Climate impacts are unevenly distributed, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities. However, quantitative assessments of the multidimensional challenges people face during climate events remain limited. To address this gap, this study provides a human-centred assessment of flood burdens in Denmark through the lens of the Capability Approach (CA). This study develops a theoretical framework linking flood impacts with CA, identifies 9 key human capabilities affected by flooding in Denmark, and calculates a societal damage cost that goes beyond conventional economic assessments by quantifying 3 hidden costs related to lost human capabilities and functionings: increased time for post-flood household and other related tasks, illness, and increased travel-time. Finally, this study develops a novel non-linear weighting method, using regression-derived elasticities, to assess the inequality burden of floods across Danish municipalities based on socio-demographic factors: age, income, education. Findings reveal that conventional economic assessments substantially underestimate flood damage burdens. Including the 3 hidden costs adds approximately 7.92% (30 million EUR) to Denmark’s total flood damage cost, rising to 32% in some municipalities. The inequality burden analysis, driven by socio-demographic factors adds an additional 0.79–3.27% to the Danish flood damage burden. This burden varies widely (0.03% − 18.61%) across municipalities demonstrating that a uniform policy response would be inequitable as the burden is higher for island municipalities with specific social characteristics. The framework and methods developed provide essential tools for informing effective and targeted climate policy. The approach is adaptable and can be applied to measure the inequality burdens of other climate events and in other countries.

Urban inequality and the financialization of housing call for a reconsideration of centralized municipal finance. This study introduces Decentralized Behavioral Finance (DBF), a framework integrating behavioral economics, blockchain infrastructures, and participatory governance to realign individual incentives with collective urban outcomes. Grounded in Sen's capability approach, Nash equilibrium theory, and libertarian paternalism, DBF links tokenization and behavioral design to accessibility, capital efficiency, and cooperative stability. Using longitudinal data for Spain (2000–2024) and evidence from tokenized housing initiatives, the analysis shows that citizen participation and technological adoption are positively associated with governance stability and social housing outcomes, while capital concentration exhibits a negative relationship with stability. The paper advances a formal Cooperative Stability Condition, expressed as a structural inequality, under which decentralized governance remains stable when participation amplified by technological enforcement outweighs concentration pressures. By introducing a testable equilibrium condition rather than a descriptive governance model, the study offers an internationally transferable framework for participatory urban finance focused on transparency, inclusion, and institutional resilience. • Introduces a formal Cooperative Stability Condition for urban governance • Integrates behavioral economics and blockchain in municipal finance • Shows participation × technology offsets capital concentration • Provides longitudinal evidence (Spain, 2000–2024) • Proposes a transferable equilibrium framework for cities

Traditional approaches to evaluating transport network vulnerability primarily focus on technical performance metrics or economic costs, often overlooking the societal and human impacts of disruptions. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a novel framework that integrates the Capability Approach (CA) into flood-vulnerability assessment of transport networks, thus linking individuals’ real freedoms to pursue valued life outcomes. A metric, Capability-Link-Dependency is used to quantify how transport disruptions can potentially constrain individual capabilities to access essential services such as healthcare, food, education and emergency services. A case study in Fingal County, Ireland, demonstrates how communities may experience severe accessibility losses even when located outside flood zones. The findings highlight that vulnerability assessments should incorporate wellbeing to ensure equitable resilience planning. This approach identifies both critical links and socially vulnerable populations and provides a transferable framework that can be expanded to other hazards and geographic contexts.

Abstract This study investigates how spatial comfort and flexibility, social integration, and digital infrastructure shape sustainable micro-housing preferences among young adults aged 18–35 in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul. It develops and empirically tests a user-centered micro-housing model informed by participatory design principles and broader debates on safe, affordable, and inclusive urban housing. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, the Capability Approach, and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, the study employed a two-phase design. In the first phase, survey data from 410 participants were analyzed using chi-square tests, one-way analysis of variance, exploratory factor analysis, and covariance-based structural equation modeling in order to identify the spatial, social, and technological drivers of digital micro-housing preferences. In the second phase, qualitative feedback from 51 participants was thematically coded and used to further assess and refine the proposed typology. The analysis combined chi-square tests, one-way analysis of variance, Tukey’s honestly significant difference test, exploratory factor analysis, and covariance-based structural equation modeling, with mediation effects evaluated through bootstrap resampling. The final model demonstrated acceptable overall fit. The findings show that technological infrastructure and energy efficiency were the strongest predictors of willingness to live in digital micro-housing, followed by spatial comfort and flexibility, and safety and social cohesion. Together, these factors explained substantial variation in housing satisfaction and willingness to live, while housing satisfaction also played a significant mediating role. This study offers an empirically grounded, user-centered model for understanding digital micro-housing preferences among young adults in Beşiktaş, Istanbul. By integrating Self-Determination Theory, the Capability Approach, and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology within a single analytical framework, it contributes to a more multidimensional understanding of sustainable and participatory housing. The findings indicate that technological infrastructure, spatial flexibility, and socially secure shared environments play a central role in shaping housing satisfaction and willingness to live in digital micro-housing, highlighting their importance for youth-oriented housing design.

