; in the cold-war era, food sovereignty, food self-sufficiency, and food security were understood as synonyms (p. 2, Neilson 2017). Amartya Sen later added the notion of capabilities (Robeyns 2005), ...
Commercialization of land and agriculture is part of ongoing processes of rural transformation to which smallholders globally have to adapt. As food is fundamental for nutrition and almost all aspects of rural life, adapting food-related practices is at the core of this agrarian transition. Using a mixed-methods approach focusing on household interviews held in Kratie and Kampong Thom, Cambodia, this dissertation finds that commercialization and interrelated factors of change create a new environment for smallholders to make decisions between new choices regarding the procurement, production, and consumption of food. Making use of their different functions is limited by income, causing a divergence of foodways according to income levels. Income becomes the center of decision-making, changing social structures and institutions of solidarity and sharing. This contributes to increased income inequality. The persistence of such institutions in new practices allows smallholders to soften the restrictive power of income over access to food.
... These factors relate to the differences between people and influence how a person can be, or is, free to convert the characteristics of a given good or service into freedom or achievement. Different authors have proposed different classifications of these conversion factors (Bøhler et al., 2019;Crocker & Robeyns, 2009;Robeyns, 2005). We share the view that their classification should refer to the level they operate on: micro, meso or macro, as this reflects our understanding that participation in lifelong learning and adult education is a layered phenomenon and that taking into account different layers and nested structures allows us to better explain why people do or do not participate in lifelong learning activities (Boeren, 2017). ...
The article uses insights from the capability approach as a theoretical framework. It investigates the potential of higher education to provide fertile advantages regarding young adults’ participation in nonformal education and whether this potential is bounded by people’s individual characteristics and the wider social context in which they live. Applying descriptive statistics and multilevel modelling, we conducted a secondary data analysis of the Adult Education Survey for 29 European countries. The findings go beyond previous research by clearly demonstrating that the fertile advantages of higher education regarding participation in adult nonformal education are not absolute and straightforward. They are bounded not only by certain important individual characteristics (such as individuals’ social background and household income) but are also context-dependent. More concretely, they differ among countries and depend on various country-level factors, such as level of innovation and economic growth.
... The capacities method is utilized to analyze and evaluate different dimensions of an individual's encompassing education, well-being, poverty, inequality, and health. Moreover, this approach can serve as an alternative means to assess the social costs and benefits of various programs, including welfare plans and strategies in developed economies, as well as the development policies implemented by governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in underdeveloped nations (Robeyns, 2005). Regarding to the capabilities perspective, education holds significance both directly and indirectly (Dreze, J., & Sen, A., 2002). ...
This research thesis examines the impact of secondary vocational and higher education on employment rates and wage levels in Uzbekistan. The country was chosen due to its labor market challenges and the need to fully utilize its workforce potential to improve population income. According to “The Statistics Agency under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan,” Uzbekistan has a small working population, with unemployment and part-time employment on the rise and most of the population receiving low pay and experiencing payment delays. These labor market difficulties disproportionately affect vulnerable segments of the population and cause people to face relative poverty. Nevertheless, there is limited literature on employment and wages by educational level in Uzbekistan. To explore the relationships between education, employment, salaries, and relative poverty, the study adopts Amartya Sen's Capability Approach as a theoretical framework. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed, focusing on Fergana Pedagogical College and Fergana State University as case studies, with surveys and interviews conducted among their graduates. According to the study's findings, secondary vocational and higher education demonstrate a positive and negative relationship between employment and wages. The minority of participants agreed that secondary vocational and higher education are linked to higher income, which is one of the most important ways to reduce poverty, and they also agreed that graduates can easily find work in their fields and contribute as good members of society. However, the majority of participants were not satisfied with their salaries, and many of them had extra jobs to cover their monthly expenses fully. Some even did not work in their own field, but earned enough since they opened their businesses, worked abroad, or worked as influencers. The findings and recommendations can inform policymakers, educational institutions, and other stakeholders in devising strategies to improve the outcomes for graduates, reduce poverty rates, and foster economic development in the country. Keywords: Secondary vocational education, higher education, labor market challenges, relative poverty, employment, wages.
... Unfortunately, Sen did not provide a reference to the type of capabilities. Therefore, Nussbaum's list of capabilities helps us to clarify the composition of farmers' capabilities [62]. She considered basic capabilities to be those that individuals are born with, such as gender [63], and intrinsic capabilities to be the stable states of individuals' intelligence, health, and emotions. ...
Exploring the impact of individual capabilities on ecosystem services and farmers’ well-being is conducive to discovering the complex relationship between ESs and human well-being, and has clear practical value for the sustainable management and improvement of farmers’ well-being in ecologically fragile areas in China. An importance–accessibility index of ESs was constructed and the objective well-being and subjective well-being of farmers were assessed. Subsequently, the relationship among capabilities, ESs, and well-being was elucidated based on a structural equation model. The results showed that fruits, pest control, fuelwood, water conservation, and wild food were the ES types that contributed most to farmers’ well-being. There were some similarities and differences between the dimensions of objective and subjective well-being. For example, farmers with adequate leisure time reported higher leisure satisfaction and farmers with relatively adequate income levels reported the lowest income satisfaction. The direct effect of capabilities on ESs and objective well-being was significant, and the direct effect of capabilities on their subjective well-being was not significant. Their capabilities had a significant indirect impact on their objective well-being by influencing ESs and did not have a significant indirect impact on their subjective well-being by influencing ESs; their capabilities had a significant indirect impact on their subjective well-being by influencing the ESs and objective well-being. Physical health, mental health, and agricultural skills were the key types of capabilities that influenced the farmers’ access to ESs and well-being. Improving these capabilities can enable local farmers to more fully access ESs and improve their well-being.
