An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach: Freedom and Agency

377 Pages·2009·2.06 MB·English

by  Severine Deneulin

‘This book is essential reading for all those who wish to understand the human Edited by Séverine Deneulin with Lila Shahani
development and capability approach to development. It both explains and advances
thought on this important and increasingly influential perspective.’ Frances Stewart,
President, Human Development and Capability Association
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‘One of the most important influences of the human development approach has n n
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been through educational and teaching at all levels. In this tradition, it is great to d
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see this new volume, which provides excellent academic foundations in ways that are CHn
accessible for a wide range of potential audiences.’ Jeni Klugman, Director and autr
lead author of the Human Development Report pmo

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‘As poverty reduction has become the predominant objective of socio-economic
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development, the human development and capabilities approach provides the best i c
methodological path to its achievement. The present volume is a major contribution liDt
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towards operationalizing this approach.’ Erik Thorbecke, H. E. Babcock Professor yeo
of Economics, Emeritus, Graduate School Professor and former Director of vn
the Program on Comparative Economic Development, Cornell University Ae t An Introduction to
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Aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates in the social sciences, as well as pp
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development practitioners, this textbook provides an introduction to the human om the Human Development
development and capability approach; it also clarifies key concepts and fosters ae
debate on a number of critical issues. The book offers new perspectives on a wide cn
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range of topics, which include the conceptualization and measurement of well-being t and Capability Approach