ABSTRACT This paper examines how communities affected by Uganda’s East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) perceive fairness in compensation for land expropriation, drawing on focus group discussions in four sampled districts and interviews with government officials. Using the capability approach as an interpretive framework, the study highlights the experiences of affected people regarding valuation, displacement and engagement with authorities. Participants consistently view compensation as unfair because of asset undervaluation, procedural exclusion and gendered payment practices, which threaten livelihoods, food security, housing, health, education and social ties. Widespread mistrust, perceived corruption and limited influence over valuation and decisions further diminish confidence in the process. Although officials emphasise adherence to national laws and safeguards, communities identify significant gaps between policy and practice. The findings show that fairness in expropriation hinges not only on monetary or procedural fairness but also on whether compensation effectively restores and enhances people’s capabilities. This research provides bottom-up evidence for ongoing debates on development-induced displacement and underscores the need for participatory, gender-sensitive and capability-based compensation approaches that frame land expropriation as a human development issue rather than merely a transactional matter.

Labour market-oriented adult education (AE) is a policy focus, nevertheless an ambivalent topic in academia. Policy attracts significant critique because it favours instrumental provision to support economic interests over emancipatory provision to support learner’s personal development. In this article, we contextualise this critique. We apply the capability approach (CA) to make room for both a moderate human capital and a humanistic understanding of AE. As a conceptual framework, the CA underpins an idiographic research interest in understanding how far active labour market policy (ALMP)-based AE programmes in Austria and Italy provide unemployed adults with the opportunity to choose educational and occupational pathways in a non-enforced fashion. Access, processes, and outcomes of the AE programmes are considered as dimensions where individual resources are converted into capability – the freedom to choose what one has reason to value. Differences among the countries emerge from the conceptual model, the modes of governance, and how the programmes are related to the education system. The article contributes a contextualised and critical, yet pragmatic view of labour market-oriented AE to the academic discourse and encourages empirical research focussing on the experiences of programme participants.

ABSTRACT Food insecurity among older adults in Ethiopia remains a major concern, especially during COVID-19. This study uses six waves (April – October 2020) of Ethiopia High-Frequency Phone Survey (EHFPS) data covering about 282 elderly-headed households to assess social protection. Guided by the Social Risk Management framework and Capability Approach, and using linear mixed models and propensity score matching, results show that social transfers (free food, cash transfers, public works) and pensions had little effect on food insecurity. In contrast, economic participation – wage employment, farming, and non-farm activities – reduced food insecurity. Findings highlight income generation, better targeting, and integrating social protection with health systems.

ABSTRACT Inclusive education (IE) has gained global momentum, yet the development of teachers as inclusive practitioners remains underexplored, particularly in comparative contexts. Framed by the Capability Approach (CA), this study investigates how teachers develop the opportunities and freedoms educators possess to develop, enact and sustain inclusive pedagogical practices and how national systems shape what they are able to do and become. Data were collected from 60 teachers working in Türkiye, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia (SA) through a multi-method design combining concept mapping, individual interviews, and focus groups, enabling a rich, comparative analysis of teacher experiences, institutional contexts, and evolving professional agency. Findings show that IE supports teacher development in four key domains: pedagogical adaptability, emotional resilience, collaborative professionalism, and reflective agency. However, systemic differences in policy, leadership, and cultural norms affect the depth and durability of these capabilities. The study uses a visual and dialogic methodology that centres teacher voice, supports cross-contextual learning, and reimagines inclusion not as a fixed policy goal, but as a dynamic, capability-expanding process.

