Amartya Sen's Capability Approach Research Articles

Towards inclusive occupational therapy: Introducing the CORE approach for inclusive and occupation-focused practice.

Occupation is a human right and a social determinant of health. It is also taken for granted. Having access to, and participating in, occupation, is intricately linked to positive health and wellbeing. Despite theory and evidence to support the link between occupation, health and wellbeing, occupational therapists can struggle with applying an occupation focus in practice and knowing how to use occupational frameworks to enable occupation. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Capabilities, Opportunities, Resources and Environments (CORE) approach for inclusive and occupation-focused practice. It provides occupational therapists with a means of operationalising occupational enablement and facilitating social inclusion. The CORE approach is introduced by linking its main ideas to Economist and Nobel Prize Laureate Amartya Sen's capabilities approach, as well as findings from the author's doctoral research into entrenched disadvantage and social inclusion. Practical questions guided by the CORE approach's acronym are given to explore how the approach can be utilised alongside other occupational models and frameworks to encourage strategies for effective enablement through occupation for social inclusion. As experts in enabling occupation, occupational therapists can use the CORE approach to design occupation-focused interventions and promote inclusive occupational therapy.

Epistemic Proceduralism, Capabilities and Rights: An Approach from the Perspective of Amartya Sen

This paper expounds an exploratory study on the connections between Amartya Sen's capability approach and epistemic proceduralism focused on the measurement of poverty. The study describes the general features of Sen's approach and then analyses them from the perspective of epistemic proceduralism. Some difficulties were observed in the deliberative concept of democracy and the process of devising lists and consensuses to design tools for poverty measurement. We proved that the strongest link between the capability approach and epistemic proceduralism lies in the theoretical level. Therefore, whoever studies poverty and social needs has to cope with the challenge of applying the ideal of deliberative democracy to the definition of needs or lists of capabilities and provide arguments to ground rights.

Are Quality-Adjusted Life Years a Good Proxy Measure of Individual Capabilities?

BackgroundThere is a debate in the health economics literature concerning the most appropriate way of applying Amartya Sen’s capability approach in economic evaluation studies. Some suggest that quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) alone are adequate while others argue that this approach is too narrow and that direct measures of capability wellbeing provide a more extensive application of Sen’s paradigm.ObjectiveThis paper empirically explores whether QALYs provide a good proxy for individual capabilities.MethodsData is taken from a multinational cross-sectional survey of individuals with seven health conditions (asthma, arthritis, cancer, depression, diabetes, hearing loss, heart disease) and a healthy population. Each individual completed the ICECAP-A measure of capability wellbeing for adults and six health utility instruments that are used to generate QALYs, including EQ-5D and SF-6D. Primary analysis examines how well health utility instruments can explain variation in the ICECAP-A using ordinary least squares regression.ResultsThe findings show that all seven health conditions have a negative association on overall capability as measured by the ICECAP-A index. Inclusion of health utility instruments into separate regressions improves the predictive power of capability but on average, explains less than half of the variation in capability wellbeing. Individuals with arthritis appear to be less inhibited in terms of capability losses when accounting for health utility, yet those who have depression record significant reductions in capability relative to the healthy population even after accounting for the most commonly used health utility instruments.ConclusionThe study therefore casts doubt on the ability of QALYs to act as a reliable proxy measure of individuals’ capability.

Identifying and Measuring Capabilities for Career Development in NEET Young People

Amartya Sen's Capability Approach offers great potential as a conceptual fra­mework for promoting social justice and well-being through economic and edu­cational engagement. Yet the capability approach presents researchers with for­midable difficulties, not least because it is intentionally left incomplete, and little guidance is available on its application. It is therefore necessary to make choices in order to apply the approach to a specific context. This paper will introduce the issue of social justice in a career development context, and metho­dological challenges in researching capabilities. It will attempt to provide a rationale for methodological choices in four stages. Firstly, the choice of epistemology and ontology ; secondly, choices of level of analysis and disciplinary perspective ; thirdly, the choice of research methods. An example of career development with disadvantaged NEET young people (not in employment, education or training) in the United Kingdom will be considered.

