IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/fosoec/v40y2011i2p179-195.html

Capabilities and Constraints

Author

Listed:
  • Shankaran Nambiar

Abstract

Sen’s capability approach emphasises the importance of freedom and choice in leading the life that one values. This paper seeks to argue that, nonetheless, the capability approach is fully cognisant of the constraints that restrict individuals from achieving capabilities. Since the achievement of capabilities is set within a social context, and also because the constraints to capability-achievement are often of a social nature, it is useful to keep in mind the social context. An account of the capability approach that places adequate stress on the constraints that confront individuals and the institutional context will describe their situation more accurately; it will also be of more use for policy purposes.

Suggested Citation

  • Shankaran Nambiar, 2011. "Capabilities and Constraints," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 179-195, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:fosoec:v:40:y:2011:i:2:p:179-195
    DOI: 10.1007/s12143-010-9082-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s12143-010-9082-5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12143-010-9082-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gang, Ira N. & Sen, Kunal & Yun, Myeong-Su, 2002. "Caste, Ethnicity and Poverty in Rural India," IZA Discussion Papers 629, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. Bhaduri, Amit, 1973. "A Study in Agricultural Backwardness under Semi-Feudalism," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 83(329), pages 120-137, March.
    3. Basu, Kaushik, 1984. "Implicit Interest Rates, Usury and Isolation in Backward Agriculture," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(2), pages 145-159, June.
    4. repec:bla:scandj:v:101:y:1999:i:2:p:173-90 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Ira N. Gang & Kunal Sen & Myeong-Su Yun, 2006. "Poverty in Rural India: Ethnicity and Caste," Departmental Working Papers 200634, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    6. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(2), pages 132-132.
    7. Anthony B. Atkinson, 1999. "The Contributions of Amartya Sen to Welfare Economics," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(2), pages 173-190, June.
    8. Martha Nussbaum, 2003. "Capabilities As Fundamental Entitlements: Sen And Social Justice," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2-3), pages 33-59.
    9. Geoffrey M. Hodgson, 2006. "What Are Institutions?," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 1-25, March.
    10. Sen, Amartya K, 1977. "On Weights and Measures: Informational Constraints in Social Welfare Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(7), pages 1539-1572, October.
    11. W. M. Gorman, 1980. "A Possible Procedure for Analysing Quality Differentials in the Egg Market," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(5), pages 843-856.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tiina Ahonen & Tomi Mäki-Opas & Antti Kouvo & Timo Toikko, 2025. "Investigating the Capability Approach: How Long-Term Unemployed People in Finland Perceive Their Access to Commodities, Conversion Factors and Capabilities," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 177(2), pages 647-669, March.
    2. Shankaran Nambiar, 2021. "Capabilities and Communities: A Perspective from Institutional Economics," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(6), pages 1973-1996, December.
    3. Anderson, Bret, 2012. "Converting Asset Holdings into Livelihood: An Empirical Study on the Role of Household Agency in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 1394-1406.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shankaran Nambiar, 2011. "Capabilities and Constraints," Forum for Social Economics, Springer;The Association for Social Economics, vol. 40(2), pages 179-195, July.
    2. Shankaran Nambiar, 2013. "Capabilities, conversion factors and institutions," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 13(3), pages 221-230, July.
    3. Kuklys, W. & Robeyns, I., 2004. "Sen’s Capability Approach to Welfare Economics," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0415, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    4. Antoinette Baujard & Muriel Gilardone, 2017. "Sen is not a capability theorist," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 1-19, January.
    5. Roy Allen & John Rehbeck, 2020. "Identification of Random Coefficient Latent Utility Models," Papers 2003.00276, arXiv.org.
    6. Kranton, Rachel E. & Swamy, Anand V., 1999. "The hazards of piecemeal reform: british civil courts and the credit market in colonial India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 1-24, February.
    7. Peitz, Martin, 1997. "Models a la Lancaster and a la Hotelling: when they are the same," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 147-154, February.
    8. Lars Nesheim, 2006. "Hedonic price functions," CeMMAP working papers CWP18/06, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    9. Gupta, Manash Ranjan, 1997. "Informal sector and informal capital market in a small open less-developed economy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 409-428, April.
    10. Ting Liu & Monic Jiayin Sun, 2007. "Informal Payments in Developing Countries' Public Health Sectors¤," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2007-032, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    11. Gian Maria Tomat, 2005. "Prices, Product Differentiation And Quality Measurement: A Comparison Between Hedonic And Matched Model Methods," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 547, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    12. Cunha, Flavio & Heckman, James J., 2007. "Identifying and Estimating the Distributions of Ex Post and Ex Ante Returns to Schooling," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(6), pages 870-893, December.
    13. Dietrich, Franz & List, Christian, 2016. "Reason-Based Choice And Context-Dependence: An Explanatory Framework," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(2), pages 175-229, July.
    14. James J. Heckman, 2001. "Micro Data, Heterogeneity, and the Evaluation of Public Policy: Nobel Lecture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(4), pages 673-748, August.
    15. Agee, Mark D. & Crocker, Thomas D., 2013. "Operationalizing the capability approach to assessing well-being," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 80-86.
    16. Masiero, Lorenzo & Qiu, Richard T.R., 2018. "Modeling reference experience in destination choice," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 58-74.
    17. Patrick Bajari & C. Lanier Benkard, 2005. "Demand Estimation with Heterogeneous Consumers and Unobserved Product Characteristics: A Hedonic Approach," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(6), pages 1239-1276, December.
    18. Platteau, J.-Ph. & Abraham, A., 1985. "An Inquiry Into Quasi-Credit Systems In Traditional Fishermen Communities: The Role Of Reciprocal Credit And Mixed Contracts," Discussion Papers 272827, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    19. V. Joseph Hotz & Mo Xiao, 2013. "Strategic Information Disclosure: The Case Of Multiattribute Products With Heterogeneous Consumers," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(1), pages 865-881, January.
    20. Alexander Pfaff & Shubham Chaudhuri & Howard Nye, 2004. "Household Production and Environmental Kuznets Curves – Examining the Desirability and Feasibility of Substitution," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 27(2), pages 187-200, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:fosoec:v:40:y:2011:i:2:p:179-195. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RFSE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.