Amartya Sen's Capability Approach Research Articles

Patient capability: Justice and grassroots healthcare delivery in China

The current reform of China's healthcare system focuses mainly on two dimensions: the promotion of primary healthcare and the improvement of quality of grassroots healthcare (GH). Specifically, the reforms are aimed at meeting the needs of patients in the grassroots areas (PGAs) through the provision of universal healthcare and hierarchical diagnosis and treatment (HDT). In practice, however, disparities in health outcomes between the grassroots and upper levels persist. The gaps between increased health coverage and heightened barriers to accessing quality medical care in the grassroots areas are growing ever larger. What explains this paradox is the limited capability of PGAs to transform healthcare resources into better health-seeking behaviors and health outcomes, resulting in injustice that is built into the system, which is neither ethical nor fair. Using Amartya Sen's capability approach (CA) to explore issues of justice in relation to China's GH system and its performance, we suggest that an institutional structure, one that focuses on promoting universal coverage in the grassroots areas, although necessary, is by itself insufficient in promoting justice and equality in accessing healthcare. Institutional disparities in the healthcare system and China's household registration policy, constructed according to the rural-urban divide, have also produced injustices. We argue that greater attention should be given to meeting the medical needs of PGAs and empowering them with greater choice, permitting them a higher level of freedom and agency, and thus remedying the problems that we describe. We conclude with policy recommendations aimed at improving justice within the system.

Education, poverty and social exclusion: assessment of youth leaving care

Amartya Sen's Human Capability Approach considers education a pivotal indicator of human development, and means to reduce poverty and social exclusion. In developing nations like India, education has remained inaccessible to many, especially vulnerable children and youth. Upon turning 18 years of age, youth who have lived in child care institutions are expected to leave care and transition into independent life on their own. While they receive basic education and vocational training in care, it falls short of quality higher education necessary for a smooth transition towards independent life. In an assessment of the situation of such youth in five States of India, Udayan Care, an NGO working with children and youth found that most of the Care Leavers (CLs) were forced to compromise on education and pursue jobs with low remuneration. This study examines the interrelatedness of education, poverty and social exclusion among CLs through secondary literature and empirical data from Udayan Care's national study. Analysing the findings from the lens of the Capability Approach, the gaps in provisions of educational support to CLs and subsequent limitations to address challenges of poverty and social exclusion of this population are highlighted, also making recommendations on ways to improve CLs’ outcomes.

The Origins of Behavioural Public Policy

The Origins of Behavioural Public Policy

Assessing socio-economic development in Bodoland Territorial Area District of Assam in India

PurposeThe study attempts to assess the socio-economic development in Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD) of Assam in North Eastern Region of India. This region is one of the most underdeveloped areas in India. The study also examines whether demographic and social characteristics in the form of social groups, number of family members, number of employed members in the family, education of the head of household, sources of income and location determine the variation in the level of socio-economic development. The authors surveyed 400 households during February to May 2018 in both rural and urban areas of BTAD to achieve the objective of the study.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use the concept of Amartya Sen's capability approach (CA) for assessment of development and constructed an index of Multidimensional Development.FindingsThere is variation in the distribution of developmental parameters across the study area. It is found that urban locations have better achievement in the multidimensional index score, while the spread of development is not even in the rural locations. An interesting revelation of this study is that while urban areas depict better performance in income, asset, education and empowerment, they have a relatively lower score in health dimension as compared to rural areas. The study shows that level of development depends on demographic as well as social characteristics of the households.Research limitations/implicationsThis study does not analyse temporal dynamics of development that is necessary to examine how development evolves because of data constraints.Originality/valueThe study provides an understanding of the socio-economic development in BTAD area in a multidimensional framework. This study is the first of its kind to assess the nature and extent of development realised in BTAD through the capability framework. The study supports more recent findings.