and inequality; the role of markets and economic growth in promoting development;
the importance of democracy and public debate; culture and religion; health; equality
and justice; and the connections between social and economic policy in addressing wSE
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poverty and inequality. th veite Freedom and Agency
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A set of questions accompanies each chapter for seminar discussion to help readers S Dy
assimilate central points and apply the approach to diverse realities. he
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This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the human development and he
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capability approach for students and practitioners world-wide. nu
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Séverine Deneulin is lecturer in international development at the University of Bath.
Lila Shahani is editor for the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation at UNDP.
Companion website: www.capabilityapproach.com
publishing for a sustainable future
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Development/Economics/Sustainable Development
Cover credits:
Girls in Cajamarca, Peru © Maritza Paredes.
Wase Friday market, central Nigeria © Adam Higazi.
Harvest season in Mekhong Delta, Vietnam © Zarni Maung.
Students listening to a lecture by Amartya Sen at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford,
UK. © Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI).
3461 EARTHSCAN intro Human Dev 5/8/09 11:05 AM Page i
An Introduction to the Human
Development and Capability Approach
3461 EARTHSCAN intro Human Dev 5/8/09 11:05 AM Page ii
Launched in September 2004, the Human Development and Capability Assoc-
iation (HDCA) promotes research from many disciplines on key problems
related to poverty, justice and well-being. Frances Stewart is the current
president of HDCA. Amartya Sen was the Founding President of HDCA
2004–2006; Martha Nussbaum was President of HDCA 2006–2008.
Mission
HDCA promotes high quality research in the interconnected areas of human
development and capability. It is concerned with research in these areas across
a broad range of topics where the human development and capability
approaches have made and can make significant contributions, including the
quality of life, poverty, justice, gender, development and environment inter
alia. It further works in all disciplines – such as economics, philosophy,
political theory, sociology and development studies – where such research is,
or may be, pursued. While primarily an academic body, the Association brings
together those involved in academic work with practitioners who are involved
in, or interested in, the application of research from the fields of human
development and capability to the problems they face.
Journal of Human Development and Capabilities
The Journal of Human Development and Capabilities is the peer reviewed
journal of the Association. It publishes original works in economics, philo-
sophy, social sciences and other disciplines that expand concepts, measurement
tools and policy alternatives from the perspective of the human development
and capability approach. It provides a forum for an open exchange of ideas
among a broad spectrum of policy makers, economists and academics. Human
development is becoming a school of thought and the Journal acts as a conduit
for members and critics of this school.
Activities
The Association holds an annual conference, supports training activities,
facilitates thematic groups on specific topics, and provides a forum in which
collaborative research can emerge. It maintains a website which provides,
among others: a comprehensive collection of bibliographic resources on the
capability approach; tri-annual bulletins on core concepts and applications of
the approach; information on thematic groups and their activities; video and
teaching materials on subjects related to the capability approach, unpublished
manuscripts, etc.
www.hd-ca.org
3461 EARTHSCAN intro Human Dev 5/8/09 11:05 AM Page iii
An Introduction to the
Human Development and
Capability Approach
Freedom and Agency
Edited by Séverine Deneulin
with Lila Shahani
London • Sterling, VA
International Development Research Centre
Ottawa (cid:127) Cairo (cid:127) Dakar (cid:127) Montevideo (cid:127) Nairobi (cid:127) New Delhi (cid:127) Singapore
3461 EARTHSCAN intro Human Dev 5/8/09 11:05 AM Page iv
First published by Earthscan in the UK and USA in 2009
Copyright © Human Development and Capability Association, 2009
All royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to the Human Development and
Capability Association.
All rights reserved
ISBN: HB 978-1-84407-805-9
PB 978-1-84407-806-6
IDRC publishes an e-book version of An Introduction to the Human Development and
Capability Approach (ISBN 978-1-55250-470-3)
For further information, please contact:
International Development Research Centre
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Email: [email protected]
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Typeset by FiSHBooks
Cover design by Susanne Harris
Cover images: Girls in Cajamarca, Peru © Maritza Paredes. Wase Friday market, central Nigeria
© Adam Higazi. Harvest season in Mekhong Delta, Vietnam © Zarni Maung. Students listening
to a lecture by Amartya Sen at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, UK. © Oxford Poverty &
Human Development Initiative (OPHI).
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
An introduction to the human development and capability approach : freedom and agency /
edited by Séverine Deneulin with Lila Shahani. – 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-84407-805-9 – ISBN 978-1-84407-806-6 (pbk.) 1. Social psychology. 2. Human
behavior. I. Deneuline, Séverine, 1974– II. Shahani, Lila.
HM1033.I595 2009
302–dc22
2009013100
