Denis Goulet (1931–2006) was a pioneer of human development theory and a founder of work on 'development ethics' as a self‐conscious field that treats the ethical and value questions posed by development theory, planning, and practice. The present paper looks at aspects of Goulet's work in relation to four issues concerning this project of development ethics — scope, methodology, roles, and organizational format and identity. It compares his views with subsequent trends in the field and suggests lessons for work on human development. While his definition of the scope of development ethics remains serviceable, his methodology of intense immersion by a 'development ethicist' in each context under examination was rewarding but limited by the time and skills it requires and a relative disconnection from communicable theory. He wrote profoundly about ethics' possible lines of influence, including through incorporation in methods, movements and education, but his own ideas wait to be sufficiently incorporated. He proposed development ethics as a new (sub)discipline, yet the immersion in particular contexts and their routine practices that is required for understanding and influence must be by people who remain close to specific disciplinary and professional backgrounds. Development ethics has to be, he eventually came to accept, not a distinct (sub)discipline but an interdisciplinary field. Keywords: Development ethicsDenis GouletHuman developmentInterdisciplinarity Notes 1. On other aspects of Goulet's work, see his own overviews (for example, Goulet, 1976 Goulet, D. 1976. 'On the ethics of development planning'. Studies in Comparative International Development, 11(1): 25–43. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 1995 Goulet, D. 1995. Development Ethics: A Guide to Theory and Practice, New York and Zed, London: The Apex Press. [Google Scholar], 1997a Goulet, D. 1997a. "'Development: costs, alternatives'". In International Handbook of Education and Development, Edited by: Cummings, W. K and McGinn, N. 489–499. Oxford: Pergamon. [Google Scholar], 2006b Goulet, D. 2006b. "'Development ethics'". In The Elgar Companion to Development Studies, Edited by: Clark, D. A. 115–121. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. [Google Scholar]), before proceeding to, especially, The Cruel Choice (Goulet, 1971a Goulet, D. 1971a. The Cruel Choice, New York: Atheneum. [Google Scholar]). On the ethical principles he advocated — (1) self‐determination, individual and collective; (2) 'decent sufficiency' of basic goods for all; (3) solidarity; and (4) non‐elite participation and democratic decision‐making — in ways that anticipate and can still enrich much of the later work on human development, Crocker (2006 Crocker, D. 2006. "'Foreword'". In Development Ethics at Work: Explorations 1960–2002, Edited by: Goulet, D. xiv–xxix. New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar]) and chapters 4, 5 and 8 in Goulet's (1995 Goulet, D. 1995. Development Ethics: A Guide to Theory and Practice, New York and Zed, London: The Apex Press. [Google Scholar]) Development Ethics provide introductions. Crocker makes comparisons with the later work and also suggests where it has advanced on Goulet. 2. Appendix 3 to The Cruel Choice outlined its four stages. The approach is similar to the 'Verbal Image' form of reporting presented by Howard Richards (1985 Richards, H. 1985. The Evaluation of Cultural Action, Basingstoke: Macmillan. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), which aims to give a broad picture, a description and understanding of how a program works in its societal context, not a focus only on a few aspects taken out of their context. It thus tries to ensure coverage of non‐measurable impacts, to grasp the human meanings in situations, and to make sense, to outsiders and insiders, of what has happened; and to have insiders systematically check the 'verbal image' that is constructed on the basis of their contributions. See Richards (1985 Richards, H. 1985. The Evaluation of Cultural Action, Basingstoke: Macmillan. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], pp. 79–85; also Lee and Shute, 1991 Lee, R. and Shute, J. 1991. 'An approach to naturalistic evaluation'. Evaluation Review, 15(2): 254–265. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). 3. Thus the important 1976 presentations that form chapters 3 and 4 of his 2006 book Development Ethics at Work were not extended later to relate to the wealth of relevant material from contemporary social science and philosophy. 4. See Gasper (2006 Gasper D. 2006. 'What is the point of development ethics?' Ethics and Economics. 4. (2). [ http://ethics‐economics.com/Volume‐4‐Numero‐2.html (http://ethics-economics.com/Volume-4-Numero-2.html) ], accessed 8 July 2008 [Google Scholar]) for a complementary discussion of these themes.