Human Capabilities and Instrumental Freedoms Relationship: An Empirical Investigation

Purpose of the study: In Development as freedom, Amartya Sen confirmed the crucial "instrumental" role of five kinds of freedoms in the promotion of capabilities and therefore in the process of human development in general. These are political freedoms, economic facilities, transparency guarantees, social opportunities, and protective security. This paper has three empirical objectives: 1) to measure the effect of instrumental freedoms on capabilities, 2) to verify if this effect becomes stronger once instrumental freedoms are interconnected, and 3) to verify whether this relationship is moderated by the level of economic development achieved by each country. Methodology: To achieve these three objectives, this article confronts the second-order construct of "instrumental freedoms" (as an exogenous variable) with five first-order constructs (as endogenous variables). The five endogenous latent variables reflect the capabilities of health, education, housing, employment, and communication and mobility at the level of the sixty countries selected as the analysis samples. The estimation of the hierarchical structural model is done using the partial least squares approach and the repeated indicator method. Main Findings: This study highlights three major results: 1) The existence of a significant effect of instrumental freedoms on the five relevant capabilities selected. 2) When instrumental freedoms interconnect, they reinforce each other and their effect on human capabilities becomes stronger. 3) The multi-group analysis suggests that instrumental freedoms positively and significantly impact human capabilities in the same way in both developed and developing countries. Research implications: Freedom plays a "constitutive" and "instrumental" role in the development process. To provide people with the freedom to live according to their aspirations, public policies must be empowering. In other words, they should improve the instrumental perspective of at least three essential freedoms: political freedoms, economic facilities, and transparency guarantees. Novelty/Originality of this study: Apart from the works which attempted to operationalize Amartya Sen's capability approach, the relationship between instrumental freedoms and human capabilities has not been the subject of empirical studies. This paper is intended as a contribution to this field of investigation.

A review of the World Health Organization’s discourses of equity

Abstract Given the heightened rhetorical prominence the World Health Organization has afforded to equity in the past half-century, it is important to better understand how equity has been referred to and its conceptual underpinning, which may have broader global implications. Therefore, this study conducted a scoping review and focused on peer-reviewed literature by scanning Ovid MEDLINE and SCOPUS databases, and supplementing by hand-search. Articles were included if they met inclusion criteria - chiefly the explicit discussion of the WHO's concept of health equity, for example in terms of conceptualization and/or definitions. Articles which mentioned health equity in the context of WHO's programs, policies, and so on, but did not discuss its conceptualization or definition were excluded. Results demonstrate the WHO has held - and continues to hold - ambiguous, inadequate, and contradictory views of equity that are rooted in different theories of social justice. Moving forward, the WHO should revaluate its conceptualization of equity and normative position, and align its work with Amartya Sen's Capabilities Approach, as it best encapsulates the broader views of the organization. Further empirical research is needed to assess the WHO interpretations and approaches to equity. Key messages The WHO has held — and continues to hold — ambiguous, inadequate, and contradictory views of equity that are rooted in different theories of social justice. The WHO should revaluate its conceptualization of equity and normative position, and align its work with Amartya Sen’s Capabilities Approach.

Em busca de uma alternativa para o utilitarismo: recursos ou capacidades?

O presente artigo tem por objetivo, por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, comparar três teorias de justiça: o utilitarismo, o igualitarismo de recursos de Ronald Dworkin e a abordagem das capacidades de Amartya Sen. Constatou-se a insuficiência da perspectiva utilitarista em virtude de obscurecer a pluralidade ínsita aos complexos valores humanos, de negligenciar o papel da agência na moral e na ética e por apostar em uma metodologia cegamente calculista. O igualitarismo de recursos de Dworkin, por sua vez, propõe um teste para aferir a equidade de distribuição de recursos entre os membros de uma sociedade.Já Sen elabora uma teoria focada nas capacidades das pessoas para viverem a vida que valorizam, transferindo o enfoque dos meios para os fins. Conclui-se que as dimensões dos recursos e das capacidades devem ser reciprocamente exploradas em cada um desses autores, de modo a evitar a negligência aos fatores que influenciam a conversão de renda em qualidade de vida e afastar os riscos da consolidação de um Estado paternalista.

