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Watene, Krushil P. M. "Strengthening the capability approach : the foundations of the capability approach, with insights from two challenges." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/1902.
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The Capability Approach was initially developed by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, with the first basic articulation presented in his 1979 ‘Equality of What?’ Tanner Lecture. Since then, the approach has gained a huge amount of attention as a conceptual framework which offers a clear and insightful way to measure well-being and development. Most recently, the approach has been refined and extended by Martha Nussbaum to issues of disability, nationality, and species membership in political philosophy. This project is about the foundations of the capability approach. More specifically, this project asks whether we can, and whether there are good reasons to, strengthen those foundations. The conclusions drawn here are that we ought to think seriously about the way that the capability approach develops as a theory that responds to real world challenges and change. More importantly, this project contends – in light of the challenges of future people and indigenous peoples – that there is good reason to think of new ways to ground the approach. This project takes up this challenge and grounds the approach in a modified version of Tim Mulgan’s approach to well-being. This project demonstrates that this alternative enriches the capability approach by providing us with a way of making sense of important problems, and with options for moving forward. Overall, this project asks important questions about how the capability approach could evolve based on challenges that remain relatively under-explored in the current literature. This project contributes to this literature by demonstrating that we can and ought to strengthen the capability approach and its ability to understand, take on board, and resolve these challenges.
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Tseng, Chuan Chia. "Microfinance and Amartya Sen's capability approach." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2011. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/2921/.
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There are two main motivations for undertaking this thesis on Sen’s capability approach and microfinance. One is to evaluate Sen’s capability approach by considering moral philosophy (utilitarianism and John Rawls’ theory of justice) and developmental ethics contexts. The other is to analyse the impact of microfinance on poverty reduction in accordance with Sen’s approach. This thesis argues that Although Sen’s capability approach has drawbacks, both as a general moral theory and as a theory of justice, it does bring up important aspects of development and poverty reduction. When the empirical evidence is combined with criteria from the capability approach, microfinance is a relative failure as a poverty-reducing approach. The evidence that micro-loans reduce poverty is weak, and there are moral arguments against the group lending approach that is used to assure repayments. Other services sometimes associated with microfinance – savings and insurance — do help the poor, however. However, we should notice that the conclusion I propose here does not exclude the possibility that perhaps microfinance does help promote some other freedoms that are of significance locally.
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Comim, F., S. Fennell, and Prathivadi B. Anand. "New frontiers of the capability approach." Cambridge University Press, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/17559.
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NoFor over three decades, the capability approach proposed and developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum has had a distinct impact on development theories and approaches because it goes beyond an economic conception of development and engages with the normative aspects of development. This book explores the new frontiers of the capability approach and its links to human development in three main areas. First, it delves into the philosophical foundations of the approach, re-examining its links to concepts of common good, collective agency and epistemic diversity. Secondly, it addresses its 'operational frontier', aiming to give inclusive explanations of some of the most advanced methods available for capability researchers. Thirdly, it offers a wide range of the applications of this approach, as carried out by a mix of renowned capability scholars and researchers from different disciplines. This broad interdisciplinary range includes the areas of human and sustainable development, inequalities, labour markets, education, special needs, cities, urban planning, housing, social capital and happiness studies, among others.
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Eiffe, Franz F. "A Capability Approach for the European Union." Institut für Sozialpolitik, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, 2008. http://epub.wu.ac.at/1318/1/document.pdf.
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The aim of this paper is to develop a new concept for the EU in order to define and measure poverty no longer on the basis of income1, but on so called capabilities to argue for a capability oriented social policy. The capability approach (CA) was originally developed by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen2 and can be interpreted as critique of the utilitarian tradition of standard economics. In Sen's view, mainstream economic analysis operates on a very narrow base and does not include central information about the human condition. The main points of Sen's critique shall be discussed by way of introduction in section one. In offering an alternative framework of economic evaluation, Sen is very much inspired by the work of Adam Smith (1723-1790) and tried to bring him back into the economic and social discussion. The connections between Smith and Sen and the main elements of the CA will be discussed in section two. (...) (author´s abstract)Series: Working Papers / Institut für Sozialpolitik
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Alberti, Corseri Lucrezia. "The capability approach: rescuing aid from paternalism." Doctoral thesis, Luiss Guido Carli, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/11385/204570.
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The capability approach: a new evaluation of standards of living. The capability approach: conceptual foundations. Sen and his critics. Different versions of the capability approach. Application of the Capability Approach to the study of social phenomena: inequality and poverty. Development as the process of expansion of freedoms. The capability approach in the context of international development policies.
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Lebow, Ellen. "Justice and Obligation: Building on the Capability Approach." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/368.
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Sen and Nussbaum generate very different degrees of obligation for the affluent under their theories of justice, despite each of them deriving their theory of justice from capability as a metric for quality of life. On one hand, Sen’s account of obligation seems very weak, while Nussbaum’s seems overwhelmingly robust. I argue that the sufficient/decisivereasons framework as put forth by philosopher Derek Parfit captures the nuances of their extremely different accounts of obligation. Further, I argue that this framework convincingly demonstrates that the accounts of obligation that Sen and Nussbaum offer in each of their versions of the capability approach are unsatisfying, as each approach occupies such extremes that they are unreasonable. In spite of this, supplementing the capability approach with a different and perhaps more centrist account of obligation can make the capability approach a more consistent and appealing theory of justice. To this end, I appropriate Thomas Pogge’s account of obligation.
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Minardi, Michael. "Comparing process capability : a c pk ratio approach." Honors in the Major Thesis, University of Central Florida, 2001. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETH/id/288.
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This item is only available in print in the UCF Libraries. If this is your Honors Thesis, you can help us make it available online for use by researchers around the world by following the instructions on the distribution consent form at http://library.ucf.edu/Systems/DigitalInitiatives/DigitalCollections/InternetDistributionConsentAgreementForm.pdf You may also contact the project coordinator, Kerri Bottorff, at kerri.bottorff@ucf.edu for more information.Bachelors
Arts and Sciences
Statistics
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Patton, Rikki A. "Exploring Sex Work through a Capability Lens: Does the Capability Approach Predict Sex Work Involvement among a Substance-Abusing Sample?" The Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1341325355.
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Venkatapuram, Sridhar. "Health and justice : the capability to be healthy." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2009. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/224951.
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This is an inter-disciplinary argument for a moral entitlement to a capability to be healthy. Motivated by the goal to make a human right to health intelligible and justifiable, the thesis extends the capability approach, advocated by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, to the theory and practice of the human health sciences. Moral claims related to human health are considered at the level of ethical theory, or a level of abstraction where principles of social justice that determine the purpose, form, and scope of basic social institutions are proposed, evaluated, and justified. The argument includes 1) a conception of health as capability, 2) a theory of causation and distribution of health capability as well as 3) an argument for the moral entitlement to a sufficient and equitable capability to be healthy grounded in the respect for human dignity. Moreover, the entitlement to the capability to be healthy is defended against alternative ethical approaches that focus on welfare or resources in evaluating and satisfying health claims. In specific, it is argued that human health is best understood as a capability to be healthy - a meta-capability to achieve a cluster of basic and inter-related capabilities and functionings. Such a cluster of capabilities and functionings is in line with Martha Nussbaum's central human capabilities. A theory of causation and distribution of health capability is put forward that integrates the 'classic' biomedical factors of disease (genetic endowment, exposure to hazardous materials, behaviour), social determinants of disease, and Drèze and Sen's econometric analysis of the causation and distribution of acute and endemic malnutrition. Furthermore, the argument critiques Norman Daniels's revised Rawlsian theory of health justice, and advocates for the capability approach to recognize group capabilities in light of 'population health' phenomena. Lastly, the thesis also argues that a coherent, capability conception of health as a species-wide conception will tend to make any theory of justice recognizing health claims a cosmopolitan theory of justice.
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Limaverde, Falcão Gabriel. "Capability of Justice : Amartya Sen's Capability Approach and its Application as a Framework for Global Justice." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för kultur och kommunikation, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-149665.
