Education and Agency Freedom in Du Bois and Sen

Niall Ó Murchú

Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 2019, vol. 20, issue 3, 297-310

Abstract: Education and Agency Freedom in Du Bois and Sen What is the role of education in human development? WEB Du Bois and Amartya Sen confront this classic question in The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and Development as Freedom (1999) and each rejects the narrow common sense of his times. Sen provides a multidimensional understanding of education as having (1) direct relevance in enhancing individual freedom; (2) indirect political relevance in enhancing individual citizenship and collective democracy; and (3) indirect economic relevance in increasing opportunities and economic growth. Du Bois holds that liberal and basic education will enhance individual and group agency for exercising citizenship and securing opportunity. He anticipates Amartya Sen’s “agency-oriented” capability approach, where one’s well-being functionings depend on the agency freedom to exercise reasoned choices. Du Bois’s analysis of the Black freedom struggle against Jim Crow highlights the necessity of education for agency freedom.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1080/19452829.2019.1635093

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