Assessing the Well-Being of India's Elderly:Applying Amartya Sen's Capability Approach

Well-being is an inexplicit concept- hard to define and conceptualise, and even harder to operationalize. Composite measures using macro level data are no doubt important as they provide a broader picture but they can only give little insights on individual well-being. The current study is an attempt to bridge this gap by conducting an assessment of the well-being of India's elderly by applying Amartya Sen's Capability Approach. Since the indicators used as a proxy for the respective functioning achievements in each domain are of a mixed nature, an Optimal Scaling method is performed in order to identify the principal components of overall well-being which allows variables to be scaled at different levels as a result of non-linear relationships between them can be modelled. For comparison across the well-being domains, the fuzzy set approach has been employed that handles continuous and ordinal variables simultaneously, and is generally used in the capability approach for micro-level analysis. By disaggregating the overall well-being score by age and sex, the grim scenario of gender disparity in later life is evident across major domains, thus throwing light on the cultural paradox which still persists in India.

(De)familialization and (De)genderization – Competing or Complementary Perspectives in Comparative Policy Analysis?

AbstractThis article critically engages with Saxonberg's proposal (2013) to replace the (de)familialization perspective with the (de)genderization approach in comparative family policy/regime studies. It argues: (1) there is a need to refine the term ‘(de)familialization’ and to bring in the child's and elderly's perspective; (2) the ‘(de)familialization’ and ‘(de)genderization’ perspectives are mutually irreplaceable; and (3) there is a need to conceptualize the theoretical relationship between these two perspectives. The article further proposes to use the theoretical framework of Amartya Sen's Capability Approach (CA) to reinterpret both analytical perspectives with a dual advantage using that approach would lend. It first conceptualizes the de‐familializing and de‐genderizing policies as ‘means’ designed to increase peoples' ‘capabilities’ to achieve ‘valued functionings’ and not ultimate goals of policies that aim to change people's ‘functionings’. Thus, it addresses the criticism of de‐familialization and de‐genderization as policy strategies that enforce certain, potentially controversial ideals of societal and familial relations. Second, by using crucial CA concepts, i.e. ‘means’, ‘capabilities’ and ‘functionings’, it refines the interpretation of policy‐, regime‐ and outcome‐oriented analyses (typologies). As a result, it clarifies the distinction between these types of analyses and highlights the advantages of both a policy approach and a redefined regime approach.

Amartya Sen's Capabilities Approach and Communication for Development and Social Change

This article argues that Amartya Sen's capabilities approach to development should be employed as an overarching conceptual framework for studies of communication for development and social change ( CDSC), presenting two justifications. First, the capabilities approach offers CDSC researchers a definition of development, one that is interdisciplinary, cosmopolitan, and oriented to public communication. This approach resembles the scope of modernization theory but is free of modernization theory's dichotomous thinking, neoliberal assumptions, and ethnocentrism. Second, CDSC research can contribute to the capability approach's analysis of communication. I review key capabilities concepts and illustrate the relevance to the capabilities approach of CDSC theory and research. A conclusion summarizes benefits of a capabilities approach to the study of CDSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Qualitative Study Exploring Matters of Ill-being and Well-being in Norwegian Activation Policy

This article is based on a qualitative study exploring reasons for ill-being and well-being among twenty participants in a Norwegian activation programme. The Qualification Programme aims to enhance participants’ overall life situations and employability by offering work training to long-term social assistance recipients, among other things. As an analytic framework for discussing ill-being and well-being, this article employs Amartya Sen's capability approach, which assesses the individual's ability to live a good life, and Martha Nussbaum's conceptualisation of that approach. The findings indicate that hardship was demonstrated in the respondents’ lives: participants could not cope financially and suffered from mental and physical health problems, while shame worsened their circumstances. However, participants also showed signs of enhanced well-being as they experienced increased individual agency. The study indicated a disparity between the intended and the actual direction of change in the lives of programme participants.

