Forest governance requires addressing interdependencies and conflicts among heterogeneous use( r )s. Many scholars have hailed the commons as an institutional solution for managing resources that serve as inputs for many outputs, are potentially shareable yet subject to congestion, and are indivisible. However, these arguments are mostly framed in terms of incentive compatibility and efficiency, with little concern for social valuation, power, and justice. The capability approach to justice offers a useful analytical framework to address this gap and establish a normative foundation for governing multiple-use forests as commons. This paper offers a conceptual combination of the two literatures. In the framework, non-excludability and collective choice arrangements acquire normative significance. They respectively sustain the entitlement component of the capability to benefit from the forest and convert it into valuable functionings, and the capability to function as equal citizens and co-design rules for mutual use on equal terms with others. Thus, the framework provides a normative foundation to the commons as a governance model for multiple-use forest landscapes and serve as an evaluative tool for institutional and policy arrangements seeking to balance overlapping and competing claims. When applied to the conflict between Sami reindeer herders and the forestry sector in Sweden, the framework supplies an additional normative argument for guaranteeing Sami reindeer herders with (i) the entitlement for the capability to benefit from the forest, which entails freedoms as well as negative and positive claim-rights, and (ii) the capability to co-design rules for mutual use on equal footing with the forestry sector. • Forest governance requires managing interdependencies between use( r )s. • A two-fold argument to combine the commons and the capability approach is presented. • Non-excludability requires access to the capability to benefit from the forest. • The conceptual framework serves as both an informational and an evaluative tool. • Access to the forest is a meta-capability for Sami reindeer herders.

ABSTRACT Martha Nussbaum's central human capabilities provide a crucial theoretical foundation within the capability approach, yet their empirical operationalisation often relies on predefined theoretical groupings. This research adopts an empirically driven strategy to explore the dimensional reduction of human capabilities based on Nussbaum’s list and the identification of respondent profiles through clustering, using primary data collected in a specific socio-economic context. Using Principal Component Analysis, the capabilities were aggregated into four empirical dimensions: relational autonomy, social respect, physical and mental health, and environment. Additionally, the sample was clustered into five groups based on their capability profiles: Capable, Dependent, Threatened, Vulnerable and Debilitated. This study contributes to the literature on capability measurement by empirically exploring how indicators derived from Nussbaum’s framework relate to one another within a specific socio-economic context. It demonstrates that empirical dimensions can deviate significantly from Nussbaum's theoretical proposal. Furthermore, the findings support the use of dimension reduction techniques to develop capability models better suited for structural equation modelling applications.

ABSTRACT Handling recurrent adversities is a chronic challenge that entrepreneurs and managers face in sustaining their ventures. With data from four longitudinal Chinese case studies, we examine how entrepreneurs and their firms develop response capabilities to manage recurrent events as an important element of the entrepreneurial process. We distinguished between expected and unexpected events/adversities that materially change how entrepreneurs prepare and enact responses. We provide a new conceptual framework containing distinctive conditions and mechanisms that explain how response capabilities form through two types of events and are revised in ways that make them useful and valuable to future adverse events. This new conceptual framework reveals three core sub-capabilities – resource configuring, growth path configuring, and operations process configuring – to respond to new and changing conditions.

ABSTRACT Persons with intellectual disabilities have the right to and need for supported decision-making to realize their self-determination. However, there is a significant gap in the research on service providers’ experiences and the factors that impact supported decision-making in the context of persons with intellectual disabilities living in municipal housing in Norway. The study involved six focus group interviews with 32 service providers from 6 municipal housing in 4 municipalities. The analysis takes an abductive approach. As analytical lenses, it utilizes Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucracy, which focuses on the role of service providers, and Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, which emphasizes the importance of individual capabilities. Study findings indicate that service providers have a crucial role in supported decision-making. Findings also provide insight into key factors in supported decision-making processes, including the importance of relationships, discretion, oral communication/reports, written/electronic documentation and in-depth knowledge about the person. The study also highlights how organizational structures in municipal housing can significantly hamper the supported decision-making processes and realization of self-determination. Furthermore, findings reveal a tension between providing for social participation and supported decision-making facilitated autonomy.