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This thesis assesses the Amartya Sen's Capability Approach as a theory of global justice. Sen proposes a new paradigm for human development, having expansion of human capability as the moral norm for individual and institutional actions. Sen's paradigm-shifting theory is tested first as a theory of social ethics; and then as a theory of global justice, taking into account globalization’s challenges to theories of justice. The theory's known application – UNDP's Human Development Index and other initiatives – is also scrutinized, aiming to determine whether this application is an accurate translation of the capability approach into reality. On a theoretical point of view, the thesis reveals that what started as a simple interpersonal comparison method can be considered as an efficient theory of global justice, provided that minor proposed amendments are taken. On a practical point of view, the thesis points out that the application of Sen's capability approach is a weak normative representation of the theory, which urges to be reengineered. The thesis calls for a radical expansion of HDI, both in the components of the index (it should urgently have a component for political freedom) and in its unit of comparison. Rather than comparing just nations, human development indexes should target most actors in the global scenario: organizations, NGOs, institutions of global governance and so on.
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Bessey, Benjamin James. "Humanity, virtue, justice : a framework for a capability approach." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2015. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/6225/.
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This Thesis reconsiders the prospects for an approach to global justice centring on the proposal that every human being should possess a certain bundle of goods, which would include certain members of a distinctive category: the category of capabilities. My overall aim is to present a clarified and well-developed framework, within which such claims can be made. To do this, I visit a number of regions of normative and metanormative theorising. I begin by introducing the motivations for the capability approach, and clarifying some of its most distinctive features. Next, I focus on Martha Nussbaum's version of the approach, and identify several problems therein. The most important concerns epistemology, and especially the challenges that constructivist theories pose. The middle part of the Thesis presents an alternative, based on the work of John McDowell, which I argue has superior prospects. Then, I turn to two further problems: that of making sense of the universalistic aspirations of cosmopolitanism, and that of integrating the microscopic prescriptions of ethics with the macroscopic analyses of political philosophy. Using the Aristotelian interpretation of its core framework that I have developed, I conclude that the capability approach can provide compelling answers to important questions about global justice.
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Mitchell, Paul Mark. "Exploring the capability approach in model-based economic evaluations." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2013. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/4649/.
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This thesis develops the implementation of the capability approach within health economic evaluations. Until now, the focus of applying the capability approach within health economics has centred on its theoretical merits, as well as the development of capability questionnaires. The aim of this research is to establish methods for applying the capability approach in an evaluation framework. Specifically, this is done by (i.) investigating how a measure of capability well-being, the ICECAP-O, can be incorporated into a health economic model and (ii.) establishing the objective of capability evaluations to aid the decision-making process in allocating scarce resources for health. The relationship between capability and condition-specific health status for osteoarthritis patients is studied through statistical mapping. Methods from the capability literature are drawn upon to construct a methodology for generating capability outcomes that can be used to aid decision-making. This methodology is then tested on an existing economic model, the Birmingham Rheumatoid Arthritis Model (BRAM). Key findings from this thesis are that (i.) it is feasible to predict capability from a condition-specific health instrument and (ii.) establishing “sufficient capability” as the objective for capability evaluations. Further research is required to see what difference a capability based evaluation would make in practice.
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Lecerf, Marc Alain. "A data-driven approach to online flight capability estimation." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/90675.
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Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2014.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 89-92).
Similar to a living organism, an autonomous vehicle benefits not only from awareness of its surrounding environment and mission directives, but also from awareness of its performance capability. Because this degrades over time due to fatigue and acute damage, onboard logic often uses conservative estimates of performance from the initial vehicle design to plan feasible mission trajectories. We develop an approach for dynamically estimating vehicle capability to enable safer and more efficient mission planning. The approach leverages multi-level vehicle models in an offline phase to construct a library of information capturing the vehicle behavior in damage scenarios; the behavior is discovered via data-driven classification techniques. After construction, the behavioral library is stored for future queries online by an agent making time-constrained decisions. The research directly links onboard vehicle sensor measurements with an estimate of the current vehicle maneuvering capability using the stored behavioral library. The end-to-end process is implemented and demonstrated in an example flight scenario where an aircraft sustains structural damage to its wing. Safety is assessed based on composite material failure allowables, representing damage to the wing via a local loss of material stiffness. Damage scenarios on the wing are simulated and stored for query during the flight scenario, where knowledge of the maximum maneuvering load factor is estimated using structural strain sensor measurements. Results indicate both an increase in probability of success as well as an increase in overall usage of the vehicle capability, compared to the baseline case that does not dynamically update the capability with onboard sensor information.
by Marc Alain Lecerf.
S.M.
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Kuklys, Wiebke. "Amartya Sen's capability approach : theoretical insights and empirical applications." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.614715.
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Ntibagirirwa, Symphorien. "Philosophical premises for African economic development : SEN’S capability approach." Thesis, University of Pretoria, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/25560.
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The focus of this research is the cultural assumptions underpinning Africa’s strategies of economic development, taking the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) as case studies. It considers the issue whether the neglect of Africa’s cultural beliefs and values in African plans and policies of economic development may not lead to a development impasse. Accordingly, three major objectives are pursued. The first objective is to attempt a critical assessment of the two strategies of economic development, LPA and NEPAD, against the background of theories of economic development that informed them respectively and their cultural assumptions. Using both a theoretical reflection and an empirical approach, I argue that LPA and NEPAD relied on theories of economic development whose cultural foundations are not African. Consequently, although they were designed in Africa, their respective philosophical bases are not African. The second objective is to investigate the relationship between African cultural values and economic development and the extent to which the neglect of the African value system in African policymaking and planning could lead to a development impasse. Based on a theoretical reflection as well as empirical research, I argue that in both LPA and NEPAD, the beliefs and values that structure the African value system have been neglected to the extent of being ignored. The major implication of this neglect is that there is insufficient room for people’s participation in the process of their economic development. Participation makes possible the democratisation and the inculturation of economic development, and thus translates the universal conception of economic development to its local, cultural feasibility. The third objective is to propose certain philosophical premises that could guide development planning in Africa. I revisit the African value system and retrieve the Bantu concept of the human person as umuntu-w’-ubuntu / umuntu-mu-bantu in order to ground the future economic development of Africa on the African foundation. Using Sen’s capability approach which defines development in terms of the ability of people to lead the life they value and have reason to value, human agency and the expansion of capabilities (or real freedoms people enjoy), I suggest four philosophical premises which link African economic development to what Africans believe and value. The first premise consists of the shift from extroversion to the freedom of people to lead the lives they value and have reason to value. This premise deals with the spirit of extroversion which prevents Africans from appreciating their beliefs and values in the process of economic development. It emphasises the fact that development is not a project, but rather a process by which people create and recreate themselves and the conditions by which they can flourish fully. The second premise is the human agency. It deals with the shift from the conception of development as an autonomous process to the conception of development as an agency-based process. It emphasises that the development conceived of as an agency-based process, has as its starting-point and end-point the people. The third premise deals with the shift from the conception of development as an end product to development as an expansion of capability or the real freedoms people enjoy. This premise emphasises three major things. The first is that the expansion of people’s capability is both the end and the means of development. People’s capabilities are not only the primary end of development, they are also its principal means. The second is that development conceived of as the expansion of people’s capability is the concern of both the people and their structural institutions. The third is that the interaction between people and their structural institutions makes it possible to transcend the various dualities often observed in certain development approaches such as the bottom-up and topdown development. The fourth and last premise is the principle of baking the cake together. This premise follows from the fact that the capability approach leads to development as a participatory and inclusive process. It expresses the traditional practice of collaboration in the African community. It emphasises that the three major actors in the development process, namely, the state, the people and the market which tend to exclude each other, are all agents and must work together inclusively to achieve a sustainable economic development. These are the premises suggested to lead future economic development in Africa. Each of these assumptions has implications which are unpacked in the conclusion.Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
Philosophy
unrestricted
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Vos, Robin. "Education, Well-Being and Aspirations ; a Capability based Analysis of the Secondary Schooling System in France." Thesis, Bordeaux, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019BORD0331.