At Earthscan we strive to minimize our environmental impacts and carbon footprint through
reducing waste, recycling and offsetting our CO emissions, including those created through
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publication of this book. For more details of our environmental policy, see www.earthscan.co.uk.
This book was printed in the UK by CPI Antony Rowe.
The paper used is FSC certified.
3461 EARTHSCAN intro Human Dev 5/8/09 11:05 AM Page v
Contents
List of Figures, Tables and Boxes ix
List of Contributors xi
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations xv
Introduction xvii
Part I Concepts 1
1 A Normative Framework for Development 3
Sabina Alkire and Séverine Deneulin
Normative, positive and predictive 4
Case studies 6
Normative frameworks matter 12
People first 13
2 The Human Development and Capability Approach 22
Sabina Alkire and Séverine Deneulin
Human development 24
Going deeper: The capability approach 30
3 Ideas Related to Human Development 49
Séverine Deneulin
Human development and market liberalism: Freedom compared 51
How the idea of freedom is spread 54
The basic needs approach 56
Human rights 59
Human security 62
Other related ideas 66
Part II Topics 71
4 Economic Growth 73
Randy Spence
Growth in the history of economic thought 74
Contemporary approaches to economic growth 83
Economic growth as a means to human flourishing 90
3461 EARTHSCAN intro Human Dev 5/8/09 11:05 AM Page vi
vi AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND CAPABILITY APPROACH
5 Equality and Justice 101
Ingrid Robeyns
A brief description of the literature on theories of justice 102
Rawls’ theory of justice in a nutshell 106
Rawlsian justice versus the capability approach 109
What do we need for a capability theory of justice? 112
Gender justice and justice for marginalized groups 115
From theories of justice to just practices and policies 116
6 Poverty and Inequality Measurement 121
Sabina Alkire and Maria Emma Santos
The importance and limitations of measurement 122
Income-based measures of inequality 125
Income poverty measurement: Two steps 133
Measuring development and well-being: The Human
Development Index (HDI) 139
Multidimensional poverty measurement 143
7 Institutions, Markets and Economic Development 162
Susan Johnson
Institutions in economic development 164
Markets 171
Institutions and markets in the human development approach 178
8 Democracy and Political Participation 185
Séverine Deneulin
A mechanism for exercising agency in public sphere 186
The value of democracy 191
From democratic theory to practice 196
Public reasoning 201
Political participation at the global level 202
9 Education 207
Elaine Unterhalter
Human capital 208
Human capital and the capability approaches compared 212
Applying the capability approach to education 217
10 Health 228
Proochista Ariana and Arif Naveed
What is health? 229
Conventional approaches to health 230
Health within the human development and capability approach 234
Health at the heart of inter-locking deprivations 238
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CONTENTS vii
11 Culture and Religion 246
Sarah White and Séverine Deneulin
Part I Culture 247
Development perspectives 248
Anthropological perspectives 250
Human development perspectives 253
Part II Religion 261
The Protestant ethic approach 261
Religion as moral base 262
Religion as human right 264
Religion as dimension of well-being 265
Faith-based organizations 266
The possibility of reasoning 267
Part III Policy 273
12 Human Development Policy Analysis 275
Randy Spence and Séverine Deneulin
Main areas of public policy 276
Policy in the private, non-profit and international sectors 286
Politics and power 289
Tools for policy analysis 291
A human development perspective 294
13 Policy Case Studies 300
edited by Séverine Deneulin and Lila Shahani
A personal narrative of a woman’s life in Ghana 302
Gender policy in Turkey 304
Fiscal policy in Syria 312
Security policy in Haiti 318
Technical assistance policy in Afghanistan 324
Post-conflict policy in Liberia 329
Appendix 1 Teaching the human development and capability approach:
Some pedagogical implications 334
Melanie Walker
Appendix 2 Didactic Pictures 339
Index 345
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3461 EARTHSCAN intro Human Dev 5/8/09 11:05 AM Page ix
List of Figures, Tables and Boxes
Figures
4.1 Gini coefficients in the world 91
4.2 Causal chain between human development and economic growth 92
4.3 Human development and economic growth performance:
Cross-country evidence 95
7.1 Categorization of institutions in the economy by level 169
Tables
1.1 Some human development indicators 15
1.2 Poverty in different spaces: surprisingly different 16
3.1 Human development and neoliberalism compared 53
3.2 Correspondence between key capabilities and the MDGs 67
12.1 Areas of public policy 277
13.1 Gender equality-related statistics compared to other
middle-income countries, 2005 305
13.2 The GDI compared to the HDI – with data for 2006 305
13.3 Syria’s basic macro-fiscal picture, 1992–2002 312
13.4 Non-oil surplus/deficit as a percentage of GDP, 1992–2002 313
13.5 Shares in total tax revenue of major types of taxes, 1994–2002 314
13.6 Indirect taxes as a percentage of GDP in southern Mediterranean
Arab countries and other middle-income countries, 1999–2000 315
13.7 Haiti – chronology of key events 319
13.8 Coordination of technical assistance in Afghanistan 327
Boxes
1.1 Development and economic growth in Liberia 14
2.1 Themes of global Human Development Reports to date 24
2.2 The purpose of development 26
2.3 Human development: Focusing on well-being and agency 28
2.4 Accounting for human development 29
2.5 Key terms of the capability approach 31
2.6 Capabilities and functionings in Mexico 33
2.7 Agency and well-being, freedom and achievement 38
3.1 The Basic Needs Approach 58
3.2 Development, rights and human security 63
4.1 The Commission on Growth and Development 87
6.1 Terms 125
6.2 The Lorenz curves: An intuitive overview 127