ABSTRACT Forests not only provide a pool of natural resources, but they can also foster responsible agency among forest communities through managing them. Based on a case study in Chamba district in Himachal Pradesh, India, this work investigates how the existing forest management policies and practices in India create a platform for the community to achieve its well-being in the context of natural resource management. It extends the framework of the Capability Approach to empirically examine the freedom of the community to participate in forest management, their role as agents of change and their participation in effective public deliberation. Findings suggest that the policy primarily grants “paper freedom” to the community to participate in forest management, and the effective community participation is largely crippled in the absence of individual and social conversion factors, such as education and inclusivity. Community perceives themselves as “beneficiary” with dominant extraction motives, rather than as an “agent” who can contribute to forest management. The study emphasises the role of freedom to participate in public discussion towards the co-creation of knowledge by policymakers and the village community.

ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between cultural and community asset building and place-based development through the lens of a capabilities approach. Focusing on high street renewal in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, we examine how participatory cultural initiatives contribute to individual and collective capabilities, offer new infrastructures for lifelong learning and shape local cultural strategy building. Using three case studies, Creative Piazza Group, Cultures of _ and the Culture Collective, we evaluate how co-created cultural programmes and public realm projects can shape cultural assets to support wellbeing, civic agency and more sustainable forms of community-led place-based development. We conclude with a policy proposal for a locally situated Capabilities Framework, working in alignment with the Place Standard Tool, to enhance the strategic integration of culture in future town centre transformations, with a particular focus on lifelong learning on the high street.

The semi-arid urban settlement of Jodhpur, India, stands at a critical juncture where rapid urbanization and climate change threaten its historic resilience mechanisms. This study investigates the efficacy of immersive workshops conducted in co-learning spaces as vehicles for decentralized hyperlocal climate governance and action. Specifically, it examines how participants of such workshops can function as agents of change within their larger communities by leveraging the existing social practice of Hathai—informal gatherings where women discuss community affairs. Adopting a computational social science approach, we integrate primary data from 25 women community leaders into a stochastic Agent-Based Simulation (ABS) to model the contagion of climate resilience across a synthetic network of 300 community members. Furthermore, Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) is employed to map the hierarchical causalities between cognitive and behavioural metrics. Our results reveal a significant paradox: while Climate Knowledge acts as the fundamental structural driver (Level 1) of the resilience ecosystem, it exhibits the lowest transmission rate (24.1% gain). Conversely, Action Intent and Confidence demonstrate the highest contagion potential (38.3% gain), suggesting that behavior propagates faster than information in this cultural context. The study illustrates a plausible structural pathway where traditional ecological wisdom serves as a critical linkage, converting abstract knowledge into tangible reductions in social vulnerability indices (SoVI) and enhancements in Sen’s capability approach. We conclude that such smaller intra-community groups as decentralized, women-led nodes could be a viable strategy for hyper-local climate action.

Abstract The article advances debates on just transition by addressing both conceptual and practical dimensions of justice and development. It proposes an integrated evaluative framework that bridges justice and development perspectives, which are often treated separately in the literature. – Drawing on the capability approach, the framework links normative evaluation with participatory co-production, thereby supporting the design of more transformative just transition policies. Based on an extensive review of the literature, the article identifies seven dimensions of a comprehensive conception of social-ecological justice – distributive, epistemic, restorative, planetary, intergenerational, ecological, and procedural – and distinguish two ideal types of development – growth-driven development and social-ecological development. We argue that the extent to which the dimensions of justice are realised, both in number and degree, determines the scope and depth of shifts from growth-driven to social-ecological development and thereby shapes the transformative potential of just transition policies. The article applies this framework empirically through an evaluation of the International Labour Organisation’s approach to just transition. By grounding the analysis in a capability-based conception of justice and development, our framework positions co-production as central to processes of transformation that seek to be just. As part of this co-production process, the article calls for a more engaged and ethically grounded scholarship that contributes actively to the collective pursuit of just and sustainable futures.