... While some of our health conditions are reliant on natural health dispositions, genetics, and biology, many are largely affected by our actions and behaviors, as well Means to Achieve Freedom to Achieve Achievement Figure 6.1: The capability approach process (adapted from [59], original from [60]). ...
Dietary apps are being used to provide information about the content of one’s diet, the nutritional content of food, and when one should eat it. These apps are said to provide greater empowerment to individuals to gain control over their health, diet, and physical well-being. Self-tracking is set to expand through the use of technologies, such as artificial intelligence(AI), internet-of-things (IoT), and“digital twin” technology (DT). This chapter evaluates a DT project, through the lens of the capability approach, to analyze what capability-related concerns arise in such a project. The main research question we hope to answer is: to what extent does this DT affect individuals’ capabilities to eat healthily? This chapter proposes to use the capability approach to evaluate a DT project. The DT project that we evaluated highlighted a number of key concerns when evaluated through the context of the capability approach, such as that technology teams need to factor in the diversity and different needs of individuals to benefit from these technologies (for example, the individual, social, and environmental conversion factors). The chapter demonstrates to what extent this DT project affects individuals’ capabilities to eat healthily.
... Conversion factors constitute the personal, environmental, and social conditions of everyone's existence. In the original method developed by Sen (1993), Robeyns [15,16], conversion factors are basically social structures in the broadest possible sense. In fact, Sen states that "it is difficult to argue convincingly that individuals in a society can think, choose or act without being conditioned, in one way or another, by the nature and logic of the world in which they live" [21]. ...
The complexity of the contemporary city from an economic, social, cultural, natural, health, environmental point of view and regarding the effects of climate change, poses a problem of urban quality of life for various reasons. New interpretative models must be identified to overcome these new challenges. Measuring the value of urban quality is equivalent to identifying the merit of the city has in producing individual and social well-being. This issue has both conceptual and operational implications. In the field of theoretical approaches to the study of quality of life, the Sen’s capability approach has become relevant. The paper promotes an axiology of the value of urban quality able to grasp the complexity that characterizes living in the contemporary city. Based on the approach to capability, the city can be interpreted as the set of functionings, the urban policies can be interpreted as equipment to expand the capabilities of people living there. Based on capability approach the urban quality can be interpreted as the urban quality of life, that is as a measurement of the capabilities achieved by people who experience the city, in the individual perspective as well-being achievement, in the social perspective as agency achievement. In this regard, the paper proposes an interpretative model and an operational approach aimed at measuring the urban quality of life, to support decision-makers in the policies that encourage the achievement of the capabilities by people who live in the city, producing individual and social well-being.
... Indeed, the current CPHQ represents a combination of health literacy factors combining the ability to communicate with health professionals as well as knowing where to go for medical support and understanding medical information. Also, the importance of political representation has been acknowledged in the Capability Approach of human well-being as political representation is an essential conversion factor for access to healthpromoting resources [33]. ...
Background
The concept of Positive Health (PH) has gained increasing attention as a way of measuring individuals’ ability to adapt in the face of contextual challenges. However, a suitable measurement instrument for PH that encompasses contextual factors has not yet been developed. This paper responds to this need by developing a Context-specific Positive Health (CPH) measurement instrument that aligns with the Capability Approach (CA).
Methods
The measurement instrument was developed and tested among a representative sample of 1002 Dutch internet survey panel members with diverse sociodemographic backgrounds. The instrument was developed in two stages: a preparation phase consisting of focus groups and expert consultations, and a validation among a representative panel of Dutch citizens. The goal of the preparation phase, was to pilot test and refine previously proposed Positive Health questionnaires into an initial version of the CPHQ. The validation phase aimed to examine the initial CPHQ’s factorial validity using Factor Analysis, and its concurrent validity using Multivariate Regression Analysis.
Results
The developed questionnaire demonstrated adequate factorial and concurrent validity. Furthermore, it explicitly includes an assessment of resilience, this being a key component of PH.
Conclusions
The introduced measurement tool, the CPHQ, comprises 11 dimensions that we have labeled as follows: relaxation, autonomy, fitness, perceived environmental safety, exclusion, social support, financial resources, political representation, health literacy, resilience, and enjoyment. In this article, we present four major contributions. Firstly, we embedded the measurement in a theoretical framework. Secondly, we focused the questionnaire on a key concept of Positive Health - the “ability to adapt.” Thirdly, we addressed issues of health inequality by considering contextual factors. Finally, we facilitated the development of more understandable measurement items.
... Este enfoque toma en cuenta, por un lado, los aspectos de la vida de las personas (su estado de salud, su educación, su sentido de pertenencia a la comunidad) y, por otro, lo que esos aspectos les permiten (conseguir un trabajo, formar una familia, ser políticamente activas). En otras palabras, el ec observa la libertad real de las personas para ser o hacer y el nivel de bienestar que alcanzarán al elegir entre las opciones disponibles para ellas (Robeyns, 2005). ...
