An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach

An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach PDF Author: Severine Deneulin
Publisher: Earthscan
ISBN: 1849770026
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
Since the publication of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sens flagship book "Development as Freedom," development has been redefined in terms of human capability and opportunity. This approach has come to underpin the United Nations Development Programs influential Human Development Reports, and has had considerable significance in both academic and policy circles.

An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach

An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach PDF Author: Severine Deneulin
Publisher: Earthscan
ISBN: 1849770026
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 377

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since the publication of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sens flagship book "Development as Freedom," development has been redefined in terms of human capability and opportunity. This approach has come to underpin the United Nations Development Programs influential Human Development Reports, and has had considerable significance in both academic and policy circles.

Creating Capabilities

Creating Capabilities PDF Author: Martha C. Nussbaum
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674252780
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
If a country’s Gross Domestic Product increases each year, but so does the percentage of its people deprived of basic education, health care, and other opportunities, is that country really making progress? If we rely on conventional economic indicators, can we ever grasp how the world’s billions of individuals are really managing? In this powerful critique, Martha Nussbaum argues that our dominant theories of development have given us policies that ignore our most basic human needs for dignity and self-respect. For the past twenty-five years, Nussbaum has been working on an alternate model to assess human development: the Capabilities Approach. She and her colleagues begin with the simplest of questions: What is each person actually able to do and to be? What real opportunities are available to them? The Capabilities Approach to human progress has until now been expounded only in specialized works. Creating Capabilities, however, affords anyone interested in issues of human development a wonderfully lucid account of the structure and practical implications of an alternate model. It demonstrates a path to justice for both humans and nonhumans, weighs its relevance against other philosophical stances, and reveals the value of its universal guidelines even as it acknowledges cultural difference. In our era of unjustifiable inequity, Nussbaum shows how—by attending to the narratives of individuals and grasping the daily impact of policy—we can enable people everywhere to live full and creative lives.

Women and Human Development

Women and Human Development PDF Author: Martha C. Nussbaum
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 113945935X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
In this major book Martha Nussbaum, one of the most innovative and influential philosophical voices of our time, proposes a kind of feminism that is genuinely international, argues for an ethical underpinning to all thought about development planning and public policy, and dramatically moves beyond the abstractions of economists and philosophers to embed thought about justice in the concrete reality of the struggles of poor women. Nussbaum argues that international political and economic thought must be sensitive to gender difference as a problem of justice, and that feminist thought must begin to focus on the problems of women in the third world. Taking as her point of departure the predicament of poor women in India, she shows how philosophy should undergird basic constitutional principles that should be respected and implemented by all governments, and used as a comparative measure of quality of life across nations.

An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach

An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach PDF Author: Séverine Deneulin
Publisher: IDRC
ISBN: 184407806X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
First Published in 2009. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice

Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice PDF Author: Ingrid Robeyns
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 1783744243
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
How do we evaluate ambiguous concepts such as wellbeing, freedom, and social justice? How do we develop policies that offer everyone the best chance to achieve what they want from life? The capability approach, a theoretical framework pioneered by the philosopher and economist Amartya Sen in the 1980s, has become an increasingly influential way to think about these issues. Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice: The Capability Approach Re-Examined is both an introduction to the capability approach and a thorough evaluation of the challenges and disputes that have engrossed the scholars who have developed it. Ingrid Robeyns offers her own illuminating and rigorously interdisciplinary interpretation, arguing that by appreciating the distinction between the general capability approach and more specific capability theories or applications we can create a powerful and flexible tool for use in a variety of academic disciplines and fields of policymaking. This book provides an original and comprehensive account that will appeal to scholars of the capability approach, new readers looking for an interdisciplinary introduction, and those interested in theories of justice, human rights, basic needs, and the human development approach.