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Cette thèse propose d'explorer la conceptualisation de l'éducation dans la science économique en se concentrant sur son évolution dans le temps et les implications théoriques associées. Elle effectuera ensuite une exploration chronologique des notions de bien-être et d'aspirations du point de vue de la théorie économique, tout en cherchant à mettre en exergue lorsque ces notions se rencontrent dans leurs formulations théoriques (Partie I). L'économie de l'éducation, et sa négligence du bien-être et des aspirations des élèves, mènera à l'exploration de l'approche par les capabilités comme un cadre théorique alternatif (Partie II). Enfin, cette thèse propose d'appliquer l'approche par les capabilités au système d'éducation secondaire en France. Elle le fait en construisant un questionnaire à l'aide de groupes de discussion et en évaluant les résultats grâce à des statistiques multidimensionnelles (Partie III). Cette opérationnalisation permet d'identifier un lien entre le bien-être et les aspirations liés à l'école à travers une méthodologie nouvelleThis thesis proposes to explore the academic inquiries of economic science into education by focusing on its evolution over time and the associated theoretical implications. It will then provide a chronological study of the notions of well-being and aspirations from the standpoint of economic theory while attaching importance to highlight when these notions meet each other in these theoretical formulations (Part I). Findings of Economics of Education and its disregard of pupils well-being and aspirations will lead to the exploration of the Capability Approach as an alternativetheoretical framework (Part II). Finally, this thesis proposes an application of the Capability Approach to the French secondary schooling system. It does so by constructing a questionnaire through focus groups and evaluating its outcomes with multidimensional statistics (Part III).This operationalization allows establishing a link between well-being and school-related aspirations through a new methodology
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Xia, Feng. "A simultaneous transfer capability analysis method based on probabilistic approach." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/14908.
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Fox, Jason P. "A capability-based, meta-model approach to combatant ship design." Thesis, Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/5766.
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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimitedThis thesis continues to develop a conceptual methodology for the design of a warship that is capable of showing how naval architecture related decisions interact with operational measures of effectiveness through the use of modeling and simulation. Beginning with a brief overview of recent developments in total ship design approaches, it supports an overarching method that directly supports capability-based decisions. Using a simple medium-tonnage patrol vessel and a Maritime Intercept Operation (MIO) mission in a fictional setting, operational and ship design synthesis models are developed. Critical design criteria (responses) in each model are measured using relevant design variables (factors) based on mission measures of performance used in creating experimental designs. The resulting models are then linked, both mathematically and using graphs, to show how decisions made by the naval architect can directly influence a single operational measure of effectiveness. Decision makers can then assess various system outcomes by trading off performance parameters to make capabilitybased decisions.
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Gascoigne, Steven. "Managing redundancy : a capability approach to a Swedish case study." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2010. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/51398/.
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This is a study of the workings of a Swedish welfare scheme during a two year period from 1979 to 1980. Its aim is to examine the effects of the scheme on the clients involved, to analyse the relationship between official and client, and to demonstrate the functioning of some components of the Swedish model at the front line. The study focuses upon the collapse of the shipbuilding industry in Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden and the scheme designed to find jobs for around two thousand workers threatened by redundancy in the spring of 1979. The Capability Approach, as formulated by Amartya Sen, is employed to analyse whether various state actors, mobilised to avert mass unemployment during the shipbuilding collapse, were able to re-orientate career paths along mutually desired trajectories. The strength of the approach lies in its focus on the individual, thus enabling an analysis which departs from the traditional approach in Anglo-Saxon studies of Sweden that focus on peak level politics. The case study offers detailed information about the workings of the welfare scheme; it draws upon rich archival and interview data as well as a range of secondary sources previously untranslated. It demonstrates the importance of work within Sweden, how that importance affects client – official relationships thereby offering a critique of Esping Andersen's argument that Social Democratic states facilitate 'decommodification'.
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Clavin, Alma Anne. "Wellbeing impacts of sustainably designed community gardens : a capability approach." Thesis, Oxford Brookes University, 2010. http://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/c1219505-87d3-c8cb-d260-e2fa0130f005/1.
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In early 2011 there were over 1782 community garden sites officially registered with the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens. In addition to promoting healthy food and healthy eating, many of these sites contain a number of sustainable design features and associated activities. They also claim to deal with value-laden ethical and social issues relating to human wellbeing. In this way they aim to be ecologically sustainable. Using a normative framework for evaluating wellbeing - the Capability Approach - this research reports on the multiple impacts that the design of such spaces may have on the subjective wellbeing of site users. Qualitative research methods of data collection and analysis in five community garden sites in the UK and Ireland were carried out for adult, youth and child users. Results show that although producing a food yield was found to have most impact on wellbeing for all user groups, the overall wellbeing impacts of site activities go beyond physical health and healthy eating, impacting most on capabilities of stimulation, psychological wellbeing and purpose. Two key aspects of site design and associated valued activities - agency and dynamic balance - were found to enhance both the sustainability of the community garden sites and the wellbeing of site users. These are the essence of enhancing wellbeing in the sustainably designed community garden sites. The thesis concludes that not only is there a requirement for new conceptualizations of sustainable design and wellbeing for the urban environment but we also require new methodological approaches to better capture the multi-layered and multidimensional complexities of such spaces within our everyday lives.
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Song, Zecong. "A generalized approach for extending the active capability of RDBMSs." [Florida] : State University System of Florida, 2000. http://etd.fcla.edu/etd/uf/2000/ana6812/zsong%5Fetd.pdf.
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Thesis (M.S.)--University of Florida, 2000.Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 95 p.; also contains graphics. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-94).
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Begon, Jessica. "Policy without paternalism : a capability approach to legitimate state action." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/5412/.
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There has long been a conflict at the heart of theories of distributive justice between a concern to allow individuals autonomy and avoid paternalism, on the one hand, and a concern to promote individual well-being, on the other. The capability approach attempts to tread this line, by providing individuals with certain central capabilities or opportunities: these preserve a space for individual freedom and choice, yet ensure that all individuals have access to those things that are considered central for a flourishing life. Further, ‘all individuals’ is meant expansively, aiming to accommodate the experiences and needs of many groups that are often ignored. However, the perfectionist roots of the capability approach have led to concerns being raised that it cannot successfully protect autonomy and promote inclusivity, and that it will, instead, justify paternalism. I contend that, in particular, Martha Nussbaum's influential account of capabilities falls prey to just this objection. In my thesis I defend a version of the capability approach that is strictly anti-paternalist, and accommodates a variety of non-standard human experiences. I argue that this focus on autonomy need not be bought at the expense of individual well-being, and that encompassing atypical experiences need not be bought at the expense of accommodating more standard conceptions of the good. I advocate an understanding of capabilities as opportunities to exercise control in certain domains of our life, in contrast to Nussbaum’s construal of capabilities as opportunities to perform (or not) particular valuable functionings. I test my theory against a number of cases that have traditionally provide challenging for anti-paternalists, and theorists of justice more generally – including physical disability, conditions such as asexuality and Asperger’s Syndrome, and voluntary slavery and amputation – to demonstrate that my theory is better able to accommodate such unusual preferences and needs, without paternalism.
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Vollmer, Frank [Verfasser]. "Poverty Revisited : The Capability Approach Operationalized in Mozambique / Frank Vollmer." Baden-Baden : Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 2013. http://d-nb.info/111005890X/34.
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Lubis, Arief Wibisono. "Exploring the importance of financial literacy within the Capability Approach framework." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2018. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/277309.
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This dissertation aims to address the importance of financial literacy within the capability approach framework in the context of microfinance institutions’ clients in Indonesia, by raising four main issues. The first touches on financial capability and specifically focuses on its conceptualisation, predictors, and relationship with quality of life. A participatory method was employed to understand whether financial literacy is viewed as an important element of financial capability. An index of financial capability was built to investigate factors predicting financial capability and the relationship between financial capability and quality of life. The results suggest that socio-demographic discrepancies in financial capability exist, and financial capability is relevant for the improvement of quality of life. The remaining three issues centre on the instrumental value of financial literacy. In the second part, it is proposed that financial literacy is a relevant conversion factor. Within the capability approach literature itself, there is a lack of empirical discussion on conversion factors. It can be concluded that financial literacy is associated positively with conversion rate efficiency. The third research topic examined is the role of financial literacy in household financial decision-making authority. Previous studies have used household decision-making authority as a reflection of agency, which is an important building block of the capability approach. This thesis focuses on financial decision making, which is often perceived as “difficult”, “boring”, and “full of uncertainties”. It is suggested that the relationship between financial literacy and household financial decision-making authority is complex and contingent upon various factors. The role of financial literacy in the relationship between financial decision-making authority and subjective well-being is the last topic investigated in this dissertation. While decision-making authority has been argued as a reflection of human agency and source of power within households, it can also be perceived as a burden. These two interpretations of authority lead to an unclear relationship between household financial decision-making authority and subjective well-being. While a negative relationship between household financial decision-making authority and subjective well-being can be found among those with low levels of financial literacy, a similar correlation is absent among those who score high in financial literacy. This suggests that skills are important for people to value agency.
