Capability approach

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The Capability Approach is a conceptual framework developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum for evaluating social states in terms of human well-being (welfare). It emphasizes functional capabilities ("substantial freedoms", such as the ability to live to old age, engage in economic transactions, or participate in political activities); these are construed in terms of the substantive freedoms people have reason to value, instead of utility (happiness, desire-fulfilment or choice) or access to resources (income, commodities, assets). Poverty is understood as capability-deprivation. It is noteworthy that the emphasis is not only on how human beings actually function but on their having the capability, which is a practical choice, to function in important ways if they so wish. Someone could be deprived of such capabilities in many ways, e.g. by ignorance, government oppression, lack of financial resources, or false consciousness.

This approach to human well-being emphasises the importance of freedom of choice, individual heterogeneity and the multi-dimensional nature of welfare. In significant respects, the approach is consistent with the handling of choice within conventional micro-economics consumer theory although its conceptual foundations enable it to acknowledge the existence of claims, like rights, which lexicographically dominate utility based claims (see Sen (1979)).

The approach is first fully articulated in Sen (1985) and discussed in Sen and Nussbaum (1993). Applications to development are discussed in Sen (1999), Nussbaum (2000), Alkire (2002) and Clark (2002, 2005), to health in a special issue of Social Science and Medicine edited by Anand P and Dolan P (2005) and to the econometrics of social indicators/policy by Anand P Hunter G and Smith R (2005) and Kuklys (2005).

This approach contrasts with a common view that sees development purely in terms of GNP growth, and poverty purely as income-deprivation. It has been highly influential in development policy where it has shaped the evolution of the human development index HDI has been much discussed in philosophy and is increasingly influential in a range of social sciences.

[edit] Further reading

Alkire, S. (2002) Valuing Freedoms: Sen's Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction (Oxford University Press, Oxford)

Anand, P. Hunter, G. and Smith R. (2005)

Clark, David A. (2002) Visions of Development: A Study of Human Values (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham).

Clark, David A. (2005) 'Capability Approach' in D. A. Clark (ed.) (forthcoming 2006) The Elgar Companion to Development Studies (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham). Draft available online at http://www.gprg.org/pubs/workingpapers/pdfs/gprg-wps-032.pdf