Sweden's National Strategy for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) emphasises equitable access to contraception and abortion services. Despite this, immigrant women in Sweden experience lower contraceptive use and higher rates of unintended pregnancies and abortions compared with native-born women. Midwives, as primary providers of contraceptive counselling and prescribing, play a central role in promoting reproductive autonomy and informed choice. To explore midwives' reflections on how to optimise contraceptive counselling for immigrant women in Sweden. Eleven focus group discussions were conducted with 50 midwives from public and private midwifery clinics in Malmö, where one-third of residents are foreign-born. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The overarching theme, "Building bridges for empowerment and informed decision-making," captured midwives' commitment to promoting women's autonomy while navigating systemic and cultural challenges. Five sub-themes emerged: overcoming the discrepancy between mission and reality; addressing organisational weaknesses in the care chain; enhancing knowledge and capabilities; reinforcing competence and trust in communication; and involving men without undermining women's autonomy. Midwives highlighted structural barriers, limited resources, and time constraints that hindered person-centred and culturally sensitive care. Optimising counselling for immigrant women requires systemic changes, including revised funding structures, expanded multilingual resources and strengthened professional development. Addressing these barriers will enhance women's capabilities and support their reproductive autonomy, aligning with Nussbaum's Capabilities Approach and promoting gender equality.

For over three decades, the Farmers' Terms of Trade (Nilai Tukar Petani or NTP) has served as the hegemonic indicator for measuring agricultural performance and farmer welfare in Indonesia. However, the limitation of NTP as a mere price ratio index has often obscured the structural poverty faced by smallholders, creating a policy blind spot in which market prices decouple from household well-being. The inclusion of the Farmers' Welfare Index (Indeks Kesejahteraan Petani or IKP) in the 2026 State Budget (APBN), as agreed upon by the government and the House of Representatives in late 2025, marks a paradigm shift from a price-centric to a multidimensional people-centric approach. This study employs a qualitative literature review to critically analyze the challenges of transitioning from NTP to IKP. By synthesizing academic literature from 2020–2025 and analyzing policy documents, this paper identifies three thematic challenges: (1) the methodological resistance in shifting from monthly high-frequency price data to annual multidimensional asset data; (2) the "prosperity illusion" where high NTP in sectors like palm oil does not correlate with improved human development outcomes; and (3) the political economy of data, where more accurate poverty metrics may face bureaucratic inertia. The study concludes that while IKP offers a superior conceptual framework based on the capability approach, its implementation requires a "hybrid" transition period in which NTP serves as a market signal while IKP drives long-term development policy

This study examines golden grass (Cyperus Pangorei) artisanship in Kendrapara district, Odisha, highlighting how this traditional craft supports women's economic independence, environmental conservation, and cultural heritage. Based on desk research of academic literature, government reports, and secondary data from 2010-2024, the study uses an integrated framework combining Sustainable Livelihoods, feminist empowerment theory, capabilities approach, and environmental justice. Results indicate that work with golden grass boosts all five livelihood capitals, providing women artisans with flexible incomes while preserving ecological balance through traditional harvesting techniques. Nonetheless, challenges such as limited market access, resource pressures, and skill shortages hinder growth. The findings suggest that indigenous craft traditions can promote comprehensive development in coastal communities when backed by suitable policies and institutions.

The first global goal of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda (SDG 1) calls for addressing poverty as a condition produced through social vulnerability and environmental risk. This paper examines the relationship between vulnerability and poverty during concurrent drought and pandemic hazards in 2021 in the American Southwest, a context less studied in sustainability research. Drawing on disaster scholarship, we conceptualize the risk of poverty as the interaction of hazard exposure and social vulnerability. We construct a county-level dataset integrating environmental, epidemiological, and social indicators across Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, identifying income inequality and residential segregation as key dimensions of vulnerability. Using child poverty as a measurement lens, we apply spatial mapping alongside Relative and Attributable Risk metrics to assess how drought intensity, pandemic burden, and structural vulnerability contributed to spatially uneven poverty outcomes under dual hazards. Results indicate that drought had a stronger effect than COVID-19, yet pre-existing vulnerabilities were more consequential, with income inequality outweighing segregation, suggesting that hazards are most damaging where social inequalities limit resilience. Interpreting the results through the Capability Approach, we posit that sustainable poverty reduction requires not just income support and hazard mitigation, but expansion of instrumental economic, social, and political freedoms that enhance individuals’ capabilities to navigate risk and pursue long-term well-being.