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Szaboova, Lukrecia. "Exploring the well-being and ecosystem services relationship through the capability approach." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/26297.
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This thesis investigates the relationship between ecosystem services and human well-being through a case study in Cornwall, UK. The study examines how aspects of the economic and socio-cultural environment interact and influence participants’ constructs of well-being, as well as mediate, through mechanisms of access, their ability to benefit from ecosystem services. The research design is informed by Sen’s capability approach as well as insights from literatures on access theory, human well-being, and ecosystem services. While Sen’s approach potentially offers a novel means to explore the ecosystem services and well-being relationship, it is currently underutilised in this research context. Adopting an in-depth qualitative research approach, data collection took place over 21 months with the same cohort of participants, who face various types of socio-economic disadvantage. Focus groups, life history interviews, photo elicitation, and semi-structured interviews were used to (a) elicit local constructs of well-being, (b) explore the role of ecosystem services for well-being, and (c) identify mechanisms of access that mediate participants’ ability to benefit from valued ecosystem services. The analysis shows that capabilities are interlinked and multidimensional. Therefore, existing socio-economic constraints have important implications for capability formation, and also lead to a series of trade-offs in converting capabilities into well-being. The findings deliver new insights into existing conceptualizations of the ecosystem services and well-being relationship, highlighting the role of cultural practices as sources of well-being, and identifying cultural ecosystem services as an overarching theme rather than a discrete service type. Four types of access mechanisms emerge from the data, including psychological mechanisms, demonstrating that physical distance is an insufficient indicator of exposure to ecosystem services. The thesis concludes by suggesting that developing a capability theory for ecosystem services could aid disaggregated analyses and deliver more nuanced insights into the complex links between ecosystem services and well-being, by shifting the focus from outcomes to opportunities and the processes that contribute to particular outcomes.
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Ananthamoorthy, Nilani. "Perceptions of Capability Among Female Stroke Survivors in the Context of Disaster Risk Reduction." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/38013.
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Women and persons with disabilities are at increased risks of experiencing negative health outcomes during and after disasters. The Sendai Framework (2015), published by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, highlights the need to strengthen disaster risk reduction (DRR) among populations at disproportionate risk, using an all-of-society approach that is inclusive and engaging. This research investigated the perceptions of capability among female stroke survivors, in the context of DRR. The purpose of this study was to 1) examine the role of asset literacy in the social construction of capability and lived experiences of female stroke survivors and 2) create an opportunity for female stroke survivors to share their lived experiences among themselves, and members of the stroke and DRR communities. Four women were recruited through snowball sampling. Study participants were invited to join a PhotoVoice project – a participatory method in which survivors were asked to respond to prompts using photography. Data was analyzed using qualitative, thematic analysis. Study results revealed that perceptions of capability in DRR for stroke survivors was rooted in the context of their recovery. Participants discussed 4 sets of recovery and DRR assets: 1) physical, 2) social, 3) energy and 4) personal characteristics. Autonomy was identified as a valued recovery outcome, and as needed to establish self-efficacy and adaptive capacity to cope with disasters. Social participation and asset literacy can support one another, and may enhance disaster resilience. An important aspect of Photovoice initiatives is sharing the messages with important stakeholders, as identified by the participants. This research has been shared at the annual international EnRiCH meeting (2018). We are currently planning a photo exhibit to be held in the fall of 2018. Overall, this research shows how creative tools (i.e. Photovoice, asset-mapping) can be used to foster social participation, and include populations at disproportionate risk in the DRR discussion.
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Daniel, Larsson. "Capabilities and Civil Disobedience : A comparative analysis of The Capability Approach." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för kultur och kommunikation, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-117885.
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This essay investigates whether Amartya Sen’s or Martha Nussbaum’s version of the capability approach is better suited to justify civil disobedience. The theoretical framework of my study is critical discourse analysis. This aims to establish the most significant conditions for the justification of civil disobedience. An interpretation of the conception of civil disobedience is presented. The investigation assumes that civil disobedience is justified when people advocate for a change in a policy or a law that limits the securing of basic capabilities. A major part of the essay is devoted to clarifying how the idea of basic capabilities relates to civil disobedience. I also emphasize the importance of human dignity as a universal value. I argue that this value is crucial to realizing why some capabilities are more basic than others. I show that Nussbaum is in a better position than Sen to explain when civil disobedience can be justified. This is because Sen lacks a framework of basic capabilities leaving it up to each nation to assess which capabilities ought to be secured.
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Sawyer, Asha. "The application of Sen's Capability approach to selected women in Khayelitsha." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2007. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_1407_1255008445.
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Measuring poverty adequately is critical for any type of development project, and yet there are still no clear guidelines as to which approach is best to be used for different circumstances. There is a variety of different ways of measuring and understanding poverty, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, depending on the intended goal. This research explored the theory regarding poverty and poverty measurements, and research various perspectives ranging from income to basic needs, socail exclusion, sustainable livelihoods, and finally to the Human Development Approach.
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Kang, Sun Wook. "A new approach for power transaction evaluation and transfer capability analysis." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/13902.
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Martins, Nuno Miguel Ornelas. "Philosophy and methodology of A.K. Sen's capability approach to human development." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.614178.
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Vera, Marissa, Perez Mariscol O'Conner, and Jasser El-sissi. "Female Genital Mutilation: An Analysis through Capability Approach and Cultural Relativism." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-23315.
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Female Genital Mutilation is a cultural and historical practice engrained in the African Culture.This practice is part of the African Rite of Passage; where a young girl passes on from being achild into being a grown woman. According to Martha Nussbaums’s Capability Approach thispractice undermines the woman and violates her rights as a human being, on the other handMelville Herskovits’ Cultural Relativist theory encourages acceptance and respect of the variouscultures and their beliefs; thus making female genital mutilation a cultural tradition that shouldbe respected like any other tradition around the world.
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Warner, Karl S. R. "Networking capability development in new venture internationalisation : a theory building approach." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2014. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5418/.
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This thesis aims to explore how technology start-ups build dynamic capabilities in networking to enable their new venture internationalisation (NVI). Positioned within the theoretical context of international entrepreneurship research, this thesis draws on the strategic management, entrepreneurship, and international business literature. Specifically, this thesis draws on three theoretical perspectives: (1) dynamic capabilities, (2) networking and social capital, and (3) NVI theory. Together this study combines Helfat et al. (2007) asset orchestration framework along with Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) three dimensions of social capital as a theoretical lens to explore how various networking activities enable or inhibit NVI. Specifically, this thesis explores three overarching network processes, with respect to how international new ventures (INVs) (1) create, (2) extend, and (3) modify their social capital in high-technology markets. The empirical context is Scottish and Australian medical technology start-ups that compete in the global medical technology sector, a distinct sector of the wider life sciences industry. Methodologically, this an interpretivist study, which takes an abductive approach to building theory from longitudinal multiple case study research. The focal actor (i.e. level of analysis) is the INV, while the unit of analysis is the focal actor’s network relationships. Data collection and analysis took place over three iterative phases drawing on multiple primary and secondary data sources and processual analytical techniques. To collect these data, this thesis used semi-structured interviews drawing on the critical incident and narrative sequence techniques along with documents, and observation. This study began with a purposeful sample of eight medical technology start-ups, and as findings emerged, a theoretical sample of four cases, along with visual maps, conceptually ordered displays and case-ordered effects matrices helped focus and refine the cross-case analysis. From the emergent cross-case data analysis, three overarching aggregate categories were found to aggregate eleven second-order themes, which aggregate several first-order concepts. The overarching finding of this thesis is that networking capability development is an affect-based emergent process that enables NVI. Specifically, this thesis makes three contributions to knowledge. The primary contribution of this thesis takes a step towards a process theory of networking capability development. Therefore, this study identifies networking capability as one particular type of dynamic capability that enables NVI. Secondly, this thesis begins to unlock the black box of networking by identifying several networking activities that underpin the network-enhancing, network-delaying, and network-modifying process, which triggers, enables, and accelerates a virtuous cycle of networking capability development. Finally, this thesis argues that learning from delays and nurturing core ties helps shift technology start-ups’ reliance from impersonal relations towards future aspirations to internalise operations. A discussion of these findings then outlines the implications for theory, policy, and practice. This study closes with a discussion on research limitations and recommends new avenues for future research.
