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

26 Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice
Within the capability approach, there are two different specifications
of ‘advantage’: achieved wellbeing, and the freedom to achieve
wellbeing. The notions of ‘functionings’ and ‘capabilities’ — which will
be explained in detail in section 2.6.1 — are used to flesh out the account
of achieved wellbeing and the freedom to achieve wellbeing. 10 Whether
the capability approach is used to analyse distributive injustice, or
measure poverty, or develop curriculum design — in all these projects
the capability approach prioritises certain people’s beings and doings
and their opportunities to realize those beings and doings (such as their
genuine opportunities to be educated, their ability to move around or
to enjoy supportive social relationships). This stands in contrast to other
accounts of advantage, which focus exclusively on mental categories
(such as happiness) or on the material means to wellbeing (such as
resources like income or wealth). 11
Thus, the capability approach is a conceptual framework, which is
in most cases used as a normative framework for the evaluation and
assessment of individual wellbeing and that of institutions, in addition
to its much more infrequent use for non-normative purposes. 12 It can
be used to evaluate a range of values that draw on an assessment of
people’s wellbeing, such as inequality, poverty, changes in the wellbeing
of persons or the average wellbeing of the members of a group. It can
also be used as an evaluative tool providing an alternative for social
cost-benefit analysis, or as a framework within which to design and
10 Following Amartya Sen (1985c), some would say there are four different ideas
of advantage in the capability approach: achieved wellbeing, freedom to achieve
wellbeing, achieved agency, and freedom to achieve agency. Yet whether the
capability approach should always and for all purposes consider agency freedom
to be an end in itself is disputed, and depends in large measure on what one wants
to use the capability approach for.
11 Of course, it doesn’t follow that mental categories or the material means play
no role at all; but the normative priority lies with functionings and capabilities,
and hence happiness or material resources play a more limited role (and, in the
case of resources, a purely instrumental role). The relations between functionings/
capabilities and resources will be elaborated in 3.12; the relationship between
functionings/capabilities and happiness will be elaborated in more detail in
section 3.8.
12 On whether the capability approach can be used for explanatory purposes, see
section 3.10.