Assessing transport related social exclusion using a capabilities approach to accessibility framework: A dynamic Bayesian network approach

Accessibility is considered to be a valuable concept that can be used to generate insights on issues related to social exclusion due to limited access to transport options. Recently, researchers have attempted to link accessibility with popular theories of social justice such as Amartya Sen's Capabilities Approach (CA). Such studies have set the theoretical foundations on the way accessibility can be expressed through the CA, however, attempts to operationalise this approach remain fragmented and predominantly qualitative in nature. In this study, a novel framework of expressing accessibility at the level of an individual is proposed, based on the basic elements of the CA. In particular, dynamic Bayesian networks are used to express the causal relationship between capabilities, functionings, personal and environmental characteristics. This is done by introducing informative Dirichlet prior distributions constructed using data from traditional mobility surveys, modelling the transition probabilities with data related to place based characteristics and defining an observation model from unlabelled mobility data and places of interest (POI). We demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed framework by assessing the equality levels and their link to transport related social exclusion of different population groups in London, using unlabelled, service provider generated mobility data.

Impacts of hunting prohibitions on multidimensional well-being

Prohibitions against wildlife hunting often have impoverishing outcomes for rural households. Previous research has emphasized the financial losses and attributed material deprivation as the motivation for illegal wildlife hunting. However, this narrow focus does not capture the values rural communities ascribe to hunting nor consider the broader outcomes hunting bans have on multidimensional well-being. In this study, we utilize Amartya Sen's capability approach to gain a deeper understanding of hunting bans' effects. Iterative content analysis of 435 interviews with respondents from three study sites located within or near protected areas in southern Africa revealed that individuals hunt for three primary reasons: to procure meat for household consumption, to manage human-wildlife conflict, and to generate revenue via commercial poaching. When detailing the impacts of hunting prohibitions, respondents overwhelmingly emphasized the instrumental value of hunting. They described significant material losses that are deeply intertwined with a broad range of non-material costs to well-being. The strongest objections to wildlife regulations centered on how they serve to humanize animals while de-humanizing people. Additionally, the non-material impacts of hunting bans exacerbated discontent with material losses arising from conservation. We find a need to critically examine the non-material losses of conservation given their potential to alienate rural communities, increase resistance, and undermine local residents' voluntary participation in conservation efforts.

Narrative Capability: Self-Recognition and Mutual Recognition in Refugees' Storytelling

Abstract “Who are you?” This request for narrative in the testimony of refugees poses the problem of how refugees can define their identity. This determination is the result of a process influenced by external input, where media representations play a central role. This article aims to reflect on the relationship between the process of the recognition of refugees and the act of narration, based on the conceptual bridge between Paul Ricoeur's theoretical thought and Amartya Sen's capability approach.

Narrative Capability: Self-Recognition and Mutual Recognition in Refugees' Storytelling

Abstract “Who are you?” This request for narrative in the testimony of refugees poses the problem of how refugees can define their identity. This determination is the result of a process influenced by external input, where media representations play a central role. This article aims to reflect on the relationship between the process of the recognition of refugees and the act of narration, based on the conceptual bridge between Paul Ricoeur's theoretical thought and Amartya Sen's capability approach.

The social construction of disability and the capabilities approach: Implications for nursing.

Improving the health and well-being of people with disabilities (PWD) should be included https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=justice-distributivein any strategies aimed at eliminating health disparities and achieving health equity in the United States. However, practitioners and policymakers often overlook disability when considering health equity. This is problematic because structural injustices including social and environmental barriers frequently worsen health for PWD. A commitment to social justice, however, dictates that everyone should have equitable opportunities to participate in chosen aspects of life to the best of their abilities and desires. We use a critical commentary to provide suggestions for the nursing discipline. Specifically, we 1) position the disparities in health and well-being experienced by PWD as matters of equity and social justice, 2) describe Amartya Sen's capabilities approach, and 3) provide suggestions for incorporating tenets of the capabilities approach into nursing practice, research, and policy. The capabilities approach can provide a useful framework to guide nursing practice, research, and policy in order to advance social justice for PWD.