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Atanassova, Iva Valentinova. "Social media practices in SME marketing activities : a dynamic capability approach." Thesis, University of Portsmouth, 2016. https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/social-media-practices-in-sme-marketing-activities(51e63012-f766-4dee-b336-67e05c73a26c).html.
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This thesis explores the marketing transformation processes taking place in a diverse selection of SMEs as a result of their use of social media. Building on literature from SME marketing, social media and dynamic capabilities, the Market Intelligence Accumulation Through Social media (MIATSM) model is developed and presented, which conceptualises the processes and factors, affecting the organisational ability to transfer market intelligence gained from social media into internal, organisational-level learning and marketing evolution. The study employs phenomenological case study methodology to develop five explorative case studies of diverse SMEs operating in South East England. The data was collected via semi-structured interviews with key actors, social media data and informal discussions, and thematically analysed using MIATSM model. The MIATSM model application demonstrated that at the operating capability level, through the use of social media on a daily basis, and applying proactive logic, two of the studied companies built absorptive capacity and this learning was captured on a strategic level and led to strategic changes in their marketing practices. Organisational VRIN (valuable, rare, inimitable, non-substitutable) resources, such as loyalty, engagement, and relationships, were also positively impacted. The other three case companies exhibit disjointed, outbound practices, unclear strategic direction, rigid structure, narrow mind sets, and broken internal communication flows, which constrained the accumulation and application of market intelligence for marketing evolution. The findings of this research highlight that the organisational factors – culture, structure and systems, actors, and resources – have crucial importance for developing an ability to adapt to new information that arises externally, and reaping the benefits of organisational social media use. The findings demonstrate the research and practical application of the MIATSM model in shedding light on the highly context-dependent and under-researched processes of absorptive capacity development on operating and dynamic capability level through the use of social media, and the follow-on marketing evolution. This thesis makes original contributions in that it extends the understanding of the role of social media for SME marketing practices development, and provides a model to guide understanding development in the area. Additionally, these findings bring contribution and new insights to the SME Marketing, Social Media and Dynamic Capability literature. Future research should build on this study by applying the MIATSM model to other industry and organisational contexts.
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Giacomelli, Andrea <1971>. "Il capability approach per l’active aging dell’artigiano senior in ambienti d’innovazione." Doctoral thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/12898.
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L’invecchiamento della popolazione pone seri problemi di sostenibilità del welfare state e richiede efficaci politiche di active aging, anche e soprattutto nel settore artigianale.
Lo studio ha sperimentato il valore del Capability Approach per aumentare l’agency innovativa dell’artigiano over 50 verso una riprogettazione del proprio percorso personale e professionale in un’ottica di active aging. Per fare ciò, occorre ripensare il paradigma dell’artigiano 2.0 in modo da uscire da una dimensione prettamente economica e prestazionale per salvaguardare quella “dimensione estetica” che dà forma e qualifica in senso pedagogico l’agire artigianale, nel cogliere con atteggiamento attivo le opportunità offerte da innovazioni tecnologiche e globalizzazione dei mercati.
Le recenti riforme dell’Alternanza scuola lavoro hanno offerto poi l’occasione per attualizzare la relazione educativa e formativa tra giovane studente e maestro artigiano, adottando come ambito di riflessione critica e di apprendimento trasformativo le competenze per l’innovazione – “DNA dell’Innovatore”.
Il passaggio dalle competenze alle capacitazioni ha consentito infine di far emergere, nella suddetta relazione generazionale, una serie di “fattori di conversione” in grado di aumentare le libertà sostanziali e l’agency tras-formativa dell’artigiano senior in ambienti innovativi per progettare nuovi percorsi di invecchiamento attivo in cui riconoscersi pienamente.
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Barnett, Emma Priscilla. "A capability analysis of education policies in quintile 1 schools in the Frances Baard district of the Northern Cape Province." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/4316.
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Doctor EducationisThis study examined the three education poverty alleviation policies in relation to learners’ capabilities and was grounded in the Capability Approach as a conceptual framework pioneered by the economist and philosopher, Amartya Sen. The study posits the view that the policies investigated and evaluated are essential in terms of contributing to the well-being of learners, particularly those living in poverty, as well as offering opportunities for every child, irrespective of social and/or economic background. The theoretical framework which conceptualise the dimensions of poverty, re-imagines the South African case. A local investigation was undertaken to understand the poverty dynamics in the Quintile 1 schools in the Frances Baard District of the Northern Cape Province. The empirical research was done using a mixed methodology within the pragmatic paradigm. The investigations were based on and informed by the policies and the components of the Capability Approach. An investigation into the extent and processes of the implementation of these policies, and their impact on poverty alleviation in the schools, was considered necessary in order to provide information on the successes and limitations encountered in the implementation processes. A framework is proposed including capabilities for the effective implementation of the educational poverty alleviation policies namely autonomy, knowledge and accountability.
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Ibrahim, Dasuki Salihu. "Investigating the link between ICT intervention and human development using the capability approach : a case study of the computerised electricity management system." Thesis, Brunel University, 2012. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/7622.
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There has been an increasing amount of investment in Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) interventions in developing countries under the premise of accelerating the process of social, economic and political development. These interventions are usually driven by the symbolic power of ICTs which signify progress and upon which the governments of developing countries try to draw to modernise the functioning of the state and to further enhance public service delivery to citizens. However, in this thesis it is argued that the actions and events that lead to the design and implementation of ICT4D tend to be politically motivated because ICT4D are simply interventions used by powerful actors and institutions to achieve their goals. These powerful actors include international donor agencies, politicians, top bureaucrats and private entities. In addition, it is argued that, due to these politically motivated agendas, ICT4D projects tend to be implemented in a top-down fashion and within an economic development perspective that appears to isolate the concerns of the country itself and the wellbeing of its citizens. In an attempt to try and redress social exclusion and imbalance, the capability approach drawn from the work of Amartya Sen (1999) stresses the enhancement of human capabilities and the moral aspects of development. Theoretically, the study is based on the key concepts of Sen’s Capability Approach. However, Lukes’s (1974) concepts of power are also drawn upon to address the limitation of the capability approach in addressing the concept of power. The research questions guiding this thesis are as follows: (1) How do the underlying motivations of different actors drive the design and implementation of ICT4D initiatives in developing countries? (2) How can researchers usefully conceptualise the relationship between ICT and development given the complexities in which ICT4D initiatives are undertaken? What conceptual framework could help theorise the complex relationship between ICT and development? Epistemologically, the study was conducted by following an interpretive research approach. The research was carried out in two states of Nigeria, Abuja and Plateau, and took place during the period of 2010-2011. The case-study centres on the initiation and implementation of the Computerised Electricity Management System (CEMS). Empirically, data collection techniques include 65 individual interviews, field observations and document analysis. The following are key findings of this thesis: ICT4D interventions are a complex process shaped at two levels. At the international level, they are shaped by donor agendas such as privatisation, and at the national or local level they are shaped by political and private interests. These agendas and interest are driven by powerful actors such as international donor agencies that often impose such interventions as a condition of aid, politicians who often use such interventions as campaign tools, and other top public and private actors who often use such interventions for personal gain. Hence, the beneficiaries of these projects usually have no say in the design of ICT4D projects but are rather forced to accept these interventions. Corruption is a major obstacle that hinders the expected ICT4D contributions in terms of individual opportunities and freedoms of living better lives inscribed in ICT4D interventions. Corruption exists as a “network” involving different actors present at three levels of ICT4D projects, namely the design, implementation and usage stages. Viewed from this perspective, the findings of this study show that international donor agencies, politicians, public bureaucrats and private entities are equally responsible for promoting corrupt practices in the context of ICT4D interventions. Theoretically, this thesis progresses the operationalisation of the capability approach (CA) by encapsulating the central aspect of the approach and Lukes’s (1974) concept of power. This is an innovative way of operationalising the capability approach by addressing its limitations in explaining the notion of power; the study thereby contributes to the field of IS using the capability approach and expanding the scope of theoretical analysis of contemporary ICT4D studies. Practically, to make the relationship between ICT and development more effective in meeting broader development goals, it is necessary for government policies to move beyond the mere provision of technology to also concentrate on the cultural, institutional, social and political aspects in ensuring the effective use of ICT resources, which should serve to improve people’s opportunity to participate more in social, political and economic activities.