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, a significant trend of substitution has emerged for ordinary occupations characterised by repetitiveness, rule-based tasks, and low-to-medium skill requirements, under existing capital logics and institutional arrangements. Diverging from mainstream narratives that frame this process as a technological inevitability or an efficiency improvement, this study adopts a normative philosophical critique to analyse the deepening of labour alienation, the erosion of labour dignity, and the imbalance of social justice resulting from AI-driven occupational displacement. The article argues that AI substitution is not a neutral technological process but a socio-technical phenomenon embedded within specific industrial structures and power relations. Drawing on Marx’s theory of labour alienation, existentialist philosophy of technology, and the “capabilities approach,” this study critiques technological determinism and the myth of “technological neutrality,” emphasising that the core issue lies not in whether technology replaces humans but in how technology is shaped by social governance and value frameworks. Based on this analysis, the article proposes a normative reconstruction centred on human dignity and social justice, aiming to provide theoretical guidance for technological ethics and institutional responses in the age of AI.

Abstract Financial inclusion has emerged as a central pillar of equitable development, particularly within emerging economies where structural inequalities continue to restrict access to formal financial systems. In India, despite decades of banking expansion and policy reforms, gendered patterns of exclusion persist, disproportionately affecting women in transitional socio-economic zones such as semi-urban regions. Within this context, Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have evolved into a critical institutional innovation that facilitates access to savings, credit, and financial knowledge for marginalized women. This meta-analysis synthesizes empirical and theoretical literature to evaluate the effectiveness of SHGs in promoting women’s financial inclusion in semi-urban India. Drawing upon the theoretical frameworks of Sen’s Capability Approach (1999), Putnam’s Social Capital Theory (2000), and North’s Institutional Theory (1990), the study examines how collective financial structures generate economic agency and social empowerment. The findings indicate that SHGs significantly improve women’s access to savings mechanisms and microcredit while simultaneously enhancing financial literacy, collective bargaining power, and institutional engagement (Swain & Wallentin, 2009; NABARD, 2019; Tripathi & Singh, 2015). However, the analysis also identifies persistent structural constraints that limit the depth and sustainability of these gains. These constraints include patriarchal household structures, governance deficiencies within groups, technological exclusion, and limited market integration (Kabeer, 2005; Demirgüç-Kunt et al., 2018; Sharma & Jha, 2020). The study argues that SHGs function as quasi-institutional bridges that mediate between marginalized populations and formal financial systems. While access to financial services has expanded considerably, meaningful economic empowerment requires policy interventions that strengthen digital capability, institutional capacity, and enterprise development pathways.

This study examines the relationship between team performance and subjective well-being in multicultural organizational contexts, and the mediating role of cultural integration in these relationships. Existing research highlights that understanding well-being is essential in enhancing team outcomes, yet limited studies have explored this link across diverse work settings. These findings support using well-being as a significant predictor when evaluating performance, helping identify how subjective well-being contributes to improved team performance through cultural integration. This study produced 400 valid responses using a quantitative survey. Descriptive statistics, multiple regression analysis, and mediation analysis were used to test the hypotheses and validate direct and indirect interactions between the variables. The well-being framework, rooted in capabilities approaches and examined by international experts, was used in this study to understand subjective well-being. The study's findings reveal that the well-being variables Life Satisfaction, Flourishing, and Domain Evaluation significantly affected Team Performance. The mediation analysis results indicated that cultural integration mediates the relationships among all four constructs of well-being and team performance. Overall, the findings confirm that team performance is strengthened when employees experience high levels of subjective well-being and cultural integration is effectively fostered within the team. This study adds to the knowledge corpus by offering suggestions for predicting the effectiveness of a multicultural workforce by providing empirical evidence supporting the integration of well-being and cultural diversity in organisational performance models.

This converged, mixed-methods study investigates the role of school sports in promoting educational equity through its role in enabling inclusion, empowerment, and psychosocial development among Ghanaian students, coaches, and school administrators from diverse demographic backgrounds. For that, structured surveys were completed with 450 students and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 students, 5 coaches, and 5 administrators. On a quantitative level, sport participation was associated with markedly elevated self-esteem (ΔM=1.3, p<0.01) and lower social exclusion (β=-0.34, p<0.05) with an amplified effect (low-income η²=0.12; ethnic minorities η²=0.09). Phenomenological interviews (n=30) exposed three transformative processes: (1) peer bonding and collective identity formation, (2) coach mentorship and the establishment of trust and resilience, and (3) transferable life skills that bridge the athletic and academic fields. Applying Sen’s Capability Approach, findings suggest that sports serve as catalysts to turn available resources into capabilities when opportunities are equitably available. The study identifies structural and cultural barriers that sustain inequities and outlines policy solutions, mandatory inclusive curricula that address Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 4.7 and trauma-informed coach training. Results reposition school sports as agents for holistic development and social justice in school systems.