En todo momento, las personas y sus comunidades deben ser el porqué y el para qué de los proyectos de cooperación internacional para el desarrollo (CID). Velar por su bienestar a través de su empoderamiento y de la ampliación de lo que realmente son capaces de ser y hacer en sus vidas constituye la base para asegurar que las intervenciones de desarrollo sean endógenas, genuinas y sostenibles en quienes buscan favorecer. Para ello, el enfoque de capacidades se presenta como un marco analítico para valorar las transformaciones en la vida de las personas participantes, las libertades que han alcanzado y cómo se ha incrementado su sentido de agencia a partir de su involucramiento en un proyecto de CID. Este manual tiene el propósito de mostrar una aproximación de la aplicación empírica de este enfoque en un proyecto concreto de cooperación técnica internacional, estando dirigido a estudiantes de ciencias sociales, profesionales de la cooperación internacional y el desarrollo, así como a personas funcionarias públicas y de organizaciones de la sociedad civil que busquen valorar de manera más amplia el alcance de los proyectos de CID, incluso más allá de los resultados esperados. Lo anterior puede contribuir a mejorar la calidad de las intervenciones en función de lo que las personas participantes encuentren necesario y valioso para sus vidas.
... Capability Approach: Developed by Amartya Sen and further elaborated by Martha Nussbaum, the capability approach focuses on enhancing individuals' freedoms and opportunities to achieve their desired outcomes. In ICT4D, this framework emphasizes the role of telecommunication in expanding the capabilities of individuals and communities, allowing them to lead lives they value (Frediani, 2010;Robeyns, 2005). ...
This review paper examines the theoretical frameworks for assessing the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on development, focusing on telecommunication infrastructure projects in Africa and the U.S. A comparative analysis highlights the socio-economic and technological disparities between these regions and their implications for telecommunication development. The paper discusses various theoretical frameworks, such as the Digital Divide Theory, Technology Acceptance Model, and Capability Approach, and their applicability to evaluating telecommunication projects. It emphasizes the importance of context-specific strategies, digital literacy, and cross-regional collaboration to enhance the developmental impact of telecommunication infrastructure. The paper concludes with recommendations for policymakers and suggests areas for further research, particularly in developing adaptable frameworks that address regional challenges and opportunities in telecommunication development.
This report describes aspects of the Building Resilience through Inclusive Education
Systems (BRIES) activity, carried out by the European Agency for Special Needs and
Inclusive Education (the Agency). Specifically, the report outlines the methodology of the BRIES peer-learning activities (PLAs) and the theoretical background to the activity’s main output: the BRIES Guidance for Establishing a Culture of Effective Communication in Education (European Agency, 2024). It complements the BRIES mid-term report (European Agency, 2023), which focused in detail on the methodology, processes and results of the BRIES activities that were implemented between May 2022 and February 2023.
This report is divided into two sections: Methodology and Theoretical Background. The latter provides details of the conceptual framework – models and theories – used and processes applied in the activity, specifically for developing the main output (the BRIES Guidance for Establishing a Culture of Effective Communication in Education).
This essay is a commentary on Curren et al., ‘Finding consensus on well-being in education’. It acknowledges a growing international consensus that presents educational systems need to change and argues the case for consensus on flourishing as the overall purpose of education can be strengthened by drawing on economists’ work on well-being with respect to the inclusive wealth of nations. It emphasizes the need for tangible and measurable indicators that educators can use when implementing Curren et al.’s recommendations and outlines the International Science and Evidence based Education assessment’s suggestion of a ‘whole brain’ approach to education for flourishing.
Lo «posmoderno», así como ocurre con otros términos dentro de las ciencias sociales, es un concepto ambiguo, equívoco e, inclusive, contradictorio. Por un lado, puede hacer alusión a un periodo histórico, la posmodernidad, caracterizada por una marcada transformación de las estructuras económicas, sociales y culturales. En efecto, desde mediados del siglo XX, el capitalismo posindustrializado, la revolución tecnológica, la cultura del consumo o la psicología personalista, se han convertido en los nuevos pilares de una sociedad, a su vez, cambiante, inestable y globalizada. Por el otro, puede hacer referencia simultáneamente ya sea a una corriente de pensamiento o a un enfoque analítico, el posmodernismo. En palabras sencillas, busca develar, deconstruir y relativizar aquellas metanarrativas que han sido impuestas dogmáticamente desde la Ilustración para conservar el statu quo; así como cuestionar la razón, la lógica y el método científico como los únicos instrumentos válidos para explorar, describir y explicar la realidad. En este contexto, la presente disertación doctoral tiene como propósito estudiar las transformaciones del Estado en la era posmoderna a partir del estudio pormenorizado de sus elementos constitutivos. Más concretamente, pretende analizar cómo y en qué medida diversas fuerzas posmodernas han transformado los conceptos políticos tradicionales en los que se ha sustentado el modelo estatal moderno: la nación, el territorio, la soberanía, el gobierno, la democracia y la ciudadanía. Como el objetivo primordial de la investigación es el estudio de un concepto político fundamental (el Estado) a partir de unos ideales normativos determinados (derivados de la posmodernidad), la metodología que se ha utilizado es de índole evaluativa, haciendo énfasis en los valores, reglas y procedimientos que rigen su funcionamiento. Lo anterior, sin omitir la aplicación del enfoque posmoderno constituido por sus propios conceptos, preguntas, presuposiciones y reglas de inferencia. A manera de conclusión, aún con las profundas alteraciones de las dimensiones espaciotemporales y la reconfiguración de las relaciones sociales, políticas y culturales, el Estado sigue conservando su papel hegemónico como la principal estructura de organización política. Ello no implica, claro está, que haya permanecido incólume ante el influjo de dichas fuerzas posmodernas. Desde una perspectiva dialéctica, más que desaparecer por completo, el Estado se enfrenta a un drástico proceso de reconfiguración institucional. Allí, nuevos actores políticos tanto de naturaleza pública (organizaciones internacionales gubernamentales, subunidades político-administrativas, entidades descentralizadas, etc.) como privada (organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro, medios de comunicación, empresas transnacionales, etc.), han venido acumulando, ejerciendo y monopolizando funciones que tradicionalmente le han correspondido al Estado desde su creación.
