Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T21:28:39.824Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - Enriching agency in the capability approach through social theory contributions

from Part II - Inclusiveness, Social and Individual Agency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2024

By
Ina Conradie
Edited by
Flavio Comim ,
P. B. Anand  and
Shailaja Fennell
Flavio Comim
Affiliation:
Universitat Ramon Llull
P. B. Anand
Affiliation:
University of Bradford
Shailaja Fennell
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

In recent years the relationship of the capability approach (CA) to non-Western, especially indigenous, theories has ignited a growing literature. This offers a unique space to expand considerations of environmental justice, to frame intercultural public policies on issues of self-determination or valuations of the natural world and to study the CAs philosophical foundations. This chapter contributes to the literature, engaging current trends in Latin America and focusing on discussions around the idea of buen vivir (BV) and the contributions these make to exploring collective and environmental issues. The BV framework emerges from the regions indigenous philosophies and focuses on a harmonic understanding of the life cycle. The chapter uses two further indigenous notions, ayllu (community) and Pachamama (Mother Earth), that highlight the relational ontology underpinning BV. Through analysis of this epistemological framework, the chapter revisits some of the normative foundational challenges in the CA, reminding us of the importance of providing social and collective spaces to reflect on the ethical value that non-human others and nature have for discussions of development.

Keywords

Capability ApproachAmartya SenIndigenous philosophiesRelational ontologiesBuen Vivir
Type
Chapter
Information
Social Choice, Agency, Inclusiveness and Capabilities , pp. 257 - 283
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adato, M., Carter, M. R., and May, J. (2006) Exploring poverty traps and social exclusion in South Africa using qualitative and quantitative data. Journal of Development Studies, 42 (2): 226–47.Google Scholar
Alkire, S., and Deneulin, S. (2000) Individual motivation, its nature, determinants and consequences for within group behaviour, Working Paper 184. Tokyo: World Institute for Development Economics Research, United Nations University.Google Scholar
Archer, M. S. (1988) Culture and Agency: The Place of Culture in Social Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Archer, M. S. (1995) Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, M. S. (1996) Culture and Agency: The Place of Culture in Social Theory, rev. edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, M. S. (2000) Being Human: The Problem of Agency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, M. S. (2003) Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, M. S. (ed.) (2015) Generative Mechanisms Transforming the Social Order. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austin, A. (2017) Turning capabilities into functionings: practical reason as an activation factor. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 19 (1): 24–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohman, J., and Rehg, W. (2014) Habermas, J. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/habermas.Google Scholar
Bonvin, J.-M., De Munck, J., and Zimmerman, B. (2018) Introduction: the capability approach and critical sociology. Critical Sociology, 44 (6): 859–64.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice, Nice, R. (trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1990) The Logic of Practice, Nice, R. (trans.). Cambridge: Polity Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P., and Passeron, J.-C. (1990) Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture, Nice, R. (trans.). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P., and Wacquant, L. J. D. (1992) An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Claassen, R. (2017) An agency-based capability theory of justice. European Journal of Philosophy, 25 (4): 1279–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cleaver, F. (2007) Understanding agency in collective action. Journal of Human Development, 8 (2): 223–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, I. J. (1989) Structuration Theory: Anthony Giddens and the Constitution of Social Life. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conradie, I. (2013) Can deliberate efforts to realise aspirations increase capabilities: a South African case study. Oxford Development Studies, 14 (2): 189–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conradie, I., and Robeyns, I. (2013) Aspirations and human development interventions. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 41 (4): 559–80.Google Scholar
Crocker, D., and Robeyns, I. (2010) Capability and agency. In Philosophers in Focus: Amartya Sen, Morris, C. (ed.): 60–90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Drydyk, J. (2008) Durable empowerment. Journal of Global Ethics, 4 (3): 231–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drydyk, J. (2013) Empowerment, agency, and power. Journal of Global Ethics, 9 (3): 249–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gangas, S. (2016) From agency to capabilities: Sen and sociological theory. Current Sociology, 64 (1): 22–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, A. (1979) Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1985) Jürgen Habermas. In The Return of Grand Theory in the Human Sciences, Skinner, Q. (ed.): 121–40. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. (1984) The Theory of Communicative Action, vol. 1, Reason and the Rationalization of Society, McCarthy, T. (trans.). Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. (1987) The Theory of Communicative Action, vol. 2, Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason, McCarthy, T. (trans.). Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. (1991) Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, Lenhardt, C., and Nicholsen, S. W. (trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. (2003) The Future of Human Nature, Rehg, W., Beister, H., and Pensky, M. (trans.). Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Hart, C. S., and Brando, N. (2018) A capability approach to children’s well-being, agency and participatory rights in education. European Journal of Education, 53 (3): 293–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Honneth, A., and Joas, H. (1988) Social Action and Human Nature, Myers, R. (trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ibrahim, S., and Alkire, S. (2007) Agency and empowerment: a proposal for internationally comparable indicators. Oxford Development Studies, 35 (4): 397–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joas, H. (1996) The Creativity of Action. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Joas, H., and Knöbl, W. (2009) Social Theory: Twenty Introductory Lectures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, A. (2009) Overcoming structure and agency. Journal of Classical Sociology, 9 (2): 260–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, A. (2010) The odd couple: Margaret Archer and Anthony Giddens and British social theory. British Journal of Sociology, 61 (Special 1): 253–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loyal, S. (2007) Anthony Giddens. In Fifty Key Sociologists: The Contemporary Theorists, Scott, J. (ed.): 101–8. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Martins, N. (2007) Ethics, ontology and capabilities. Review of Political Economy, 19 (1): 37–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meeks, J. G. (2018) On Sen on the capability of capabilities: the story of a not-for-profit enterprise. In New Frontiers of the Capability Approach, Comim, F., Fennell, S., and Anand, P. B. (eds.): 12–50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mutch, A. (2020) Margaret Archer and a morphogenetic take on strategy. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 73: DOI 10.1016/j.cpa.2016.06.007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, M. C. (2000) Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, M. C. (2011) Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owens, J., Entwistle, V., Craven, L., & Conradie, I. (2022) Understanding and investigating relationality in the Capability Approach. Journal of Social Behaviour, 52 (1): 86–104.Google Scholar
Parsons, T. (1937) The Structure of Social Action: A Study in Social Theory with Special Reference to a Group of Recent European Writers. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Penneger, L., and Godehart, S. (2007) Townships in the South African geographical landscape: physical and social legacies and challenges. Pretoria: National Treasury.Google Scholar
Porpora, D. V. (2013) Morphogenesis and social change. In Social Morphogenesis, Archer, M. S. (ed.): 25–38. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robeyns, I. (2017) Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice: The Capability Approach Re-Examined. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roderick, R. (1986) Habermas and the Foundations of Critical Theory. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Schatzki, T. R. (1997) Practices and actions: a Wittgensteinian critique of Bourdieu and Giddens. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 27 (3): 283–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, D. (2007) Pierre Bourdieu. In Fifty Key Sociologists: The Contemporary Theorists, Scott, J. (ed.): 39–46. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. (1977) Rational fools: a critique of the behavioural foundations of economic theory. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 6 (4): 317–44.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. (1984) Capability and well-being. In The Philosophy of Economics: An Anthology, Hausman, D. M. (ed.): 270–93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. (1985) Well-being, agency and freedom: the Dewey lectures 1984. Journal of Philosophy, 82 (4): 169–221.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. (1987) The standard of living. In The Standard of Living, Hawthorne, G. (ed.): 1–38. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. K. (1992) Inequality Reexamined. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. (1999) Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. (2002) Rationality and Freedom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Shaffer, P. (2013) Q-Squared: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches in Poverty Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M., and Seward, C. (2009) The relational ontology of Amartya Sen’s capability approach: incorporating social and individual causes. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 10 (2): 213–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stones, R. (2005) Structuration Theory. London: Red Globe Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallerstein, I. (2004) The actor in the social sciences: a reply to Hans Joas. International Sociology, 19 (3): 315–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, B. (2006) Pragmatism and the capability approach: challenges in social theory and empirical research. European Journal of Social Theory, 9 (4): 467–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×