Revising Amartya Sen’s capability approach to education for ethical development

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether Amartya Sen's capability approach can suggest an appropriate theory of education for ethical development. Many advocates of Sen's capability approach insist that his approach is superior to rival theories of education, including the human capital theory. This is because Sen emphasizes the purpose and various roles of education for achieving substantial freedom while rival theories focus on the instrumental aspects of education. A focus on rival educational theories often results in the negative effects seen occurring in colonial education. In principle, we agree with the advocates of Sen’s capability approach. However, we doubt that Sen’s emphasis is sufficient for guaranteeing that his capability approach is the appropriate theory of education for application in the context of ethical development. It does not have theoretical completion, and it gives no guidance as to conflict resolution concerning the roles, or value, of education. Nor does it give guidance as to how to implement pedagogical strategies. This incompletion allows economically instrumental values to dominate intrinsic values and non-economically instrumental values, as seen with the educational Millennium Development Goals. This prioritization is what has occurred in colonial education through the application of human capital theory. We suggest that in Sen’s capability approach, firstly, the meaning of the intrinsic value of education should be clarified; secondly, the non-economically instrumental roles of education should be explicated in the context of development; and finally, the priority of the intrinsic and the non-economically instrumental roles of education value should be taken over the economically instrumental values. In this revised theory, people’s substantive freedom is achievable through education, people’s aboriginal identities and values remain intact, and developing countries take seriously pedagogical strategies.

The Coupling of Disadvantages: Material Poverty and Multiple Deprivation in Europe before and after the Great Recession

This paper examines the impact of the Great Recession on material poverty and multiple deprivation in Europe. Applying as its conceptual framework Poverty as Capability Deprivation (Hick 2014), which is one specification of Amartya Sen's capability approach, and employing the Alkire-Foster adjusted headcount measure, the paper draws on data from the EU Survey of Income and Living Conditions to present a multidimensional poverty analysis of 24 EU Member States at four time points: 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2013. The analysis shows that the pre-crisis period was associated with substantial reductions in multidimensional poverty in Europe, with the largest reductions occurring in the poorest Member States. However, the Southern European countries largely failed to benefit from these pre-crisis poverty reductions and, when the crisis hit, experienced the largest increases in multidimensional poverty in Europe. These patterns reflect a changing geography of poverty within the European Union, increasingly concentrated away from the East, and towards the South.

What can forest values tell us about human well-being? Insights from two biosphere reserves in Madagascar

The article discusses the relationship between conceptions of forest values among local people in Madagascar and human capabilities. According to Amartya Sen's capability approach, capabilities include both the means of maintaining a livelihood and intangible elements that are necessary to achieve overall well-being. In a qualitative case study in Madagascar's Mananara-Nord and Sahamalaza Biosphere Reserves, we investigated local peoples’ conceptions of forest values. Our analysis revealed that forest-value categories fall under a range of ecosystem services and are therefore clustered accordingly. The distinction between instrumental and intrinsic values indicates the broad spectrum on which local people conceive the benefits they derive from the forest. This article discusses the interconnection between instrumental and intrinsic forms of forest value and the important role played by intrinsic values in promoting well-being and conservation. It also addresses the nature of the capabilities that are based on the perceived forest values. Two conclusions are drawn. First, local population's views on valuable natural elements serve to indicate what they consider important for the achievement of well-being. Second, capabilities based on such natural values are vital for their collective sense of sustainable development and need to be given greater consideration in sustainable natural resource and land management.

The capability set for work: development and validation of a new questionnaire.