This paper analyzes the concept of identity developed by Amartya Sen in recent work, especially in the book Identity and Violence. It discusses the relationship between identity and solidarity, arguing that the former is necessary but by no means sufficient for the latter, so that, contra what Sen sometimes suggests, identities are not simply forms of solidarity. It then argues that Sen's account is both morally and methodologically individualist — which seems right — and that it is also correct in seeing identities as, in a certain sense, normative. But it then shows that his account is also rationalist, in treating identity as grounding reasons for thinking and acting, and that this leaves out the important role of non‐rational factors in the social and political mobilization of identity. This means that some of Sen's policy proposals, while helpful, will not deal with some serious cases where identity leads to political violence.
Sen has suggested that it is a person's overall freedom that influences their opportunity to have valuable outcomes to their lives, and that this proves important to the whole society's development. It is also a “principal determinant of individual initiative and social effectiveness”. This paper investigates whether Sen's ideas on human flourishing can assist in explaining the realization of European Structural Policy in Northern Ireland and the implementation of a local Community Infrastructure to support the third sector. The paper explores Sen's ideas on cultural liberty and cultural captivity in the building of capabilities and functionings. It applies them in the context of Northern Ireland during a time of economic difficulty and civil unrest. The paper outlines how Sen's theories help illuminate the process of policy evolution on development within this part of the European Union and the application of policy to practice. The article offers some insights into how such international interventions assisted in building the Northern Ireland peace process. Keywords: Cultural liberty and captivityParticipant democracyQuality of lifeEuropean UnionPublic policyHuman developmentHermeneutical frameworksWell‐being Acknowledgements The author wishes to acknowledge the constructive and critical comments from the Editor and two anonymous referees, and suggestions for revisions from Professor Fred Inglis and Professor Julia S. O'Connor. Notes 1. In this sense the Structural Funds contribute to the development of the European Social Model, but it is important to bear in mind that “[t]he ESM is not a reality in the sense in which we think of national welfare states, it is an overarching aspirational model incorporating the broad parameters to which European welfare states conform” (O'Connor, 2005 O'Connor, J. S. 2005. ‘Policy coordination, social indicators and the social policy agenda in the European Union’. Journal of European Social Policy, 15(4): 345–361. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 346). 2. Informal interviews were conducted between 2001 and 2005 with bureaucrats and former bureaucrats who administered the Community Infrastructure measure at the Department of Health and Social Services and later the Department of Social Development. 3. Extensive semi‐structured interviews were undertaken in Northern Ireland between 2001 and 2004 with representatives of organizations and projects funded under the Community Infrastructure measure. These included Windsor Women's Centre, Shankill Women's Centre, Coleraine Women's Aid, The Community Development and Health Network, The North West Community Network, Devenish Partnership Forum, and others.