Here we will unpack the particulars of Dementia Grief Therapy (DGT), an exploratory, nonjudgmental, integrative, person-centered, and trauma-informed approach used to support a participant along their journey to the self. It begins from a foundation of human dignity. We will begin our explorations in this chapter from a place of attachment identification as one necessary component to consider when discussing dementia health. We will explore further how grief (sympathetic–parasympathetic axis) interacts with dementia (loss–love axis), by considering the role of attachment dimensions. We will also discuss the roles of aging, trauma, and death and how these are in dynamic feedback loops within lived experiences of dementia symptoms. We will then discuss the necessary and distinct features of DGT. This intervention is informed by trauma, existentialism, Bowlby’s attachment theory, Adlerian psychotherapy principles, and yogic science approaches to the loss–love continuum.
There are five distinct clinical features that differentiate DGT from other treatment modalities: collaborators’ orientation, session location, physical activity, nature, and grounding work. One aim of this chapter is for you to comprehend a novel approach, have the necessary knowledge to implement DGT in your practice and to begin to generate a robust data set of dementia grief experiences, as informed by people living with dementia, with all of us across the globe measuring and investigating similar data points. Although DGT is by no means intended to be a manualized method of treatment of BPSD or dementia symptoms, standardized data collection of existential, movement orientated therapy strengthens the empirical database of this proposed therapy model.
This study examines the implementation of the four-day week in a small Hungarian company, using qualitative research before and after the change. By conducting semi-structured interviews with all employees and the CEO, the paper explores, how social, organisational and individual factors influence the ability of employees to improve their subjective well-being through reduced working hours. The results indicate that the effects of mandated schedule changes are less about increased freedom from work and more about the ability to engage in personally meaningful activities. Interviews revealed four dimensions of well-being: temporal harmony, social involvement, advancement and autonomy. While the majority reported improved well-being, particularly in terms of temporal harmony and strengthened social ties, barriers such as misaligned schedules, rigid working hours and limited external support hindered improvements in well-being. The paper also describes the different perspectives of the manager and the employees on the changes implemented. Recognising potential factors and considering different aspects of working time reduction and employee well-being can help organisations use their working time policies to maximise the well-being of their employees in terms of not only the quantity but also the quality of their leisure time. This study adds to our understanding of the impact of reduced working time on individual and societal well-being.
El presente documento integra la evolución de la métrica del bienestar en México que se basa en la contribución del enfoque de las capacidades de Sen (1999), pasando desde su concepción unidimensional por el Comité Técnico de la Medición de la Pobreza donde se usó el método de FGT (Foster, Greer, & Thorbecke, A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures, 1984) con tres umbrales de pobreza preestablecidos, hasta la aplicación multidimensional de la métrica de Alkire y Foster (2007) por el CONEVAL para México desde el año 2008 (CONEVAL, 2009), donde se han integrado dimensiones individuales y ahora sociales, y se han tenido consideraciones que versan alrededor de la justicia y la cohesión social. Se discuten los retos de la nueva métrica por el consenso generalizado de desarrollo plasmado en los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible de las Naciones Unidas (2015), y se indica que es necesario un cambio de perspectiva, ya que la actual es más individual, y se necesita una concepción más social.
Little information is available about how formal, social science theory has been used in outcome evaluations. This gap exists in debates about what role theory has in evaluation. To help address this, we need to understand variation in formal theory use in real-world practice. This research applied systematic qualitative coding to identify and classify patterns of theory use, followed by qualitative comparative analysis. The terms describing theory are defined and formal theory is differentiated from other kinds of theory, such as program theory. The study found instances of borrowing and repurposing theoretical material in a cohesive sample of 17 outcome evaluation reports covering programs addressing complex social problems, drawn from cross-cultural contexts. Theory was mostly used for post hoc explanation and less often used upfront in framing, design and conduct of evaluation. The concrete approach in the literature of applying formal theory to measure and explain causal pathways to behavioural outcomes was found, as was layered use of a range of theoretical material. This article offers insights that may assist evaluators to undertaken more sophisticated and reflective approaches to using theory. Thinking about ways we use theory could form part of the tool-kit of techniques available to evaluation practice.
Children’s Subjective Well-Being als neueres Konstrukt fragt aktuell, was Kinder unter Wohlbefinden verstehen. In entsprechenden Forschungsprojekten wird hierzu die Kinderperspektive im Zuge des Paradigmenwechsels der new social childhood studies in den Fokus gerückt, um Kinder als handlungsfähige Subjekte anzuerkennen. Dabei bleiben in der Tendenz Faktoren wie Klasse, Geschlecht, Ethnizität, Körper oder Generation unterbelichtet, denen Kinder aber im Kontext sozialer Ungleichheit ausgesetzt sind. Dieser Beitrag schlägt vor, mittels des Capability Approachs, soziale Ungleichheit mitzudenken und für die empirische Untersuchung des Children’s Subjective Well-Being fruchtbar zu machen. Anhand eines empirischen Beispiels werden heuristische Fragen entwickelt, um Children’s Subjective Well-Being aus einer ungleichheitstheoretischen Perspektive zu erschliessen.
