Introducing Joint Capabilities: Findings from a Study of Development in Honduras’ Garifuna Ancestral Villages

Abstract

This article argues for the family as a unit of analysis within capabilities approaches to human development. Challenging the liberal emphasis on the individual, this article illustrates that individualist approaches to families do not account for the relatively common scenario of families acting as a unit. Building upon Margaret Gilbert’s concept of plural subject agents, the paper suggests a new category of capabilities called joint capabilities that apply to the opportunities afforded to families that function as a unit. In order to build the case for joint capabilities, the author’s experiences and observations of family in the Afro-indigenous Garifuna ancestral villages of Honduras are discussed. More specifically, the capability of rural families to make cassava bread, or ereba in the Garifuna language, is explored. While the Garifuna family is explored as an important unit of analysis for understanding capabilities, the family is also examined as a complex context for exploration of power relations and inequality.