The aim of this study was to develop a questionnaire to measure work capabilities based on Amartya Sen's capability approach and evaluate its validity. The development of the questionnaire was based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods: interviews, literature study, and an expert meeting. Additionally, in a survey, the validity was evaluated by means of hypotheses testing (using correlations and regression analyses). The questionnaire consists of a set of seven capability aspects for work. For each aspect, it is determined whether it is part of a worker's capability set, ie, when the aspect is considered valuable, is enabled in work, and is realized. The capability set was significantly correlated with work role functioning-flexibility demands (-0,187), work ability (-0.304), work performance (-0.282), worked hours (-0.073), sickness absence (yes/no) (0.098), and sickness absence days (0.105). The capability set and the overall capability item are significantly associated with all work outcomes (P<0.010). The new capability set for work questionnaire appears to be a valid instrument to measure work capabilities. The questionnaire is unique because the items include the valued aspects of work and incorporate whether a worker is able to achieve what (s)he values in his/her work. The questionnaire can be used to evaluate the capability set of workers in organizations to identify aspects that need to be addressed in interventions.

Sustainable employability--definition, conceptualization, and implications: A perspective based on the capability approach.

The aim of this paper is to propose a new model of sustainable employability based on the capability approach, encompassing the complexity of contemporary work, and placing particular emphasis on work-related values. Having evaluated existing conceptual models of work, health, and employability, we concluded that prevailing models lack an emphasis on important work-related values. Amartya Sen's capability approach (CA) provides a framework that incorporates a focus on values and reflects the complexity of sustainable employability. We developed a model of sustainable employability based on the CA. This model can be used as starting point for developing an assessment tool to investigate sustainable employability. A fundamental premise of the CA is that work should create value for the organization as well as for the worker. This approach challenges researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners to investigate what people find important and valuable--what they would like to achieve in a given (work) context--and moreover to ascertain whether people are able and enabled to do so. According to this approach, it is not only the individual who is responsible for achieving this; the work context is also important. Rather than merely describing relationships between variables, as existing descriptive models often do, the CA depicts a valuable goal: a set of capabilities that constitute valuable work. Moreover, the CA fits well with recent conceptions of health and modern insights into work, in which the individual works towards his or her own goals that s/he has to achieve within the broader goals of the organization.

Child Poverty and Ecological Contexts of Deprivation and Well‐being: A Critical Review of Budgeting and Social Policy in India

AbstractIn the context of global developments in the measurement of child poverty, this article critiques the limited success of the Indian government to develop a comprehensive social policy approach to address multi‐faceted deprivation suffered by Indian children. Since independence in 1947, Indian governments have focused on childhood deprivation through various programmes to improve food security, education and health. However, these programmes have functioned in siloes without any linkages to each other, along with poor budgetary commitment which has resulted in sub‐optimal policy outcomes. Based on the theoretical approaches of Amartya Sen's capability approach and Townsend's consensual approach to poverty measurement, this article highlights the intrinsic importance of child well‐being to society. To achieve its objectives, the article is organized into four main parts. First, the article provides an overview of Indian children's deprivation and poverty, and the policy approach. Second, it provides conceptual advancements globally on the measurement of child poverty and deprivation. Third, it highlights the importance of utilizing these indicators to measure child poverty in the Indian context. Fourth, it concludes with a critical analysis of children's budgets and social policy in India to highlight that the Indian government's approach towards child well‐being is not only conceptually flawed, but that its commitment is extremely poor.

Valuing Nature: Connecting Eco-Economy and the Capability Approach

This article analyses Kitchen and Marsden's eco-economy by asking whether it manages to dissolve the untenable dualism of facts and values associated with the positivistic distinction between normative and positive economy. The analysis shows that a tension still exists within eco-economy between accepting normative considerations and operating with certain welfare-economic assumptions not embracing the entanglement between facts and values. This tension is sought to be dissolved by connecting eco-economy with Amartya Sen's capability approach, thereby contributing to the future development of eco-economy exemplified by the notion of entrepreneurism and policy-making.