This paper proposes a novel conceptualisation that holistically places the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Artefact in Capability Approach (CA). The conceptualisation harmonises the different views about technology within CA-based frameworks in ICT4D, in order to address the inconsistencies. To demonstrate the utility of the conceptualisation, while simultaneously addressing the highest thematic research gap among post-2015 ICT4D research priorities, the study collected primary data from users of Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) solar kits who reside in rural Kenya. Using the conceptualisation, the study demonstrated that the ICT-artefact can holistically be placed within three of CA's concepts: under material resources as a capability input; as a new category of conversion factors (technological factors); and as a component within the structural context. The study further demonstrated how the same ICT artefact could play out in the three different conceptualisations, resulting in different development outcomes. The study finally presents the implications for policy and practice.
Purpose:
To develop a multidisciplinary outpatient rehabilitation intervention for people with neuromuscular diseases (NMD) based on the capability approach: capability care for persons with NMD.
Materials and methods:
The development process is described using a framework of actions for intervention development. It has been an iterative process consisting of a design phase based on theoretical insights and project group discussions, and a refine phase involving input from relevant stakeholders.
Results:
Multidisciplinary efforts have resulted in the development of capability care for rehabilitation of persons with NMD. It can focus both on facilitating and achieving functionings (beings and doings), as well as looking for alternative functionings that fulfil the same underlying value, thereby contributing to the persons' well-being. To facilitate a conversation on broader aspects that impact on well-being, persons with NMD receive a preparation letter and healthcare professionals are provided with guiding questions and practical tools to use.
Conclusions:
We have shown that it is possible to develop a healthcare intervention based on the capability approach. We hope that rehabilitation professionals will be encouraged to use capability care and that other medical professionals will be inspired to develop capability care in their respective fields.
Registration:
Registered at trialregister.nl NL8946.
This volume, which grows out of The Quality of Life (eds. Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen, 1993), combines philosophical inquiry with economic concerns regarding women's equality in the developing world. Adopting Amartya Sen's capability framework, international contributors tackle issues of cultural relativism vs. cultural imperialism on the one hand, and questions of local traditions vs. universalist critical judgement on the other. The chief aim of this work is to critically explore the relationship between culture and justice as pertinent to women's development, with special attention paid to cultural sensitivity but without compromising the clarity of rational judgement in cases where women's capabilities are at stake. Building upon the practical and philosophical implications of the lived experience of women from a variety of cultures, the authors theorize the pragmatics of economic development beyond utility towards a vision of gender equality. This book is a must‐read for anyone interested in the ethics of women's economic development.
This volume, which grows out of The Quality of Life (eds. Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen, 1993), combines philosophical inquiry with economic concerns regarding women's equality in the developing world. Adopting Amartya Sen's capability framework, international contributors tackle issues of cultural relativism vs. cultural imperialism on the one hand, and questions of local traditions vs. universalist critical judgement on the other. The chief aim of this work is to critically explore the relationship between culture and justice as pertinent to women's development, with special attention paid to cultural sensitivity but without compromising the clarity of rational judgement in cases where women's capabilities are at stake. Building upon the practical and philosophical implications of the lived experience of women from a variety of cultures, the authors theorize the pragmatics of economic development beyond utility towards a vision of gender equality. This book is a must‐read for anyone interested in the ethics of women's economic development.
Development as Freedom (DaF) presents an overview of Sen's thinking about development, pulling together ingredients familiar from his previous work. Assessing this book, then, comes close to evaluating Sen's contribution to development thinking. Undoubtedly, the contribution is of major importance, and we shall spend the first part of this essay explaining why we believe this to be the case. Yet there remain problems, both at a theoretical and political/policy level, which mean, in our view, that for some important issues in contemporary development, one has to go beyond Sen. Why we believe this will form the second part of the essay. Amartya Sen's major achievement lies in his capabilities (variously termed "freedoms") approach. In this he not only presents a philosophical alternative to the utilitarianism which underpins so much of economics, but, in so doing, also offers an alternative development objective which can be used to inform a wide range of issues, from markets to gender, democracy to poverty. In brief he argues that "for many evaluative purposes, the appropriate 'space' is neither that of utilities (as claimed by welfarists), nor that of primary goods (as demanded by Rawls), but that of substantive freedoms--the capabilities--to choose a life one has reason to value" (74).J For many years, almost since "development economics" as a subject began to be discussed, critics have struggled against the domination of income maximization as the single objective of economic development. Growth of Gross
This volume, which grows out of The Quality of Life (eds. Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen, 1993), combines philosophical inquiry with economic concerns regarding women's equality in the developing world. Adopting Amartya Sen's capability framework, international contributors tackle issues of cultural relativism vs. cultural imperialism on the one hand, and questions of local traditions vs. universalist critical judgement on the other. The chief aim of this work is to critically explore the relationship between culture and justice as pertinent to women's development, with special attention paid to cultural sensitivity but without compromising the clarity of rational judgement in cases where women's capabilities are at stake. Building upon the practical and philosophical implications of the lived experience of women from a variety of cultures, the authors theorize the pragmatics of economic development beyond utility towards a vision of gender equality. This book is a must‐read for anyone interested in the ethics of women's economic development.