Over Zambia is one of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa facing energy challenges due to climatevulnerability caused by the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The study uses Amartya Sen andMartha Nussbaum's Capability Approach to analyse the vulnerabilities resulting from Zambia's questfor energy transition. This theoretical framework is critical to understanding the challenges inensuring an inclusive energy transition process in the country. The methodology and data were mainlyfrom secondary sources. The main argument in this article is that although Zambia has embarked onan energy transition, it is important to consider key human security vulnerabilities in this process.The article shows that Zambia's electricity generation capacity has continued to dwindle primarilydue to a decrease in hydro generation, which is highly dependent on rainfall. The study also showsthat the Zambian government has devised several strategies and policies aimed at energy transitioningto alleviate the problem. These strategies and policies include promoting non-renewable energysources like coal, oil, and natural gas to renewable and sustainable energy sources like solar.However, the study shows that while Zambia's energy transition offers long-term benefits, it posesimmediate and significant security challenges for the country. These include economic disruptions,infrastructure vulnerabilities, environmental conflicts and policy and regulatory challenges. Thisarticle contributes to the ongoing discourse regarding the human security challenges and opportunitiesfor energy transition in Global South countries.

Over Zambia is one of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa facing energy challenges due to climatevulnerability caused by the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The study uses Amartya Sen andMartha Nussbaum's Capability Approach to analyse the vulnerabilities resulting from Zambia's questfor energy transition. This theoretical framework is critical to understanding the challenges inensuring an inclusive energy transition process in the country. The methodology and data were mainlyfrom secondary sources. The main argument in this article is that although Zambia has embarked onan energy transition, it is important to consider key human security vulnerabilities in this process.The article shows that Zambia's electricity generation capacity has continued to dwindle primarilydue to a decrease in hydro generation, which is highly dependent on rainfall. The study also showsthat the Zambian government has devised several strategies and policies aimed at energy transitioningto alleviate the problem. These strategies and policies include promoting non-renewable energysources like coal, oil, and natural gas to renewable and sustainable energy sources like solar.However, the study shows that while Zambia's energy transition offers long-term benefits, it posesimmediate and significant security challenges for the country. These include economic disruptions,infrastructure vulnerabilities, environmental conflicts and policy and regulatory challenges. Thisarticle contributes to the ongoing discourse regarding the human security challenges and opportunitiesfor energy transition in Global South countries.

The concept of development is usually applied to the global South. Yet the capitalist, growth-based socioeconomic paradigm of ‘developed’ countries is both ecologically destructive and socially unjust. Can we formulate alternative – emancipatory and sustainable – visions of progress? In this article, I apply the concept of development exclusively to the global North – even if out of an explicit concern for global social–ecological justice – offering a radical reading of Amartya Sen’s capability approach. Emphasizing justice, real freedom and human flourishment, the capability approach potentially constitutes a valuable framework for theorizing emancipatory social–ecological transformations. However, dominant interpretations of this approach often consider capitalist growth positively – albeit as a means for capability-expansion. I propose a post-growth/post-capitalist interpretation of the capability approach, which – through the politicization of individual and collective aspirations – calls for the subordination of the economy to democratically defined social–ecological needs. In this understanding, the capability to care for people and planet becomes central.

ABSTRACT With shortages of qualified early childhood teachers a current international concern, retaining those entering and already within the profession is of pressing importance. Concurrently, individuals are leaving the profession due to sector and workplace-related issues. This paper responds to these current issues by exploring the relationship between early childhood teacher agency and retention in Victoria, Australia. Drawing on a theoretical framework grounded in Sen’s Capability Approach and Gramsci’s Theory of Hegemony, empirical insights collected through a multiple case study with early childhood teachers are presented. Findings show that the capability for agency supports short- and mid-term retention and enables early childhood teachers to achieve goals that are personally meaningful. Constrained capability for agency was found to contribute to potential and actual attrition. Nevertheless, the relationship between agency and retention was also found to be dynamic. Therefore, stakeholders have an opportunity to mediate potential attrition.