Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has shifted the welfare foundations of economic theory by assessing human well-being in terms of 'freedoms'. This has led to a new paradigm in development economics: development is about expanding the freedoms that people have reason to choose and value. Individual agency, expressed through political participation, is central to promoting these freedoms. The book examines the extent to which this conception of 'development as freedom' can be a guide for development policy and for addressing poverty effectively. The book argues that, if it is to be such a guide, the...

SEVERINE DENEULIN, MATHIAS NEBEL AND NICHOLAS SAGOVSKY TRANSFORMING UNJUST STRUCTURES The Capability Approach THE CAPABILITY APPROACH Structural injustice has traditionally been the concern of two major academic disciplines: economics and philosophy. The dominant model of economics has long been that of neo-classical economics. For neo-classical economists, human we- being is to be assessed by the availability of disposable income or according to goods consumed; it is measured by the levels of utility achieved in the consumption of commodities. Social order is fashioned by the ways consumers...

Since the publication of Amartya Sen's flagship 'Development as Freedom', development has been redefined in terms of human capability and opportunity. This approach has come to underpin the United Nations Development Programme's influential Human Development Reports, and has had considerable significance in both academic and policy circles.

This timely new book expertly explores the treatment of religion in the evolution of development thought. The book argues that development theory and practice needs to rewrite its dominant script regarding its treatment of religion, a script which has so far been heavily inscribed in the secular tradition. In addition to providing a conceptual framework for analyzing the role of religion in development, the book provides numerous empirical examples drawn from the Christian and Islamic religious traditions. This comprehensive new guide to this key issue is essential for students, development...

The question of the meaning of progress and development is back on the political agenda. How to frame this discontent and search for new alternatives when either socialism or liberalism no longer provides a satisfactory framework? This book introduces in an accessible way the capability approach, first articulated by Amartya Sen in the early 1980s. Written for an international audience, but rooted in the Latin American reality - a region with a history of movements for social justice - the book argues that the capability approach provides to date, the most encompassing and promising ethical...