The present paper contributes to operationalizing the Capability Approach by proposing a methodology for the design of sets of indicators for monitoring inequality among social groups based on census and household surveys. The result is a set of indicators and synthetic indices that can be disaggregated by social groups, in a way that allows the monitoring of inequalities in the overall achievement either of fundamental rights or of specific rights. The methodology combines the heuristic power of Principal Component Analysis in offering empirical evidence for the aggregation of indicators with the operational advantage of Fuzzy Set Theory for their final design and measurement. The paper emphasizes the complementarities of these statistical techniques. The methodology is illustrated by the design of a set of indicators for monitoring housing adequacy in the Venezuelan context. Keywords: CapabilitiesGroupsSocial inequalityHuman rightsMonitoringFuzzy Set TheoryPrincipal Component AnalysisFactor analysis Acknowledgements The author is grateful to Michael Dunford, Jacqueline O'Reilly and Julie Litchfield for their supervision and helpful comments, and to Alberto Gruson for his invaluable contribution. The author is also grateful, for their helpful comments on an earlier version, to Sabina Alkire, Enrica Chiappero Martinetti, Siddiqur Osmani, Ingrid Robeyns, Paola Salardi, anonymous referees and the participants of the workshop on 'Multidimensional Comparison' organized by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford (June 2007), and the participants of the 7th Human Development and Capability Association conference. This research has been made possible by the financial support of the British Chevening Scheme. The usual disclaimers apply. Notes 1. This is a revised version of the paper that won the Wiebke Kuklys Prize for 2007 as the best paper by a graduate student of those submitted for the Human Development and Capability Association annual conference. 2. This complements those systems for monitoring inequality based on aggregated data (for example, Burchardt and Vizard, Citation2007). 3. Sen (Citation1985, Citation1992) distinguishes between the space of capabilities and the space of functionings; while the former refers to potential beings and doings, the latter refers to concrete achievements. Since capabilities are not directly observable, empirical applications remain at the level of functionings (Clark Citation2006; Chiappero Martinetti and Roche, forthcoming). 4. Other aspects, such as agency, empowerment, or subjective well‐being are also relevant, but they may be better measured separately (cf. Anand and Van Hees, Citation2006; Alkire, Citation2007). 5. Despite their not being based on the CA, there is a significant convergence between these studies and the CA's empirical application at the level of achieved functionings (cf. Roche, Citation2006). 6. These decisions are less arbitrary when they are theoretically grounded, and based on a broad knowledge of the indicators and the context (this method is extensively accepted in other disciplines in social science; cf. Ragin, Citation2000). 7. These could include similar approaches to the one used by Qizilbash and Clark (Citation2005) to specify the upper and lower cut‐off levels. 8. PCA uses the total variance, while FA just the common or share variance between the indicators. 9. The variable sewage facilities also contributes to the component related to house structure due to its high correlation with the predominant materials in the house. Certainly, a house must meet certain structural requirements for improved sanitation to be viable. Similarly, the variable sewage facilities is also highly correlated to other services and it seems more appropriate and clearer for monitoring purposes to include it only in the index of housing services. 10. The predominant material in the wall is to a certain extent an indicator of space and density, since this variable contributes significantly to this component. However, it seems to be more appropriate for monitoring purposes to include it only in structure. Appendix 1 suggests some recommendations of how to measure more appropriately the materials in the walls in order to measure functionings. 11. The wall materials also contributes to this component (see note 9), but it is only measured with housing overcrowding index in order to facilitate monitoring. 12. Logarithm of the household per‐capita income adjusted by adult equivalent scale and scale economy factor, and standardized as a fuzzy set measure.
The capabilities approach has consistently promoted literacy as an important social entitlement, a key determinant of well‐being and a goal of human development. This significance of literacy is reflected in the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Reports. Nevertheless, as Martha Nussbaum highlights, adult literacy statistics are a pervasive reminder of social inequality and capability deprivation on a global scale. This paper examines the insights into literacy provided by the Capabilities Approach, and the distinctive rationale that it provides for supporting adult literacy programmes. The article begins by discussing the place of literacy in human development, and the work of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. In so doing, the paper examines the intrinsic value of literacy as a good, and its instrumental role in enhancing wider capabilities. The discussion is then extended in relation to ethnographic examples drawn from fieldwork in Bangladesh.
Calls for a comprehensive income security policy are common in South Africa, frequently in the form of a basic income grant. These arguments tend to draw on two broad sets of literature that, although arguing to the same ends, are not usually combined or interrelated. First, there are analyses setting out the social and economic benefits of such a policy, focusing particularly on arguments of economic efficiency and affordability. Second, there has been much theoretical and normative work arguing (particularly) in favour of a basic income grant or other form of citizen's income. In this paper we aim to connect these literatures and to identify the most appropriate theoretical and normative justification for a comprehensive income security ‘safety net’ for South Africa.