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Muchoza, Tongesai. "An assessment of social consequences of using water management devices on the poor households in Harare. The case of Sunningdale high density suburb prepaid water meter project in Harare." University of the Western Cape, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/7036.
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Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS)A prepaid water metering project was implemented in various high density suburbs around the city of Harare in 2015 with the intention of spreading the project throughout the whole country. It was anticipated that the use of prepaid water meters as a water management device would improve the social, health, hygiene and general well-being of the poor households in the Sunningdale high density suburb. This study will investigate the social implications that were caused by the use of prepaid water meters as a tool for water management among poor households in this high density suburbs. The impact of prepaid water meter technology has been felt by water consumers in Sunningdale who have shared their experiences and attitudes towards this recently introduced innovation in water service delivery within Harare high density suburbs. The study examines the implications of using prepaid water meters as a water conservation measure and considers the behaviour, health and hygiene as well as home-based livelihoods of low-income water users. This study also provides answers for the premature abandonment of the expansion of the prepaid water meter project into other surrounding cities in Zimbabwe.
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Hibbert, Kirk R. "A need for systems architecture approach for next generation mine warfare capability." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 2006. http://library.nps.navy.mil/uhtbin/hyperion/06Sep%5FHibbert.pdf.
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Thesis (M.S. in Systems Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2006.Thesis Advisor(s): John Osmundson, Martha Jallim Hall. "September 2006." Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-83). Also available in print.
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Hart, Caroline Francesca Sarojini. "Aspirations re-examined : a capability approach to widening participation in higher education." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.603793.
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This thesis draws on Amartya Sen’s capability approach to re-examine the complex and dynamic nature of young people’s aspirations, in relation to government strategies to widen participation in higher education in England. Key concepts from Pierre Bourdieu are synthesised with Sen’s work to create a theoretical framework which facilitates new insights into the way young people’s aspirations may be transformed into capabilities. A case study was undertaken involving 580 young people aged 17-19. The city of Sheffield was chosen due to its contrasting areas of participation in higher education. Students in post-16 education from four institutions took part in the study. Two of the institutions were based in an area of Sheffield that has high participation rates in higher education and two in an area with low participation. Methods included quantitative survey, individual and group interviews. The thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge by making new conceptual advances in understanding the nature of aspirations. Drawing on concepts from social choice theory, this culminated in developing a new typology of revealed, concealed, adapted and apparent aspirations. Secondly, the study identified new processes of support and hindrance experienced by young people as they strive to realise their aspirations. These processes are theorised using the notion of ‘conversion factors’ leading to re-examination of the way in which disadvantage is constructed within widening participation discourses. New insights were developed into the roles that educators and policy makers may play in both helping young people to develop their aspirations as well as enhancing their freedom to realise their aspirations. Thirdly, this study has generated new understandings of young people’s relationships to higher education and their decision-making pathways in this area. In particular, a new register of meaning and action is identified to help understand the different ways young people construct the possibility of their participation in higher education.
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Parker, Jeffrey D. Jr. "An innovative approach for the development of future Marine Corps amphibious capability." Thesis, Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/45920.
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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimitedThe United States Marine Corps will bring toughness, vision, and refined tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) from a 13-year desert fight into the next major combat operation or small contingency. This Marine Corps proclivity for action is reflected in driven Marines, doctrine and the personnel carriers or vehicles used by Marines to execute maneuver warfare from the sea. The first responder for the next contingency will likely be the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), which is the smallest seabased configuration of a Marine Air Ground Task Force. The MEU provides rapid crisis response from U.S. Navy ships and is likely to be the principal component of the future force at sea. This research informs the top procurement priorities for the United States Navy by evaluating the MEU’s expeditionary amphibious assault capability and the use of ship-to-shore connectors. In hundreds of thousands of simulated assaults, it identifies TTPs and mission profiles that achieve increased operational effectiveness, while employing less operational energy. The major results quantify the benefits of debarking amphibious forces at closer distances, show that a self-deployer presents a significant advantage to the landing force, and reveal the diminishing returns of high water speed.
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Deneulin, Séverine. "Examining Sen's capability approach to development as guiding theory for development policy." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2004. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:1c357bd8-5e83-48df-a748-f71745304ac1.
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The purpose of this dissertation is to examine to what extent Sen's freedom-centred view of development, with its existing theoretical foundations, offers sufficient theoretical insights for guiding development policies towards the enhancement of human freedoms. The theoretical part of the dissertation focuses on the three foundational building stones of Sen's freedom-centred view of development. First, the capability approach sets the evaluation space of development in the capabilities that people have reason to choose and value, but by doing so, it is argued that Sen's capability approach contains tensions between human freedom and human well-being that can be loosened by thickening this evaluation space with a substantial view of human well-being. Second, the capability approach views individual agency as central in development, but because of the socio-historical dimension of human freedom and agency, it is argued that concepts of collective capabilities and of socio-historical agency are more central in promoting human freedoms. Third, promoting human freedoms cannot be dissociated from democratic policy-making. But because the link between the two is not necessary, it is argued that the capability approach's consequentialist evaluation of human well-being will have to be thickened by a procedural evaluation which assesses the exercise of political freedom through certain normative principles of decision-making. The empirical part of the thesis illustrates these theoretical arguments through the analysis of two case studies, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. The case studies particularly point to a country's socio-historical agency, or collective capability in promoting human well-being, through socio-historical narratives. These narratives assess a country's collective capability in promoting human freedoms by looking at the country's socio-historical reality, and how its members have appropriated that reality in the course of the country's history, opening up or closing down opportunities for realising policy decisions towards the removal of unfreedoms.
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Wimborne, Oliver James. "Preparing for life beyond school : a capability approach to post-16 education." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2018. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/preparing-for-life-beyond-school(ed330300-3d05-4ea8-9a0d-3b2134f1407b).html.
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The aim of this thesis is to explore how post-16 education prepares young people for life beyond school. It does this by drawing on the work of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum to develop a capability approach to education, which pays specific attention to the freedoms and achievements that young people secure through their education. The thesis argues that post-16 education is uniquely well-positioned to support capability development for individual students and that under the current policy framework this aspect of education or schooling is underappreciated. This thesis draws conclusions from an empirical study carried out at an inner-city London academy sixth-form. As part of this study, 20 students participated in a series of interviews that explored their day-to-day school experiences and their reasons for valuing particular ‘beings and doings’ related to their post-16 education. These interviews are analysed with use of Grounded Theory and evaluated with use of a capability approach framework. The discussion focuses on how each of these student narratives reveal the ways in which the post-16 setting can serve to enhance and diminish the quality of life of students: making available or withholding resources and opportunities for capability development. The discussion of the thesis presents the ideal form of post-16 education as an autonomy-building process, in which young people are encouraged to be agents in the post-16 setting. On this account, the post-16 setting acts as a site for ‘identity work’ in which multiple forms of agency are made possible in order for students to explore what kinds of life they value. A line of argument is developed that presents capability development as consisting of deep practices of agency, which are dependent upon the quality of freedom and opportunities available to them. Here, emphasis is placed on the need for schools to be highly individuating institutions, where the development of young people can take place in social-ecological niches. In this regard, there are important structural forces created by the school that condition the kinds of agency students might practice and can therefore advantage or disadvantage student capability development. Beyond this, an account of internal capabilities is offered, arguing that these furnish students with a relational view of the world: assisting them with determining where they stand in relation to their past, their community, their present commitments, their imagined future, and the things they have reason to value. A ‘good post-16 education’, therefore, is one in which individual students are able to develop their internal capabilities in an environment that recognises individuality and autonomy as fundamental to preparing young people for life beyond school.
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Soundararajan, Shvetha. "Assessing Agile Methods: Investigating Adequacy, Capability, and Effectiveness (An Objectives, Principles, Strategies Approach)." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/23195.