The paper assesses Sen's more abstract version of capabilities theory, Nussbaum's more substantive Aristotelian version and attempts to apply such conceptions to women's lives. Sen's capability approach is a helpful intervention in the discourses of mainstream Western welfare economics and moral philosophy. To influence these, it retains some of their assumptions, and appears limited by its conceptions of the person and of agency. In both areas Nussbaum goes deeper, but her emphatically Aristotelian style is controversial and can short-circuit the debate she sought to advance. Priority areas for further work are: more adequate pictures of ‘culture’ and ‘the individual’ than she or Sen have used, to combine insights from communitarian critics with the strengths of the capabilities approach. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A central question for assessing the merits of Amartya Sen s capability approach as a potential answer to the distribution of what ? question concerns the exact role and nature of freedom in that approach. Sen holds that a person s capability identifies that person s effective freedom to achieve valuable states of beings and doings, or functionings, and that freedom so understood, rather than achieved functionings themselves, is the primary evaluative space. Sen s emphasis on freedom has been criticised by G. A. Cohen, according to whom the capability approach either uses too expansive a definition of freedom or rests on an implausibly active, indeed athletic, view of well-being. This paper defends the capability approach from this criticism. It argues that we can view the capability approach to be underpinned by an account of well-being which takes the endorsement of valuable functionings as constitutive of well-being, and by a particular view of the way in which endorsement relates to force and choice.
In a recent discussion of Amartya Sen s concept of the capabilities of people for functioning in their society and the idea of targeting people s functioning capabilities in evaluating the society G. A. Cohen accuses Sen of espousing an inappropriate, athletic image of the person (Cohen, 1993, pp. 24 5). The idea is that if Sen s formulations are to be taken at face value, then life is valuable only so far as people actively choose most facets of their existence: if they fare well in the material stakes, for example, they must fare well as a result of active choice and effort, not because anyone else looks after them. That , says Cohen, overestimates the place of freedom and activity in well-being (p. 25).
Sen's capability approach (SCA) has supported valuable work on Human Development (HD). It has brought attention to a much wider range of information on people's freedoms and well-being than in most earlier economic planning; but it also has troubling features and requires modification and enrichment. This paper first identifies the approach's components, the contributions of the HD Reports, and the doubts about whether SCA has a sufficient conception of human personhood to sustain work on HD beyond finding indices superior to GDP. It then examines SCA's central concepts. The concepts of capability and functioning lead us to consider both possibilities and outcomes, but their definition and use has been confusing. Besides Sen's opportunity concept of 'capability' we must distinguish skills and potentials; and distinguish levels and types of 'functioning'. To understand both consumerism and what can motivate and drive more humanly fulfilling development, we must elaborate different aspects and sources of 'well-being' and the content and requirements of 'agency', more than in Sen's chosen strategy. SCA's priority category of opportunity-capability must be read as a measure of personal advantage relevant in many public policy situations, rather than as a theory of well-being; and its concept of freedom must be partnered by concepts of reason and need.
A volume of studies of utilitarianism considered both as a theory of personal morality and a theory of public choice. All but two of the papers have been commissioned especially for the volume, and between them they represent not only a wide range of arguments for and against utilitarianism but also a first-class selection of the most interesting and influential work in this very active area. There is also a substantial introduction by the two editors. The volume will constitute an important stimulus and point of reference for a wide range of philosophers, economists and social theorists.
But among the traits characteristic of the human being is an impelling desire for fellowship, that is for common life, not of just any kind, but a peaceful life, and organized according to the measure of his intelligence, with those who are of his kind… Stated as a universal truth, therefore, the assertion that every animal is impelled by nature to seek only its own good cannot be conceded. Hugo-Grotius, On the Law of War and Peace Global inequalities in income increased in the 20th century by orders of magnitude out of proportion to anything experienced before. The distance between the incomes of the richest and poorest country was about 3 to 1 in 1820, 35 to 1 in 1950, 44 to 1 in 1973 and 72 to 1 in 1992. Human Development Report 2000, United Nations A child born in Sweden today has a life expectancy at birth of 79.7 years. A child born in Sierra Leone has a life expectancy at birth of 38.9 years.1 In the US, GDP per capita is $34,142 dollars, in Sierra Leone, GDP per capita is $490. Adult literacy rates in the top twenty nations are around 99 percent. In Sierra Leone, the literacy rate is 36 percent. In twenty-six nations, the adult literacy rate is under 50 percent. The world contains inequalities that are morally alarming, and the gap between richer and poorer nations is widening.
Amartya Sen (1933–) was born and educated in India before completing his doctorate in economics at Cambridge University. He has taught in India, England, and the United States and is currently the Lamont University Professor at Harvard University. He is one of the most widely read and influential living economists. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages. In 1998, he was awarded the Nobel Price in Economics for his work on welfare economics, poverty and famines, and human development. He has also made major contributions to contemporary political philosophy. In this essay, he proposes that alternatives be appraised by looking to the capabilities they provide for individuals rather than only by individual utilities, incomes, or resources (as in commonly used theories). Introduction Capability is not an awfully attractive word. It has a technocratic sound, and to some it might even suggest the image of nuclear war strategists rubbing their hands in pleasure over some contingent plan of heroic barbarity. The term is not much redeemed by the historical Capability Brown praising particular pieces of land – not human beings – on the solid real-estate ground that they ‘had capabilities’. Perhaps a nicer word could have been chosen when some years ago I tried to explore a particular approach to well-being and advantage in terms of a person's ability to do valuable acts or reach valuable states of being.
In this major book Martha Nussbaum, one of the most innovative and influential philosophical voices of our time, proposes a kind of feminism that is genuinely international, argues for an ethical underpinning to all thought about development planning and public policy, and dramatically moves beyond the abstractions of economists and philosophers to embed thought about justice in the concrete reality of the struggles of poor women. Nussbaum argues that international political and economic thought must be sensitive to gender difference as a problem of justice, and that feminist thought must begin to focus on the problems of women in the third world. Taking as her point of departure the predicament of poor women in India, she shows how philosophy should undergird basic constitutional principles that should be respected and implemented by all governments, and used as a comparative measure of quality of life across nations.