Understanding travel and differential capabilities and functionings in Beijing

The social impacts of transport systems and new transport infrastructure have often been overlooked and undervalued, partly because the relationship between transport and social equity is indirect and difficult to quantify. Researchers have usefully investigated the relationship between transport and social exclusion, focusing on aspects such as access to opportunities and activities by different population cohorts such as income, class, age, ethnicity and gender. The analysis has focused on addressing the imbalance in the distributional effects of transport provision and accessibility planning has often been a central tool in analysis. This paper seeks to build on the aforementioned research, employing Amartya Sen's Capabilities Approach as a theoretical framework to explore how an individual's capabilities and functionings differ in relation to transport. Beijing is used as a case study, with analysis from three stations on the Beijing subway line 1 and its extension to the Batong line, namely Guomao, Sihui and Tuqiao. Martha Nussbaum's Central Human Capabilities Approach is used to frame the analysis. The results show that functionings and capabilities differ according to an individual's socio-economic characteristics and geographical location, meaning that both the opportunities to participate in life and also the actual activities themselves differ. This is an important distinction that the Capabilities Approach offers, and it is useful to consider if the potential for achieving improved social equity is to be realised.

Challenges Faced by Unemployed People in Lesotho: A Case of Manonyane Rural Community

ABSTRACTUnemployment continues to be a social problem confronting numerous countries worldwide. In Lesotho, poverty and unemployment are rife in rural areas. This study sought to establish the profile of unemployed people, their challenges and how they cope with unemployment. This was a quantitative study with a sample size of 120 unemployed people drawn from Manonyane rural area in the Maseru district of Lesotho. Data were gleaned utilizing questionnaires and the data analysis was done using Microsoft Excel. This study was anchored on Amartya Sen's Capability Approach, which is suitable for the assessment of individual well-being and social arrangements. The study unearthed that most of the unemployed were young adults averaging 33 years of age and they faced numerous challenges which revolved around lack of money, limited capabilities and few functionings. Since 2010, none of the respondents reported that their level of poverty had decreased and again none reported that the level of poverty in their village had decreased. The majority of the respondents (52, 42.5%) rated themselves as poor while 42 (35%) saw themselves as very poor. This study holds that without the concerted efforts of various stakeholders, the challenges confronting the unemployed will get worse. It is envisaged that the findings will be a stepping stone for policy makers, government ministries, non-governmental organizations and philanthropists in their quest to address the needs of the unemployed people in this community. The study also proffers suggestions to Lesotho policy makers.

A framework to analyse inclusiveness of urban policy

From 2007 onwards, Indian policy planning follows the broad vision of achieving inclusive growth. All sectors of national development align their policy objectives towards this overall vision. Urban policy is one such crucial policy sector oversees by the Ministry of urban development. This paper analyses the urban policy and investigates its impact in achieving inclusive urban growth in India. The traditional methodology of analysing urban policy by utility or output has its own limitations. It only considers summary variables of policy (utility or benefits) but not the situational variation on ground. Further, it cannot quantify the precise time of the change in opportunities or ability occurred over time. So it cannot inform the moment when a policy achieves its objectives. The research employs human capability instead of utility to overcome the present limitations. The analysis methodology is adapted from Professor Amartya Sen's capability approach. Capability approach emphasises a shift in policy analysis from direct assistance to expansion of opportunities and eliminate circumstantial imperfection in governance. The approach aims towards empowering urban citizen, and advancement towards the direction of more self-reliance society.

La reprise d’études universitaires : entre continuité et rupture

The presented study pursued the objective to analyze the dialectic break/continuity susceptible to cross the transition of resumption of studies to the university, of the decision-making in the real-life experience of the first one-month of training. For that purpose, two models were summoned, that of motivations Push/Pull, Antipush/Antipull of Mullet, Lunch, Lemaire, Raiff and Barthorpe (2000) and that of the transitional processes proposed by Perret-Clermont and Zittoun (2002), as well as the concept of perceived social support completed of the notion of perceived social brake. The analysis of semi-directive conversations led with 10 adults in resumption of studies in a university of Île-de-France first brought to the foreground four motivational, certain dynamics more marked with the seal of the break (early or consummate), others more registered in a professional continuity (to develop or to install). Then, the analysis identified the most notable upheavals of the experience of the first months of training (identity plan and management of the various spheres of activity). Finally, it appeared that the social supports perceived, although important throughout the transition, vary in nature and function in each of the two periods of transition studied (decision, beginning of training). The results are particularly discussed in terms of Amartya Sen's capability approach.

