Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice The Capability Approach Re-Examined, 2017a

142 Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice
the disciplines that have built most expertise in large-scale adaptation
processes, such as sociology and social policy studies. Based on the
insights from those disciplines, we know the likely candidates to be
dimensions of adaptation — such as social class, caste or gender. We can
then use indicators of those dimensions to study whether preferences
and aspirations systematically differ, as in the earlier mentioned study
by Tania Burchardt (2009). But it is clear that this can only help us to
identify adapted preferences or adapted aspirations; it will not always
tell us whether for each application it is possible to ‘launder’ the data so
as to clean them from processes of unjust adaptations.
explanatory theory?
In almost all capability applications and theories, the capability
approach is developed for conceptual and normative purposes, rather
than for explanations. If it is used for conceptual work, then capability
theories do not explain poverty, inequality, or wellbeing, but rather
help us to conceptualize these notions. If capability analyses are used
for normative work, then they help to evaluate states of affairs and
prescribe recommendations for intervention and change.
Nevertheless, the notions of functionings and capabilities in
themselves can be employed as elements in explanations of social
phenomena, or one can use these notions in descriptions of poverty,
inequality, quality of life and social change. In those cases, the
properties A1 to A4 from module A would still hold, but characteristics
A5 (functionings and capabilities as the evaluative space), A6 (other
dimensions of intrinsic values can be important for normative analyses)
and A7 (normative individualism) are not applicable.
To the best of my knowledge, few scholars use the capability
approach in this way. Probably this should not be surprising, since the
capability approach may not make a significant difference to this type of
work. Still, there are parallels with existing studies. For example, there
is a large literature on the social determinants of health (e.g. Marmot
2005; Wilkinson and Marmot 2003; Marmot et al. 2008). The goal here
is to establish a set of functionings related to the general functioning
of being healthy, and the determinants are investigated so that social