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Rhetoric & Public Affairs 4.3 (2001) 576-578
Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality. By Ronald Dworkin. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000; pp. 512. $35.00
In the last thirty years, Ronald Dworkin, along with John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Bruce Ackerman, have systematized and refined liberal political philosophy in major ways. Each philosopher has introduced ingenious and often elegant arguments in order to defend and advance his own overlapping and competing conceptions of justice for liberal polities. The pivot for these projects is a "thought experiment," which, like their seventeenth- and eighteenth-century counterparts, is designed to illuminate and distinguish their theories of justice from their competitors' as well as to offer a poetically compelling vision of society. Ronald Dworkin's signature contemporary version of a state of nature is a desert island auction. Imagine, he explains, that its inhabitants desire a just division of resources. After experimenting with various methods, each person would decide that some currency would be agreed upon (Dworkin generally uses clam shells while Locke spoke of a "little piece of yellow metal" in his state of nature), and everything valued on the island would be auctioned off as lots until each person was satisfied. In order to guard against bad luck and differential talents, Dworkin also argues that each inhabitant would select an insurance policy to help protect a fair division.
Part one of Sovereign Virtue is an elaboration of Dworkin's desert island parable, which he first proposed in 1981. Dworkin's state of nature bears some similarities to Rawls's original position, Nozick's anarchic exchanges, and Ackerman's interstellar conversations, particularly in the assumption of individualist premises about needs and wants. Dworkin himself contends that his position is derived from two premises of "ethical individualism": the principle of equal importance, which states that each human life be successful and not be wasted, and the principle of special responsibility, which states that each person is responsible for making her choices of how she should live. Roughly, the hypothetical auction encapsulates the first principle and the hypothetical insurance policy the second.
The most distinguishing aspect of Dworkin's position is that equality is the "sovereign" virtue of society, but he spends the bulk of part one in arguing that equality of welfare is not the proper benchmark. In Rawls's formulation, the original position -- from which persons attempt to intuit principles of justice behind a "veil of ignorance" in which individual talents as well as religion and race are unknown -- requires adoption of the "difference principle." The difference principle stipulates that resources be distributed unequally only when the disadvantaged are benefited. Dworkin insists, however, that equality of resources is the only justifiable formulation of equality, and he offers some delightful arguments about the problem of "expensive tastes" to help make his point. Suppose, he asks, that a paraplegic violinist prefers a Stradivarius to an equally expensive piece of equipment that will help him lead a more normal life. Those who lead limited lives in other respects might justifiably complain about the additional taxes for the instrument from an equality of welfare standpoint.
The second part of Sovereign Virtue, adapted from later articles written for theNew York Review of Books, is an application of the concept of equality of resources to various current public policy issues, including campaign finance, affirmative action, welfare reform, genetic manipulation, inheritance taxation, gay rights, and euthanasia. One of the hallmarks of Dworkin's approach is his willingness to confront in detail public controversy where other philosophers are more reticent. Dworkin himself regards this enterprise as not one of application but rather as an "inside-out" approach rather than an "outside-in" one (3). Whatever the characterization, it is in this second part that one begins to see the liabilities of his method. First, there is the question that has been raised by numerous critics about Dworkin's policy recommendations. The bottom line is that, without exception, his conclusions correspond to conventional positions offered by liberal political activists. A national health-care system is required by his conception of justice; the 1996 Welfare Reform Act is...
In this article, published in 1982, John Rawls (1921-2002) elaborated the notion of primary goods in connection with a certain conception of the person. His thesis was that the problem of interpersonal comparisons goes to the foundations of a conception of justice and depends on the conception of the person and the way in which social unity is to be conceived. By contrasting the way in which the problem of interpersonal comparisons is addressed respectively, by the utilitarian tradition and by his own theory of justice, Rawls maintained that members of society were to be conceived as moral persons who can cooperate together for mutual advantage, and not simply as rational individuals who have aims and desires they seek to satisfy.
It will be seen how in place of the wealth and poverty of political economy come the rich human being and rich human need. The rich human being is simultaneously the human being in need of totality of human life-activities — the man in whom his own realization exists as an inner necessity, as need.
Marx, Economic and
Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844
Svetaketu abstained from food for fifteen days. Then he came to his father and said, `What shall I say?' The father said: `Repeat the Rik, Yagus, and Saman verses.' He replied, `They do not occur to me, Sir.' The father said to him... `Go and eat! Then wilt thou understand me.' Then Svetaketu ate, and afterwards approached his father. And whatever his father asked him, he knew it all by heart.... After that, he understood what his father meant when he said: `Mind, my son, comes from food, breath from water, speech from fire.' He understood what he said, yea, he understood it.
Chandogya-Upanishad, VI Prapathaka, 7 Kanda
When you love a man you want him to live and when you hate him you want him to die. If, having wanted him to live, you then want him to die, this is a misguided judgment. `If you did not do so for the sake of riches, you must have done so for the sake of novelty.'
Confucius, Analects, Book 12. 10
In The Joyless Economy, Tibor Scitovsky proposes a model of human behavior that differs substantially from that of standard economic theory. Scitovsky begins with a basic distinction between “comfort” and “stimulation.” While stimulation is ultimately more satisfying and creative, we frequently fall for the bewitching attractions of comfort, which leads to impoverished lives. Scitovsky's analysis has far‐reaching implications not only for the idea of rationality, but for the concept of utility (by making it plural in nature) and, perhaps most importantly, for the importance of freedom (including the freedom to change our preferences).