Exploring public transport as an element of older persons' mobility: A Capability Approach perspective

This study employs Amartya Sen's Capability Approach as a guiding conceptual framework in the exploration of public transport as an element of mobility among the young-old living in Stockholm, Sweden. The aim is to shed light on the variation in mobility resources of those who perceive they can use public transport as their primary mode of transport and of those who perceive they cannot (‘mobility capability element’), as well as that of those using public transport and of those not using it (‘mobility functioning element’). Increasing residential density, being female and having a higher functional capacity were among the mobility resources which produced a positive increase in the likelihood of considering it possible to use, and the use of, public transport. The higher the ratio of cars to household member, the lower the likelihood of including public transport as a mobility capability element or as a mobility functioning element. Most of those who included public transport use as both a mobility capability element and a mobility functioning element were also users of the private car. There was also a tendency towards car use rather than towards no travel if the individual was not a user of public transport. Through the application of the Capability Approach, this paper facilitates further insight into the variation in mobility resources, corresponding mobility capability and mobility functioning elements of this group, with respect to public transport. It also opens up questions for the future employment of this conceptual framework within transport research.

Inequality, sustainability and Piketty's capital

In this article I address the implications of Thomas Piketty's book Capital in the Twenty-First Century for our understanding of inequality and sustainability, drawing upon Amartya Sen's capability approach, and the revival of classical political economy it brings. I argue that Piketty's contribution is a significant one which has the potential to lead economic analysis in a more fruitful direction. But its potential becomes much greater if its empirical analysis is combined with the revival of classical political economy undertaken by Sen and other authors, rather than with marginalist theory.

Assessing the contribution of ecosystem services to human wellbeing: A disaggregated study in western Rwanda

Lack of attention to social complexity has created a gap between current ecosystem service research and the kind of insights needed to inform ecosystem management in the tropics. To contribute to closing this gap, this study applies a methodology for exploring complex linkages between ecosystem services and human wellbeing. This builds on emerging frameworks for studying multiple dimensions of human wellbeing, drawing on Amartya Sen's capabilities approach to human development. The approach is applied to an empirical case study of three sites adjacent to native tropical forest in western Rwanda. The value of exploring social complexity in ecosystem services research is illustrated through its contribution to understanding a) different types of values; b) disaggregation of people; c) power relations and their influence on trade-offs; d) the importance of multiple land use types in the landscape; and e) changes and their drivers at multiple scales. The analysis reveals that the majority of services valued by forest-adjacent Rwandan inhabitants are not provided by tropical forests but by other habitats. We suggest that more integrated landscape governance may offer synergistic opportunities for conservation and development.

Assessing sufficient capability: A new approach to economic evaluation

Amartya Sen's capability approach has been discussed widely in the health economics discipline. Although measures have been developed to assess capability in economic evaluation, there has been much less attention paid to the decision rules that might be applied alongside. Here, new methods, drawing on the multidimensional poverty and health economics literature, are developed for conducting economic evaluation within the capability approach and focusing on an objective of achieving “sufficient capability”. This objective more closely reflects the concern with equity that pervades the capability approach and the method has the advantage of retaining the longitudinal aspect of estimating outcome that is associated with quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), whilst also drawing on notions of shortfall associated with assessments of poverty. Economic evaluation from this perspective is illustrated in an osteoarthritis patient group undergoing joint replacement, with capability wellbeing assessed using ICECAP-O. Recommendations for taking the sufficient capability approach forward are provided.

Using the Capability Approach to Conceptualise Inequality in Archaeology: the Case of the Late Neolithic Bosnian Site Okolište c. 5200–4600 bce

The past few decades have witnessed a growing realisation that market-based measures of human well-being-measures that centre on income and consumption distributions-miss some other perhaps even more essential elements of human well-being. This insight has found a prominent expression in the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen's so-called capability approach. At the same time, the market-based measure of inequality as a function of the distribution of material remains in graves and other locations remain dominant in archaeology. In this paper, we explore the significance of the capability approach, and the associated concept of human well-being based on the idea of capabilities, to the archaeology of social inequality and social malintegration. We discuss these notions using the case study of the Late Neolithic Bosnian tell site Okolite and argue that there, in c. 5200-4600 bce, the monopolisation of certain critical goods led to a critical capability inequality, malintegration and to a prolonged period of social unrest and decline.