The Capability Approach

Flavio Comim is Director of the Capability and Sustainability Centre at St. Edmund's College, University of Cambridge. Mozaffar Qizilbash is Professor of Politics, Economics and Philosophy at the University of York. Sabina Alkire is Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford and Research Associate with the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard University.

Review of the hardback: 'Amartya Sen's notion of capabilities is a rich source of new ideas and philosophical debates about such diverse and wide ranging issues as development, poverty, inequality, human rights, gender, identity and democracy. Here is a collection of well-researched and cogently written essays discussing these many aspects and taking the debates further. It will provide a quarry of ideas for policy makers, researchers, teachers and students of these many issues.' Lord Meghnad Desai, Emeritus Professor of Economics and former director of the Centre for Global Governance, London School of Economics

• List of figures; List of tables; Introduction; 1. Using the capability approach: prospective and evaluative analyses Sabina Alkire; Part I. Concepts: 2. Amartya Sen's capability view: insightful sketch or distorted picture? Mozaffar Qizilbash; 3. Sen's capability approach and feminist concerns Ingrid Robeyns; 4. Beyond individual freedom and agency: structures of living together in the capability approach to development Séverine Deneulin; 5. Does identity matter? On the relevance of identity and interaction for capabilities Miriam Teschl and Laurent Derobert; 6. Measuring Capabilities Flavio Comim; Part II. Measures: 7. Do concepts matter? An empirical investigation of the differences between a capability and a monetary assessment of poverty Caterina Ruggeri Laderchi; 8. Social exclusion in the EU: a capability-based approach Fotis Papadopoulos and Panos Tsakloglou; 9. Complexity and vagueness in the capability approach: strengths or weaknesses? Enrica Chiappero Martinetti; 10. Operationalising Sen's capability approach: the influence of the selected technique Sara Lelli; 11. Operationalizing capabilities in a segmented society: the role of institutions Kanchan Chopra and Anantha Kumar Duraiappah; Part III. Applications: 12. Democracy, decentralisation and access to basic services: an elaboration on Sen's capability approach Santosh Mehrotra; 13. Reinforcing household's capabilities as a way to reduce vulnerability and prevent poverty in equitable terms Jean-Luc Dubois and Sophie Rousseau; 14. Capabilities over the lifecourse: at what age does poverty damage most? Shahin Yaqub; 15. Social policy and the ability to appear in public without shame: some lessons from a food relief programme in Kinshasa Tom De Herdt; 16. The capability approach and gendered education:some issues of operationalisation in the context of the HIV/AIDs epidemic in South Africa Elaine Unterhalter; 17. Women and poverty In Mozambique: is there a gender bias In capabilities, employment conditions and living standards? Pier Giogio Ardeni and Antonio Andracchio; 18. From the quantity to the quality of employment: an application of the capability approach to the Chilean labour market Kirsten Sehnbruch; Index.