The recent political turn in theorizing the corporation has drawn attention to the extensive power that corporations possess, but has not yet provided a systematic normative account of corporate political power. This article proposes a “political capability approach” to address this. It identifies four forms of corporate political power: law-making, governance, discursive, and democratic will-shaping. The approach differentiates politically significant corporations from ordinary ones along two dimensions: vertically, by how many of these capabilities a corporation possesses in combination; and horizontally, by the scale and reach of each. Conventional metrics such as firm size or wealth are imperfect proxies for political power. The political capability approach instead connects normative evaluation directly to the concrete powers corporations exercise. It offers a more nuanced and empirically grounded basis for assessing which corporations warrant democratic justification, and for matching regulatory remedies to the specific capabilities that threaten democratic values.

ABSTRACT Research on information literacy (IL) has long grappled with persistent tensions and diverse theoretical perspectives. Prominent debates revolve around whether IL should be viewed as a set of transferable generic skills or as a context-dependent practice; how agency in IL enactment should be theorised; and how IL intersects with political economy, social justice and ethics. This paper argues that the Capability Approach (CA) – a theoretical framework initially introduced by economist and philosopher Amartya Sen and further elaborated by philosophers and social scientists such as Martha Nussbaum and Ingrid Robeyns – offers valuable conceptual and theoretical resources for addressing these difficulties. Drawing on a critical examination of the CA, this study reconceptualises IL as ‘a set of combined capabilities for informed ways of doing and being’ and proposes the conceptual framework termed ‘Information Literacy as Capability (ILaC).’ The framework distinguishes information capabilities both from skills and practice, clarifies the relationship between informational well-being and informational agency, and integrates normative concerns in IL. The paper concludes by sketching research, education and policy implications for expanding real informational freedoms.

Biological family contact is critical to child wellbeing in non-relative substitute care. Drawing on the Capability Approach, this study sought to learn how and in what ways policy supporting family contact is carried out in practice and the impact on children. This qualitative study was conducted in the Czech Republic which has been transitioning from child institutional care to a foster care system. Sixty-six Czech stakeholders were interviewed across a spectrum of positions and perspectives, including care leavers, and child welfare professionals in NGO’s, children’s institutions, and government officials. Despite policies mandating parental involvement, care leavers often navigated family connections alone or were deliberately kept apart. Professionals often found it challenging and frustrating to engage parents, doubting it was in the best interests of the child. Some NGOs focused on effective parent engagement and saw success in reconnecting young people with their families. Practice recommendations include a shift toward prevention and family preservation, education of professionals about the importance of family connections, and empathy training to understand parent behaviors, needs, and motivations. The Capability Approach highlights the importance of child participation in decisions that affect their lives, including their right to know their own families.

ABSTRACT This study examines women’s well-being in Assam, India, through the lens of the Capability Approach to focus on women’s substantive freedoms and lived experiences. Drawing on large-scale primary survey data, the paper constructs a multidimensional Women’s Capability Index of Assam (WCIA) using the Alkire–Foster methodology at the individual level. The index captures four interrelated capability dimensions: health and hygiene, economic security, social relations, and psychological and emotional well-being, operationalised through eleven indicators reflecting both external conditions and internal freedoms, including dignity, mobility, voice, sleep adequacy, and exposure to violence. The results indicate that 31 per cent of women in Assam experience multidimensional capability deprivation, with deprived women facing substantial intensity of overlapping disadvantages. Decomposition and regression analyses reveal pronounced inequalities by education, work status, household structure, region, and social group, highlighting the vulnerability of unpaid family workers, unemployed women, and those with low education level. The findings underscore that women’s capability deprivation is shaped not only by material constraints but also by social norms, power relations, and institutional contexts. By offering a context-sensitive, capability-based measure of women’s well-being, the study contributes to empirical capability research in India and provides policy-relevant insights for advancing gender-equitable human development.

ABSTRACT In recent years, European Cohesion Policy has gained renewed significance amid rising inequalities in the European Union. This paper examines territorial cohesion by analyzing the Territorial Agenda 2030, the current strategic policy document for territorial development, through the lens of Amartya Sen's capabilities approach. It examines the policy framework of ‘A Just Europe’ and reveals theoretical connections with spatial justice, as well as policy-related overlaps with the social investment approach. The Agenda, by adopting a ‘new’ meaning of territorial cohesion, as ensuring ‘a sustainable future for all places and people in Europe’, introduces a human geography perspective that promotes an individual-based idea of cohesion linked to spatial justice and the social investment paradigm. However, social investment policies to date have revealed key limitations, primarily due to their lack of place sensitivity and their narrow focus on employability and human capital. The research question guiding this paper is how the Territorial Agenda 2030, the concept of spatial justice, and social investment policies can be meaningfully linked through Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach. This could enable a future social investment policy to emerge, one that is urgently needed in the current spatially challenging environment of ‘left-behind places’ and expanding ‘geographies of discontent’.