The Millennium Development Goals are time‐bound quantified targets for improving the human condition from different perspectives. Within each Goal several targets have been set, and to each target there corresponds one or more indicators. For each indicator we axiomatically characterize an index of perceived progress towards reaching the Goals such that it can be used for monitoring progress. We also present a composite index of progress, which allows the calculation of percentage contributions of progress made in different dimensions. This, in turn, enables us to identify the dimensions for which more progress is required, which is important from a policy perspective. We also provide an empirical illustration of the proposed indices using cross‐country data for different indicators.
This research investigated whether Sen's Capability Approach could be applied to two very different programs for human development. The first case study involved a poverty alleviation program based around community gardens in a low‐income neighborhood of a moderately sized city in New Zealand. The second was a self‐help development project for village women in the Pacific Island nation of Samoa. Sixteen focus groups of participants in the two programs were able to describe significant changes in their capabilities, not only as a result of learning new skills but also as a result of discovering capabilities they already had that could be valuable in creating new opportunities for themselves. This last result is consistent with Sen's emphasis on the importance of participant agency in development. Keywords: Capability ApproachFocus groupsSamoaNew Zealand Acknowledgments Financial support from the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology and Lincoln University is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also thank the journal's editor and anonymous referees for very helpful comments on earlier drafts that have improved this paper considerably. Notes 1. There is an important debate about whether open‐ended questions always achieve this (see, for example, the discussion about 'inadvertent ventriloquism' in Chambers, 1997 Chambers, R. 1997. Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last, London: Intermediate Technology Publications. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Alkire, 2002a Alkire, S. 2002a. Valuing Freedoms: Sen's Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 222). 2. See, for example, Sen (1999a Sen, A. K. 1999a. Development as Freedom, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]), Narayan et al. (2000 Narayan, D., Chambers, R., Shah, M. K. and Petesch, P. 2000. Voices of the Poor: Crying Out for Change, New York: Oxford University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Nussbaum (2000 Nussbaum, M. C. 2000. Women and Development: The Capabilities Approach, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Alkire (2002b Alkire, S. 2002b. 'Dimensions of human development'. World Development, 30(2): 181–205. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), Qizilbash (2002 Qizilbash, M. 2002. 'Development, common foes and shared values'. Review of Political Economy, 14(4): 463–480. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) and Robeyns (2003 Robeyns, I. 2003. 'Sen's Capability Approach and gender inequality: selecting relevant capabilities'. Feminist Economics, 9(2–3): 61–92. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The discussion guide did not allow for possible negative contractions in the choices and opportunities of participants, which could be explored in future research. 3. Schischka (2006b Schischka, J. A. 2006b. Putting the Capability Approach into Practice for Project Development and Evaluation 119–122. Development Bulletin No. 70, Development Studies Network, Australian National University [Google Scholar]) is applying the same framework to a further case study in Vanuatu.