Technology and Human Development

Technology and Human Development PDF Author: Ilse Oosterlaken
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317672895
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
This book introduces the capability approach – in which wellbeing, agency and justice are the core values – as a powerful normative lens to examine technology and its role in development. This approach attaches central moral importance to individual human capabilities, understood as effective opportunities people have to lead the kind of lives they have reason to value. The book examines the strengths, limitations and versatility of the capability approach when applied to technology, and shows the need to supplement it with other approaches in order to deal with the challenges that technology raises. The first chapter places the capability approach within the context of broader debates about technology and human development – discussing amongst others the appropriate technology movement. The middle part then draws on philosophy and ethics of technology in order to deepen our understanding of the relation between technical artefacts and human capabilities, arguing that we must simultaneously ‘zoom in’ on the details of technological design and ‘zoom out’ to see the broader socio-technical embedding of a technology. The book examines whether technology is merely a neutral instrument that expands what people can do and be in life, or whether technology transfers may also impose certain views of what it means to lead a good life. The final chapter examines the capability approach in relation to contemporary debates about ‘ICT for Development’ (ICT4D), as the technology domain where the approach has been most extensively applied so far. This book is an invaluable read for students in Development Studies and STS, as well as policy makers, practitioners and engineers looking for an accessible overview of technology and development from the perspective of the capability approach.

The Capability Approach and Sustainability

The Capability Approach and Sustainability PDF Author: Ortrud Lessmann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134912331
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
This is the first book dedicated exclusively to the question of the relationships between sustainability and the capability approach. It is rather astonishing that the issue of sustainability first posed by the Brundtland commission in 1987 has gained so little attention from capability scholars despite the approach’s focus on human well-being. This book starts with a seminal contribution by Sen on the "Ends and Means of Sustainability" delivered as a keynote in 2000. All contributions to the book focus on the difficulties that arise from a freedom-oriented view of sustainability: they argue for taking note of the impact of human life on nature, they question the meaning of intergenerational justice when measured in the currency of "substantive freedoms" (capabilities), they raise the issue of collective responsibility and suggest ways to model and operationalize the capability approach to sustainable development. The book presents the state of the art concerning "The capability approach and sustainability" while admitting that it is only a first contribution to a growing field that deserves our attention: Defining what is to be sustained and asking how it can be sustained. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities.

The Capability Approach

The Capability Approach PDF Author: S. Ibrahim
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137001437
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
How can human capabilities be articulated and promoted in practice? How can the challenges encountered in its application be addressed? This volume answers these research questions through nine country case studies from the Global North and the Global South.

The Capability Approach

The Capability Approach PDF Author: Flavio Comim
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521862875
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 636

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Book Description
The capability approach developed by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has become an important new paradigm in thinking about development. However, despite its theoretical and philosophical attractiveness, it has been less easy to measure or to translate into policy. This volume addresses these issues in the context of poverty and justice. Part I offers a set of conceptual essays that debate the strength of the often misunderstood individual focus of the capability approach. Part II investigates the techniques by which we can measure and compare capabilities, and how we can integrate them into poverty comparisons and policy advice. Finally, Part III looks at how we can apply the capability approach to different regions and contexts. Written by a team of international scholars, The Capability Approach is a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students concerned with the debate over the value of the capability approach and its potential applications.

The Capability Approach, Technology and Design

The Capability Approach, Technology and Design PDF Author: Ilse Oosterlaken
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 940073879X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
The capability approach of Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen places human capabilities at the centre stage of discussions about justice, equality, development and the quality of life. It rejects too much emphasis on mere preference satisfaction or resource provision and highlights the importance of human agency and freedom. This approach has already significantly influenced different fields of application, such as economics and development studies. Only recently have scholars started to explore its relevance for and application to the area of technology and design, which can be crucial factors in the expansion of human capabilities. How does technology influence human capabilities? What difference could a capability approach make to policies and practices of applying ICT in development processes in the South? How can we criticize and improve the design of technology from the perspective of the capability approach? The authors of this volume explore the implications of the capability approach for technology & design and together create the first volume on this emerging topic.