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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

2. Core Ideas and the Framework 63 Within the capability approach human diversity is a core characteristic, and indeed a core motivation for developing the capability approach in the first place. Yet the account of human diversity that one endorses can differ. For example, scholars with a background in structuralist sociology or Marxism often believe that the social class to which one belongs is a very important factor in human diversity, which has great influence on which options lie open to a person, but also on how a person’s character and aspirations are formed. For those scholars, class interacts with, and in some cases even outweighs, all other identity aspects. For others, such as libertarians, these differences are not so important. 36 They would not attach much (normative or explanatory) importance to one’s gender, ethnicity, race, social class, and so forth: everyone is, first and foremost, an individual whose personal ambitions and projects matter. Yet, whether one is a Marxist or a libertarian or one of the many other positions one can take, one always, either implicitly or explicitly, endorses a view on human nature and on human diversity. That choice should be made in capability theories, since the capability approach rejects the use of an implicit, unacknowledged account of human diversity. Hence such an account belongs to the B-modules: one has to have an account of human diversity, but, as long as one is willing to defend one’s account and it survives critical analysis, there are several accounts that one can opt for. Note that if one puts all the modules A, B and C together, a picture will emerge about the great importance attached to human diversity in the capability approach; this will be analysed in more detail in section 3.5. Another B-module is the acknowledgement of agency. As a working definition, we can use Sen’s definition of an agent as “someone who acts and brings about change, and whose achievements can be judged in 36 For an introduction to libertarianism, see Vallentyne and Van der Vossen (2014).
64 Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice terms of her own values and objectives, whether or not we assess them in terms of some external criteria as well” (Sen 1999a, 19). Applications of the capability approach should endorse some account of agency, except if there are good reasons why agency should be taken to be absent, or why in a particular capability application agency is simply not relevant (for example, when one wants to investigate the correlation between an income metric and some achieved functionings). But clearly, as with other key ethical concepts such as ‘wellbeing’ or ‘freedom’, the concept of ‘agency’ can be fleshed out in many different ways. The capability approach is not committed to one particular account of agency. Similar to the acknowledgement of structural constraints, there is no agreed-upon or standard claim about how much agency, or what particular type, should be assumed; the claim is minimalistic in the sense that, as with the structural constraints which will be discussed in the next section, agency cannot simply be ignored and must be accounted for. One can give agency a key role in a capability theory (e.g. Crocker 2008; Claassen 2016) or a more restricted role, perhaps also using different terminology. One can also develop the account of agency by spelling out some of its preconditions, which may include capabilities. For example, Tom de Herdt (2008) analysed the capability of not having to be subjected to public shame as a precondition of agency, and showed how this may be relevant for social policymaking by illustrating its importance in a food relief programme in Kinshasa. For empirical scholars and policy scholars, an empirically sound account of agency will be crucial; for moral philosophers, a more theoretical account of what conceptualisation of agency is morally relevant will be needed. Thus, the precise content of this B-module will differ significantly between different capability theories and applications — but, in all cases, some acknowledgement of agency will be needed. 37 37 Martha Nussbaum explicitly refrains from integrating the notion of ‘agency’ in her capability theory (Nussbaum 2000, 14). However, this does not mean that there isn’t an account of agency in her theory, since the inclusion of the capability of practical reason on her list of central human capabilities can be understood as corresponding to one particular conceptualisation of agency.
Page 1 and 2:
Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justi
Page 4 and 5:
Page 6 and 7:
Contents Acknowledgements 3 1. Intr
Page 8 and 9:
3. Clarifications 89 3.1 Introducti
Page 10:
4.7 What about power and political
Page 14 and 15:
Acknowledgements In 1998, when I st
Page 16 and 17:
Acknowledgements 5 the capability a
Page 18 and 19:
1. Introduction Many people who en
Page 20 and 21:
1. Introduction 9 capability approa
Page 22 and 23:
1. Introduction 11 Moreover, it bri
Page 24 and 25: 1. Introduction 13 Countries Outsi
Page 26 and 27: 1. Introduction 15 capabilities of
Page 28 and 29: 1. Introduction 17 their collaborat
Page 30 and 31: 1. Introduction 19 This book has a
Page 32 and 33: 2. Core Ideas and the Framework Th
Page 34 and 35: 2. Core Ideas and the Framework 23
Page 98: 2. Core Ideas and the Framework 87
Page 101 and 102: 90 Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Ju
Page 111 and 112: 100 Wellbeing, Freedom and Social J
Page 125 and 126:
114 Wellbeing, Freedom and Social J
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
Page 203 and 204:
Page 205 and 206:
Page 207 and 208:
Page 209 and 210:
Page 211 and 212:
Page 213 and 214:
Page 215 and 216:
Page 217 and 218:
Page 219 and 220:
Page 221 and 222:
Page 223 and 224:
Page 225 and 226:
Page 227 and 228:
Page 229 and 230:
Page 231 and 232:
Page 233 and 234:
Page 235 and 236:
Page 237 and 238:
Page 239 and 240:
Page 241 and 242:
Page 243 and 244:
Page 245 and 246:
Page 247 and 248:
Page 249 and 250:
Page 251 and 252:
Page 253 and 254:
Page 255 and 256:
Page 257 and 258:
Page 259 and 260:
Page 262 and 263:
Index abortion 15, 145 advantage 25
Page 264 and 265:
Index 253 Fleurbaey, Marc 154 flour
Page 266 and 267:
Index 255 political institutions 14
Page 268:
show all

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?