In September, 2007, the Annual Conference of the Human Development and Capability Association convened at the New School of Social Research in New York City to address the theme of ‘Ideas Changing History.’ This proved an apt rubric for gathering the tremendously diverse work of members of the Association, a small and not necessarily representative sampling of which is published here. We are pleased to print Amartya Sen’s inaugural Mahbub ul Haq Lecture, ‘The Idea of Justice.’ As Khadija Haq’s preface thereto reminds us, one aspect of the conference theme is backward-looking, calling for some celebration of the fact that Sen’s and Haq’s ideas came together to yield the Human Development Reports. Journal of Human Development Founding Editor Sir Richard Jolly’s eloquent address to the conference provided a cogent analysis of this history and a witty celebration of its accomplishments, but closed by urging those present to consider the conference theme in a forward-looking way. In one way or another, the papers published here take up that challenge. A central claim of Professor Sen’s lecture is that past philosophical efforts to set out ideals of perfect justice far transcending current circumstances actually impede our efforts to achieve justice and are not needed in order to map out a path to improved justice. What we principally need for the latter purpose, he argues, is a theory of comparative justice — one that allows us, on a more local basis better applicable to where we are now, to say what would count as moving in the direction of greater justice. What is needed to spur people to action is to set out, relatively concretely, what can be done now, from the place history has landed us in, to make people’s lives better. With or without a transcendent ideal to guide us, we inevitably find that the path from here to justice is rarely straight. As we seek to promote justice and human development and to track their progress, we must, for one thing, cope with ethnic, religious, and other cleavages. Identity-based politics threatens to divide societies, disrupt their progress, and promote retaliatory ‘justice’ rather than a fair and adequate opportunity for all. In his essay here, Kwame Anthony Appiah sets out to evaluate this danger, responding to Sen’s recent book, Identity and Violence (Sen, 2006). Sen there argues, in part, that a realistic recognition of the multiplicity of each individual’s identities and of the internal diversity of each culture’s Journal of Human Development Vol. 9, No. 3, November 2008
This paper proposes an alternative understanding of Sen's Capabilities Approach that views capabilities as constantly evolving due to the permanent phenomenological re‐construction of an individual's beings and doings, making apparent the potential link between human development and evolutionary economics. In addition, I discuss an example of how this alternative understanding may be put into practice in a Corporate Social Responsibility context for the sake of knowledge growth. In doing so, I attempt to lay the foundations for what could be labeled a 'Quality of Life Market', where quality‐of‐life improvements are transacted, at market‐determined prices, advancing and promoting the core business of private firms, while empowering individuals to live lives they have reason to value. Keywords: CapabilitiesKnowledgeCorporate Social ResponsibilityMarket‐based solutions Notes 1. The author presented some of the ideas discussed in this paper at the "CORE: The Potential of CSR to Contribute to the Implementation and Integration of EU Strategies" Conference held in Milan, Italy in June 2006. 2. As repeatedly done in neoclassic theory and in game theoretical approaches; and unfortunately also in real life. Parra and Yano propose ways of avoiding the implementation of globally specified goals and/or individual motives of behavior, with the hope of inducing the use of alternative economic approaches in computational models (Citation2006, p. 16). 3. I shall use these terms interchangeably throughout this paper when alluding to an analytical framework that combines contributions from human development and evolutionary economics (see Parra Citation2005, p. 104). 4. In Parra (Citation2005, p. 81) I consider the possibility of having two separate domains (operant and generic), along with the importance of process‐oriented views involving variation, selection and retention — among many other inputs — as key evolutionary contributions justifying my advocacy for a possible merger between human development and evolutionary economics. 5. Browne et al. (Citation2002) are fairly successful in their description of the way capabilities may be institutionalized using laws alluding to social rights because they had a specific realm in which to exemplify (i.e. gender issues). 6. This practical application has been adapted from Parra et al. (Citation2006), which is an unpublished document submitted as a business plan to the Global Social Ventures Competition in December 2005. 7. The variance explained by the first principal component of untransformed data is less than 55%. 8. Voluntary 'non‐Kyoto protocol' markets have also surfaced, such as the US Chicago Climate Exchange and Australia's New South Wales market, which have also exhibited growing liquidity due to increasing carbon prices, and have indicated that complex international treaties are not indispensable for putting in place market‐based approaches to circumstances that surely affect humanity's well‐being. Quite the contrary, the future establishment of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the northeastern United States — as well as California's passing of Assembly Bill No. 32 in August 2006 authorizing the state to adopt market‐based compliance mechanisms that will limit statewide greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 to 1990 levels — show that local‐regional implementations are likely to constitute the trend. 9. For evidence on how these five essential capabilities interact to improve quality of life, see United Nations Development Programme (Citation2000) and Sen (Citation2000).