Are global poverty and inequality on the rise or are they declining? And is the quality of life of the world's poorest people getting worse or better? These questions are often given conflicting answers by economists, the World Bank, and social activists. One reason for this is that assessments of quality of life can be made in terms of people's income, their resources, or their functionings and capabilities. This essay discusses the pros and cons of these evaluative approaches, and it argues that all approaches have complementary strengths and should therefore in principle all be considered. Moreover, being aware that assessments of poverty and inequality can be made using these different frameworks helps us to understand the conflicting claims.
Commodities and Capabilities presents a set of inter-related theses concerning the foundations of welfare economics, and in particular about the assessment of personal well-being and advantage. The argument presented focuses on the capability to function, i.e. what a person can do or can be, questioning in the process the more standard emphasis on opulence or on utility. In fact, a person's motivation behind choice is treated here as a parametric variable which may or may not coincide with the pursuit of self-interest. Given the large number of practical problems arising from the roles and limitations of different concepts of interest and the judgement of advantage and well-being, this scholarly investigation is both of theoretical interest and practical import.
We describe Amartya Sen's Capability Approach to welfare evaluation in the language of standard welfare economics, and assess to what extent it provides a genuine alternative for individual welfare measurement and policy evaluation. We review the nascent empirical literature on the capability approach and assess whether it makes a genuine difference with standard welfare evaluation.
First ed. publ. under the title :"India: economic development and social opportunity". Incl. bibl., index.
Amartya Sen introduced the Capability approach in 1979 as a more appropriate theory of justice than existing theories in moral philosophy. The main features of the Capabilities approach and its operationalisation in the context of poverty analysis are discussed in this paper. The three broad approaches to operationalisation i.e. evaluation in the functionings space, in the functionings space combined with the income space, or the income space supplemented by functionings information, are outlined. The paper restricts itself to the functionings space and therefore concentrates on the first of these. Issues pertaining to the assessment of capabilities as well as assessment restricted to the chosen functioning vector, selection of capabilities/functionings to be assessed, and possible procedures that may be used for inter-personal comparisons are discussed. Concentrating on operationalisation in developing countries, lists of 'basic' capabilities developed by different researchers, using differing methodologies are compared. The comparison indicates that capabilities related to health, nutrition and education consistently appear in all the lists, despite the different criteria for inclusion, reflecting their importance for any capabilities based investigation of poverty.
There is considerable common ground among various positions--involving needs, capabilities, prudential values and basic goods--in the literature about advantage and development. The well-known debate about the relative merits of various spaces relating to advantage, associated with Amartya Sen, has tended to obscure this point. Differences among the relevant positions often have to do with the context in which they are developed, or strategies involved in dealing with common foes, rather than any fundamental divergence in values. The various lists of the components of advantage that these positions offer can, to some degree, be seen as relating to different levels in our concern about the quality of life. To this degree, they can be reconciled, and Sen's capability approach simply highlights an important level. Furthermore, both differences, as well as convergence, in the various lists, may be consistent with shared values.
The dominant theory of justice in the western tradition of political philosophy is the social contract theory, which sees principles of justice as the outcome of a contract people make, for mutual advantage, to leave the state of nature and govern themselves by law. Such theories have recently been influential in thinking about global justice. I examine that tradition, focusing on Rawls, its greatest modern exponent; I shall find it wanting. Despite their great strengths in thinking about justice, contractarian theories have some structural defects that make them yield very imperfect results when we apply them to the world stage. More promising results are given by a version of the capabilities approach, which suggests a set of basic human entitlements, similar to human rights, as a minimum of what justice requires for all. But among the traits characteristic of the human being is an impelling desire for fellowship, that is for common life, not of just any kind, but a peaceful life, and organized according to the measure of his intelligence, with those who are of his kind … Stated as a universal truth, therefore, the assertion that every animal is impelled by nature to seek only its own good cannot be conceded. (Grotius, On the Law of War and Peace) Global inequalities in income increased in the 20th century by orders of magnitude out of proportion to anything experienced before. The distance between the incomes of the richest and poorest country was about 3 to 1 in 1820, 35 to 1 in 1950, 44 to 1 in 1973 and 72 to 1 in 1992. (Human Development Report 2000, United Nations Development Programme)
In this paper, the author examines the capability approach and how it applies in the context of individuals and families living together on unequal terms. The interpretations of agency, freedom, and choice in Sen's framework are analyzed from a feminist perspective, and the author suggests that these important concepts invite special attention in the presence of domestic power imbalances. Problems with the interpretations embedded in the capability approach are pinpointed and adjustments proposed. Drawing on the vast literature on household behavior in developing countries, the author argues that capabilities have a distinctly interdependent dimension. While the discussion of agency in the capability approach has been either normative or policy-oriented, exercises that seek to evaluate individual well-being should pay more attention to the existence of alternative types of power within the realm of the household.
This paper investigates how Amartya Sen's capability approach can be applied to conceptualize and assess gender inequality in Western societies. I first argue against the endorsement of a definitive list of capabilities and instead defend a procedural approach to the selection of capabilities by proposing five criteria. This procedural account is then used to generate a list of capabilities for conceptualizing gender inequality in Western societies. A survey of empirical studies shows that women are worse off than men on some dimensions, better off on a few others, and similarly placed on yet others, while for some dimensions the evaluation is unclear. I then outline why, for group inequalities, inequalities in achieved functionings can be taken to reflect inequalities in capabilities, and how an overall evaluation could be arrived at by weighting the different capabilities.