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Agile methods provide an organization or a team with the flexibility to adopt a selected subset of principles and practices based on their culture, their values, and the types of systems that they develop. More specifically, every organization or team implements a customized agile method, tailored to better accommodate its needs. However, the extent to which a customized method supports the organizational objectives, i.e. the 'goodness' of that method, should be demonstrable. Existing agile assessment approaches focus on comparative analyses, or are limited in scope and application. In this research, we propose a systematic, comprehensive approach to assessing the 'goodness' of agile methods. We examine an agile method based on (1) its adequacy, (2) the capability of the organization to support the adopted principles and strategies specified by the method, and (3) the method's effectiveness. We propose the Objectives, Principles and Strategies (OPS) Framework to guide our assessment process. The Framework identifies (a) objectives of the agile philosophy, (b) principles that support the objectives and (c) strategies that implement the principles. It also defines (d) linkages that relate objectives to principles, and principles to strategies, and finally, (e) indicators for assessing the extent to which an organization supports the implementation and effectiveness of those strategies. The propagation of indicator values along the linkages provides a multi-level assessment view of the agile method. In this dissertation, we present our assessment methodology, guiding Framework, validation approach, results and findings, and future directions.Ph. D.
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Ellis, Bonni. "Amartya Sen's capability approach to equality : is it capable of accommodating human diversity?" Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0003/MQ43616.pdf.
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Bomfim, Marianna Percinio Moreira. "A Capability Approach de Amartya Sen e o indicador de desenvolvimento humano (IDH)." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2012. https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/9195.
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Previous issue date: 2012-08-16Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
This dissertation aims to introduce the components of the economic theory of well-being proposed by Sen, called capability approach, and to discuss its influence on the human development index (HDI) - an indicator of well being presented in the annual reports of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).To that effect, firstly the methodological path done by Sen in the elaboration of his approach is presented. To do so, the author retake the thoughts of Adam Smith, analyses the economic theory of well-being and its utilitarian foundations and uses concepts present on Kenneth Arrow s and John Rawls works. Then, the reviews made regard the income and GDP when used as indicators of human development are listed, backing the creation of HDI as an alternative to a less restrictive measure. Besides the concept of human development that supports the indicator, it is presented: the calculation process developed from 1990, some criticisms and suggestions suffered in the last twenty years and the construction of a new HDI in 2010.In conclusion, we discuss the influence of Sen s approach in the UNDP indicator, beyond the limitations of the analyzes of well-being, given that existing tools can not capture all dimensions of human development presented in the theory, inferring that, regard the great progress made on the human condition evaluation due to today, it is still necessary theoretical and technical improvement for a broader understanding of people s well-being
O objetivo desta dissertação é apresentar os elementos constitutivos da teoria econômica do bem-estar proposta por Sen, denominada capability approach, e discutir sua possível influência no índice de desenvolvimento humano (IDH), indicador de bem-estar social apresentado nos relatórios anuais do Programa das Nações Unidas para o Desenvolvimento (PNUD). Com esse objetivo, apresenta-se inicialmente o percurso metodológico feito por Sen para construção de sua abordagem. Para tanto, o autor retoma o pensamento de Adam Smith, analisa a Teoria Econômica do Bem-estar e seus alicerces utilitaristas, e se utiliza de conceitos presentes nos trabalhos de Kenneth Arrow e John Rawls. Em seguida, parte das críticas feitas à renda e ao PIB quando utilizados como indicadores do desenvolvimento humano são elencadas, respaldando a criação do IDH como forma alternativa a uma mensuração menos restrita. Além do conceito de desenvolvimento humano que suporta o indicador, são apresentados: o processo de cálculo inicial, parte das críticas e sugestões sofridas nos últimos vinte anos, e a construção de um novo IDH, em 2010. À guisa de conclusão, é discutida a influência da abordagem seniana no indicador do PNUD, além das limitações das análises de bem-estar, dado que as ferramentas existentes não conseguem captar todas as dimensões do desenvolvimento humano apresentadas na teoria, inferindo-se que apesar do grande progresso na avaliação da condição humana feito até o momento, se faz ainda necessário aprimoramento teórico e grande melhoria técnica para uma compreensão mais ampla do bem-estar das pessoas
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Lombard, Christoffel Nicolaas. "Operationalising the Capability Approach for Non-Government Organisations : Evidence from the SEEDS Consortium." University of the Western Cape, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/5267.
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Philosophiae Doctor - PhDThe idea that the development of people's capabilities lies at the heart of all community and social development has gained support internationally over the past decades. This reflects a significant shift in community and society development thinking, addressing the broad spectrum of social upliftment, human rights and poverty alleviation needs that gained ground during the different historic economic phases of the past two centuries. Historically development thinking progressed from a centralised, structured and systemic approach as, for example, espoused by Adam Smith and Karl Marx, to Maynard Keynes’s more people-centred approach, and more specifically the Capability Approach advanced by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. In the world of liberal democratic capitalism, the mainstream view of development holds that civil society is a key role player in both deepening democracy and enhancing forms of development through various programmes and practices. In turn, the professionalised Non-Governmental Organisations sector, as opposed to more localised community-based organisations or social movements, tends to receive most donor funding to deliver high impact interventions. In sum, the development of society’s capabilities relies significantly on NGOs to deliver capability enhancing services to the needy in society. A key consideration in development debates has been how to efficiently operationalise the development of capability enhancing activities based in the context of the Capability Approach, the focus of my study. This study recognises that NGOs are major delivery agents of development work, both in South Africa and internationally. Their operations focus on delivering quality impact on their beneficiary communities, and on raising funds to sustain their operations. The current methods to assess the impact of NGO operations, both by NGOs and their donors, primarily address past performance of the organisation in delivering external programmes as measured against the objectives stated in NGO concept and roll-out proposal documents. These assessments are customised for every NGO, making it impossible to standardise assessments for comparative and rating purposes and focus on external delivery. When problems are uncovered, this approach results in proposing corrective recommendations during or after completion of a funding round. This study argues that a gap exists in techniques to assess NGO internal performance to improve external delivery before and during NGO operations. Furthermore, it will contribute to assessing the merits of NGOs' internal capacity to deliver on the promises made in funding proposals - before and during NGO operations. In practice the assessment of an NGO for funding purposes currently consists of consideration of a project proposal in the form of a concept and roll-out document of what the organisation intends to achieve, accompanied by historic record data. The assessment of project roll-out focuses on the outputs claimed in the proposal document without paying too much attention to the NGOs internal organisational culture and capacity which is the key to successful external service delivery. In addressing this two part gap of incomplete assessment techniques and overlooked key internal indicators, the study demonstrates, via a series of ten case-studies, that a direct causal relationship exists between the internal organisational capabilities of an NGO, including the motivation, skills and culture of its staff, and its delivery on its external programmes. In essence, an organisation’s internal capabilities will impact directly on the organisation’s ability to deliver externally on its programmes. In spite of this, no standardised organisational capability assessment is used by NGOs or grantmakers, and to date no set of instruments exists to measure the internal capabilities of NGOs. The study sets out to address this gap by offering a methodology for the systemic assessment of internal NGO capabilities, and includes its operationalisation in a toolkit of instruments to measure these capabilities. The instruments presented enable the quantifying of qualitative staff motivational data to develop comparable baseline results between NGOs assessed, thereby presenting qualitative data in a quantitative form that enables a comparison between NGOs’ performances. This capacity addresses a significant shortcoming in the assessment of NGO performance based on purely qualitative assessment that is the current norm, not enabling a measurement against a standardised baseline for NGO performance. In contrast the validity and reliability of the proposed instruments are demonstrated through its application to ten real-world case studies drawn from the SEEDS Consortium. The system proposed in this study is based on Nel and Beudeker's commercial change management and organisational performance improvement model. Nel developed his system over a period of some twenty years whilst working for the then Arthur Andersen Consulting and subsequently as a private change management consultant focusing on the development of high performance organisations, and it has been administered in more than 3000 companies. This model uses key performance indicators, using quantitative methods to develop a standardised internal capability profile for a business based on qualitative data. This study expands on and makes innovative changes in developing new NGO specific metrics to substantially refine Nel's model and thus provides an instrument for measuring the capability profile of NGOs. The modifications were necessitated as Nel's model was designed for commercial change management applications presupposing that all governance considerations are in place and that the business is a running medium or large concern. Nel's proven commercial change management system does not make provision for NGO specific criteria that are critical indicators for both internal NGO performance assessment and for grant-maker capability assessments. The areas added to the instrument relate to internal NGO specific considerations such as internal governance, management, monitoring and evaluation processes that are standard and legislated compliance issues in commercial concerns. This goes beyond the requirements for a substantial commercial concern to include key internal organisation indicators that reflect the opinion of the staff, the people who deliver on the NGO's objectives. As staff are the people who directly impact on the NGO's output, the system does not only rely on the opinion of the CEO of the NGO or the fundraising staff, i.e. the "promise-makers", alone. In order to assess the value of the proposed method, and more specifically the internal capability toolkit, the measuring instruments were administered to the CEOs and staff of ten NGOs/NGO equivalent projects at universities. The responses were quantified and confirmed that in at least ten of these cases, there is a 95% correlation between internal organisational capability and external performance output, both positive and negative. The results also enabled the creation of a baseline internal capability profile for NGOs. Ten international grant-makers from OECD embassies were also interviewed on current methods of assessing funding applications, indicating a 62% confidence level in current systems and an 84% confidence level in the proposed internal organisational capability assessment method. This serves as an indicator of external delivery on promises and to guide internal change interventions to optimise output. This approach reflects the potential value of a shift in assessment thinking beyond a systems approach towards a people-centred approach that focusses on the measurement and development of the organisation and its staff's internal capabilities to meet and exceed its external delivery objectives. My research confirms that a focus on NGO internal organisational capabilities directly reflects the capability levels of staff to deliver externally. The output is a new, standardised, replicable and defendable methodology and toolkit of instruments for assessing an NGO’s current and future operational performance. The toolkit should also provide for the objective comparison of the performance of NGOs and thus be of great use for future grant-maker decision-making. It will also complement existing assessment techniques by focusing on the internal people motivation and capability issues of an NGO. Furthermore, the study provides a method to support organisational self-improvement efforts and grant-making efficiency that can be used in pre-project and during project capability assessment. This goes beyond the more prevalent post-project systemic and summative evaluation methods. In conclusion, the proposed method and toolkit can make a significant contribution to the efficiency of NGOs as the key role-players in enabling the delivery of capability development of communities and societies. All the elements described collectively point to a practical way to operationalise the Capability Approach, an aspect criticised as a weakness in Amartya Sen's work.