While debates on the rationale for Mixed Methods Research (MMR) persist, its practical application faces challenges, particularly concerning the quality of integration, which hinges on the successful combination of compatible paradigms with qualitative and quantitative methods. This article contributes to mixed methods research by outlining an integrative strategy within a convergent mixed methods design. It offers a comprehensive framework for studying complex social phenomena, such as the political participation and social movements of Afro-descendant women in Chocó, Colombia. This design is supported by a clearly defined purpose, a specific philosophical orientation, and a strong rationale for mixing. Notably, it uniquely integrates Intersectionality Theory and the Capabilities Approach within a Critical Realism paradigm, shaping both data collection and analytical strategy.

ABSTRACT China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) strategy is the cornerstone of the country’s poverty reduction efforts, lifting hundreds of millions of rural people out of poverty. However, existing research has seldom explored the dynamics of policy effects and the impact of phased implementation. This study, based on Amartya Sen’s ‘Capability Approach to Poverty’ and ‘Public Policy Diffusion Theory’, utilizes panel data from the 2010–2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) and employs a Multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID) model to identify the causal impacts and regional heterogeneity of the policy. The empirical results show that the TPA policy significantly reduced the provincial poverty incidence rate. Moreover, the policy demonstrates characteristics of dynamic persistence, meaning that its poverty reduction effects are cumulative and strengthen over time rather than diminishing. Importantly, the study reveals significant differences in policy effects during the ‘pilot-to-promotion’ diffusion process: early pilot regions, benefiting from the ‘first-mover advantage’, achieved better poverty reduction outcomes; while later promotion regions showed a similar poverty reduction trend, their effects were weaker. These findings provide crucial empirical evidence for the ‘post-poverty alleviation era’, indicating the necessity of transitioning to the governance of relative poverty and suggesting optimized, differentiated resource allocation strategies for future policy diffusion.

ABSTRACT This study challenges conventional development paradigms by positioning Northern Canada within the framework of the Global South. Through an interdisciplinary approach integrating Staples Theory, Postcolonial Theory, Dependency Theory, the Basic Needs Approach and the Capabilities Approach, it examines the socioeconomic, infrastructural and political marginalization of Northern Canada. This research highlights how resource dependency, infrastructural neglect and uneven human development interact in the context of Canadian political economy, drawing direct parallels to other historically colonized regions. This analysis demonstrates that Northern Canada’s dependency reflects not only extractivism-driven underdevelopment but also capability constraints, offering a novel framework for understanding subnational peripheralization. By reframing Northern Canada within this paradigm, this article disrupts the traditional Global North/South binary and argues for a more nuanced understanding of regional disparities. This perspective has profound implications for development policy, suggesting a need for localized governance, economic self-determination and equitable infrastructure investment.

ABSTRACT Undocumented migrant children in South Africa continue to face persistent barriers to accessing education, despite the 2019 Phakamisa Judgment, which affirmed that all children must be admitted to public schools regardless of legal status. Reports and commentary since the ruling reveal that many undocumented learners remain excluded, exposing a persistent gap between legal provisions and lived educational realities. This paper critically examines the Phakamisa Judgment alongside the 2024 White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection, which seeks to reform South Africa's migration framework, but fails to centre equity and human rights. Situated within the broader policy landscape, the paper identifies a troubling contradiction. While the Phakamisa Judgment promotes inclusive access, the White Paper reinforces restrictive migration controls that jeopardize undocumented children's educational rights. Employing the Capability Approach and Unterhalter's threefold conception of equity, the paper develops an evaluative framework to explore how legal and policy shifts shape these children's substantive opportunities to access education. The analysis demonstrates that exclusionary labelling and bureaucratic processes constrain agency and human development by obstructing educational participation. In doing so, the paper offers a conceptual critique that illuminates the ideological tensions underpinning South Africa's education and migration policies concerning undocumented migrant children.

