EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Capability Approach and Human Development

Sakiko Fukuda-Parr () and Ismael Cid-Martinez ()
Additional contact information
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr: New School for Social Research
Ismael Cid-Martinez: New School for Social Research

Chapter 13 in The Palgrave Handbook of Development Economics, 2019, pp 441-468 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Human development is a development paradigm that puts people at the center of development—as its principle end and means. Human development is built on the theoretical concepts of capabilities originated by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, which provides a normative framework for assessment of individual well-being, social outcomes and public policies. In systematically and consistently applying the capability approach in empirical evaluation of development progress, and in the analysis of policy alternatives, the human development paradigm challenges standard prescriptions in a broad range of areas including social, macroeconomic, political, environmental and cultural arenas. It is often misinterpreted as an agenda for social welfare programs and social investments. The rich and complex concept of human development is imprisoned in its reductionist measurement tool, the Human Development Index that only includes education, income, and a decent standard of living. This chapter provides an overview of the capability approach and human development paradigm and situates them within development economics, thought and practice, highlighting its contrasts with conventional thinking, and complementarities with human rights and feminist economics. It argues that the capability approach and human development paradigm have had enormous reach and influence in development thought and practice. It has strengthened complementary approaches that are also motivated by human freedom and flourishing, notably human rights and feminist economics. All these paradigms have led to the rise of a ‘people centered’ approach to development as a discourse, and the consensus on poverty as a principle objective of development as reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals. However, the concepts of capabilities and human development have only been partially reflected in these discourses about policy agendas given the misrepresentation of human development as an agenda for meeting basic needs.

Keywords: Capabilities; Human development; Human rights; Amartya Sen; Feminist economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-14000-7_13

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783030140007

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-14000-7_13

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().

 
Page updated 2025-04-02
Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-14000-7_13