Mobile Money Users' Functionings and Freedoms: Amartya Sen's Capability Approach

Over the last decade Amartya Sen's Capability Approach has emerged as the leading alternative to standard economic frameworks for thinking about poverty, inequality and human development generally. Professor Sen has developed, refined and defended a framework that is directly concerned with human capability and freedom [1]. This framework as it looks at peoples' freedoms and the means that enable them attain such freedoms, was found suitable for this study. This study therefore looked at mobile money users' functionings and freedoms in both rural and urban settings. The framework was therefore established to be suitable in studying societal development that focuses on the people, the development being yearned for and the means to attain such development.

An Evaluation of Information Systems Students Internship Programs in Nigeria: A Capability Perspective

AbstractMost published research on Information Systems (IS) education in developing countries have focused on curriculum design, transfer and implementation issues. Research focusing on the evaluation of these programs and concrete analysis in terms of their long‐term developmental impact have been limited. In this paper, Amartya Sen's capability approach served as a theoretical lens for assessing the effectiveness of internship programs for IS students and their contributions to human development. We use the key elements of the capability approach to focus on the developmental impact. We based our evaluation on IS students industrial work scheme in Nigeria. Our analysis shows that, even though the scheme has been designed to further the development of student, the lack of conversion factors makes the program contextually problematic. The study concludes with some recommendations for policy makers advancing an agenda for the improvement of IS education and internships programs for students in tertiary institutions.

From economic choice to social choice in coastal management: A critical assessment of the use of cost-benefit analysis in the evaluation of an erosion control project in Flagler County, Florida, U.S.A.

Sustainable development remains of general interest in both political and academic circles. Importantly, the approach to collective decision making adopted in pursuit of sustainable development has importance repercussions regarding what range of possible informational considerations get incorporated as relevant to a given choice exercise. The most dominant approach to environmental public policy assessment, which I discuss under the rubric of economic choice, is interested in maximizing utility, measured in monetary metrics, and evaluates alternatives using cost-benefit analysis (CBA). CBA is a process which requires the quantification and monetization of all relevant considerations, a tendency which some critics suggest makes the outcomes of this technique inaccurate, exclusionary and negligent of the question of distribution. While these criticisms are practically important, they are also theoretically manageable within the economic choice approach, requiring improvements in its use rather than its abandonment. In contrast, I advance a different kind of criticism aimed at identifying contradictions internal to the economic choice approach itself which can only be resolved by rejecting its basic assumptions and replacing them with better ones. In particular I point to the inadequacy of the underlying assumption inherent in economic choice that income is a satisfactory representation of human well-being. Instead, drawing on Amartya Sen's capabilities approach, I argue for the superiority of conceptualizing well-being in terms of the substantive freedoms and capabilities people actually have to pursue lives they have reason to value. This alternative approach, which I discuss under the rubric of social choice, has the capacity to incorporate informational considerations emphasized by economic choice; however, it is superior to economic choice because it can also incorporate a wide range of other informational considerations based on a plurality of reasons; that is, without the need to reference their contribution to income metrics specifically. The economic choice approach and social choice approach are compared and contrasted both theoretically and practically in relation to a coastal erosion control project currently being planned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Flagler County, Florida, U.S.A.

Material deprivation and capability deprivation in the midst of affluence: The case of young people in Australia

This paper presents Australian young people's perspectives on deprivation that they experience in the space of food and clothing. Amartya Sen's Capability Approach is used to characterise this as absolute capability deprivation. Lack of adequate food and clothing denies young people the capability to avoid shame and severely inhibits the intrinsically important capabilities of social participation and engagement in education.We use data obtained from groupwork and in-depth interviews with 193 young people to explore young Australians' experience of severe deprivation in food and clothing. Their stories are integrated with data on severe deprivation collected in a nationally representative survey of 9–14year olds (N=5440). The survey data show that food and clothing deprivation is notable among young people who are marginalised in other respects, for example, young people with disability, young carers and Indigenous young people. The analysis shows that the experience of severe deprivation in the space of food and clothing is associated with feelings of shame, exclusion from participation, and low levels of engagement with education. We consider how neoliberal constructions of poverty exacerbate young people's experience of deprivation, while at the same time undermining the contemporary political agenda of maximising human capital development.