ABSTRACT This case study evaluates how studying Toni Morrison’s trauma-focused novel, Beloved, contributed towards decolonial pedagogy within a Key Stage 5 (KS5) English Literature curriculum. The research involved an A-Level English Literature class of nine students at a co-educational independent boarding school in northern England. During students’ study of Beloved, a Capabilities Approach (CA) was used to evaluate how their learning challenged epistemic injustices to instead cultivate students’ “epistemic democracy” (Anderson, E. 2012. “Epistemic Justice as a Virtue of Social Institutions.” Social Epistemology 26:163–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2011.652211) within the classroom and their “epistemic contributions” (Fricker, M. 2015. “Epistemic Contribution as a Central Human Capability.” In The Equal Society: Essays on Equality in Theory and Practice, edited by G. Hull, 73–89. London: Lexington Books) to decolonial criticality. Evaluation then considers how these contributed towards pedagogical “repair” (Walker, M. 2024. “Repair in Education Spaces.” Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 25:1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2023.2297917). Data collection methods included participant observations and students’ written journals, classwork and focus groups. Thematic coding informed analysis. Findings identify that small steps towards decoloniality were achieved. Analysing Beloved illuminated the traumatic reality and legacy of slavery which sparked students’ critical engagement and “epistemic contributions” (Fricker, M. 2015. “Epistemic Contribution as a Central Human Capability.” In The Equal Society: Essays on Equality in Theory and Practice, edited by G. Hull, 73–89. London: Lexington Books) both verbally and in writing. These reflected some “transformational learning,” which perhaps constituted some pedagogical “repair” (Walker 2024) of historical injustices. However, confronting racial issues in the classroom exposed some “testimonial” and “hermeneutical” injustice felt by participants (Fricker 2015). Findings may support educators developing decolonial pedagogy and curricula.

The Union Budget of India serves as a financial blueprint for the upcoming financial year. It effectively balances economic reform, equity, and innovation. These are necessary for sustainable and inclusive development in a post-liberalisation context. This paper examines the Union Budget's evolution from a pre-1991 accounting tool that emphasised public-sector-led equity to a key lever driving market-oriented reforms. This study does its analysis on post-1991 budgets based on three theories. These are Keynesian fiscal principles, Sen's capability approach, and Schumpeterian innovation theory. There is also a detailed focus on 2019-2026 budgeting changes. Economic reforms feature fiscal consolidation, i.e., a deficit targeted at 4.3% of GDP in 2026–27, tax rationalisation, and surging capital expenditure. These reforms aim to boost infrastructure and competitiveness. Equity initiatives include progressive taxation, expanded social welfare, schemes like MGNREGA and direct benefit transfers. Even with these, we see gaps that are revealed through persistent inequality, like the Gini trends and income disparities. Innovation promotion includes R&D incentives, Startup India, Atal Innovation Mission, and frontier investments. The study highlights how everything works together, like innovation-led productivity aimed at reducing poverty and trade-offs like severe constraining welfare during fiscal pressures, political cycles favouring short-term equity, and external shocks limiting space. We see similar situations globally. It includes countries like Brazil, China, and South Africa. The similarities show the problems in emerging economies. The paper proves that recent budgets show the result of good progress in economic condition inter alia adaptive strategies, outcome-based frameworks, public-private partnerships, and AI use in fiscal planning. They aid with the tensions and work with Viksit Bharat goals.

This article advances a capabilities approach to mobility justice by introducing an operational conceptual tool, the 4Ps, comprising the professional, (inter)personal, and practical aspects of mobilities and capabilities, interwoven with power regimes. Drawing on a mixed methods study of international medical graduates (IMGs) in Aotearoa New Zealand, the paper explores how recognition, exclusion, and institutional power regimes shape migrant professionals’ ability to convert their knowledge, skills, and qualifications into meaningful opportunities. The 4Ps emerged from the intersection of mobility justice and capabilities theory, and were iteratively developed through empirical engagement with the lived realities of IMGs navigating medical registration. This approach emphasises the context-dependent and relational nature of (in)justice, recognising how personal, social, and systemic conversion factors constrain or enable mobilities and capabilities. Situating these dynamics in the unique postcolonial context of Aotearoa New Zealand, the paper demonstrates how a capabilities approach to mobility justice can account for the complexity of skilled migration, including both the human and more-than-human elements of professional recognition across borders. While empirically grounded, the framework offers broader relevance for skilled migration research, contributing a transferable lens and a set of analytic prompts for exploring how mobilities, recognition, and capability conversion interact across transnational professional contexts.