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Soffia, Magdalena. "Scope and limitations of a capability-based measure of Job Quality in Central America." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2018. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/284925.
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In Latin America, the debate on what constitutes a 'good' or 'bad' job has been dominated by the phenomenon of informality. Indicators like the 'informal sector size' or the proportion of workers in 'informal employment' give little attention to the intrinsic features of jobs that affect workers' well-being, thus misleading policy efforts. Validation of alternative and comparable human-centred measures of job quality (JQ) is needed. This study aims to evaluate the validity of a multi-dimensional measure of JQ in developing countries, and its usefulness against narrow indicators of formality/informality. To this end, Sen's capability-approach is used along with Green and Mostafa's operationalisation of JQ (Eurofound, 2012), which considers dimensions as varied as earnings, career prospects, autonomy, intensity, social environment, physical environment, and working time. With Central America as the research setting, I address four questions: (1) does Eurofound's indicator capture JQ inequalities at the individual level? (2) Can we draw meaningful comparisons between countries about their ability to provide good jobs? (3) Are the selected features of what constitutes a good job positively associated with Central American workers' well-being? (4) Is the concept of JQ attuned with what local experts conceive as a 'good job'? The research uses a mixed-methods approach to analyse the First Central American Survey on Working Conditions and Health - conducted in 2011 in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala - in addition to semi-structured interviews with selected informants from these six countries. The results obtained show, firstly, a reasonable distribution of JQ across groups of workers. They confirm that formal jobs are not ubiquitously the best quality jobs. Secondly, the results evidenced significant variation at the country level regarding earnings and intrinsic job quality, with Costa Rica often ranking at the top. Interestingly, JQ rankings do not always follow from countries' industrial structure, economic performance, informal sector size, or other developmental indicators of common usage; country differences in JQ appear associated with the practical enforcement capacity of labour institutions like trade unions, inspection systems, and the state itself. Thirdly, I corroborated that the selected job features have a positive impact on Central American workers' well-being (except, puzzlingly, for work-time related aspects). Moreover, the positive health effect associated with performing in an intrinsically good job proved to be greater than the effect of working formally. Lastly, I confirmed that local perspectives about what constitutes a 'good job' are in great part consistent with the features included in Green and Mostafa's JQ scheme, while other intrinsic dimensions of the framework have struggled to enter the public discourse. These findings indicate that a JQ framework is generally valid in the Central American context, and provides more information than a conventional indicator of informality. The study contributes to extend the capability approach to the realm of work and to stress its potential for international comparative research. It is recommended that countries collect richer data about those aspects of jobs that have been proven to affect workers' well-being significantly and are not revealed in unidimensional informality figures.
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Kileo, Mercy Kansari. "A capabilities analysis of teachers' perceptions of caps in a Cape Town low-income school community in the Western Cape Province." University of the Western Cape, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/6403.
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Magister Educationis - MedSince the dawn of democracy, the South African government has set up different measures to improve education in schools, inter alia the provision of funding, resources, feeding schemes and the introduction and amendment to different curricula. The current education policy, the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), was adopted in 2012 following three other consecutive education policies that had not delivered to the desired standard in terms of educational outcome. This study focuses on the perceptions of teachers in terms of their freedom to pursue the aims of CAPS in low-income school communities. The teachers' perceptions and freedoms were explored and analyzed using the Capabilities Approach (CA) authored by Amartya Sen which forefronts the capabilities (the ability to achieve) and the functionings (real achievements). Teachers' perceptions were therefore explored and analyzed in terms of freedoms and unfreedoms they enjoy and face in the process of transferring the knowledge to learners. The thesis studied and analyzed the capabilities and perceptions of teachers in terms of their real freedoms through the deconstruction of their experiences.
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Sundqvist, Joanna. "A cup of freedom? : A study of the menstrual cup's impact on girls' capabilities." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-39445.
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Managing menstrual hygiene is a problem for many women around the world, especially in developing countries. The lack of access to sanitary products, clean water, knowledge and other necessary resources leads to taboos and health implications, as well as have negative impacts on girls’ education. This thesis investigates if this problem may be improved by the distribution of menstrual cups, by seeking to answer the two following questions; can the usage of the menstrual cup strengthen girls’ participation in education? And; can the usage of the menstrual cup have a positive impact on girls’ possibilities of engaging in social interactions during menstruations? In order to answer these questions, 15 recipients of menstrual cups in Tanzania have been interviewed. The thesis’ point of departure is within the capability approach, to understand if the girls’ capabilities within the spheres of health, education and social interactions have been strengthened or not. With this approach, the thesis can fully explore the girls’ well-being and opportunities, as the theory defines this as the opportunities they have, not only the ones they choose to pursue. The findings show that all interviewed recipients chose to continue to use their menstrual cups as they felt that it improved either their economy, health or gave them increased confidence in school as it lowered the risks of visible leakage. Nearly all girls felt less restricted in school and more able to participate in class, talk and play with classmates regardless of menstruating or not. Furthermore, the thesis concludes that the living conditions of the recipients may have affected the positive result, and that it cannot be ruled out that a similar result would have shown with any other sanitary product used correctly.
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Widén, Hanna. "Money walks, not talks: The role of remittances as a bridge between migration and development." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-275171.
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This master thesis is a case study on the remittance corridor between South Africa and Zimbabwe. The purpose of the study was to explore and evaluate the dilemmas the remittances senders face in the migration process and how they are dealt with. This was further investigated in the connection to what possibilities the remittances sender have in the host country to increase both the own, as well as the family’s, level of development. Research about the remittance process from the remittances sender’s perspective suffers from shortcomings, a problem this study addresses. A collection of life stories helped to identify the dilemmas and trade-offs the remittances sender faces. The results show that dilemmas exist in every phase of the migration process. How well the remittances senders cope with these dilemmas, seems to be connected to their socio-economic background to a large extent. The pressure to remit affects the available possibilities in the host country to improve the remittances sender’s level of development. An exciting finding and contribution of this study is the remittances senders’ perspective on their future, whether to stay or return home. This complex dilemma, that lacks research, is so interesting that it calls for more investigation.