IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/108487.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Extending Capabilities Conception of the Individual in Economics: Relationality and Responsibility

Author

Listed:
  • Erasmo, Valentina

Abstract

This paper tries to extend the Capabilities Conception of the Individual developed by Davis (2003, 2009), understanding capabilities as relationships. Firstly, I will introduce the main concepts which are useful towards this extension, namely those of agency and capabilities. For this purpose, I will avail of Ricoeur (2004) analysis of Sen’s earlier works. Thanks to his analysis, I will show how agency refers to a rational and responsible exercise of capabilities. After this introduction, I will develop the concept of capabilities as relationships, availing of the distinction between intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships (Giovanola 2005, 2009): in this framework, self-scrutiny and relationality respectively become the leading capabilities of these two relationships. Since this extension of capabilities conception of individuals, two concepts arise with a certain strength, namely those of responsibility and relationality. In contrast, this extension of capabilities conception of individual in economics also in terms of interpersonal relationship emphasizes how this social conception of individual is characterized by relationality. This point is relevant because enables further extensions of Sen’s works, for example, in civil economics.

Suggested Citation

  • Erasmo, Valentina, 2021. "Extending Capabilities Conception of the Individual in Economics: Relationality and Responsibility," MPRA Paper 108487, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:108487
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/108487/3/MPRA_paper_108487.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Comim,Flavio & Fennell,Shailaja & Anand,P. B. (ed.), 2018. "New Frontiers of the Capability Approach," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108427807.
    2. Alkire, Sabina & Foster, James, 2011. "Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 476-487.
    3. Alkire, Sabina, 2005. "Valuing Freedoms: Sen's Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199283316.
    4. Gasper, D.R., 2020. "Amartya Sen, social theorizing and contemporary India," ISS Working Papers - General Series 126789, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    5. Sabina Alkire, 2005. "Subjective Quantitative Studies of Human Agency," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 217-260, October.
    6. Benedetta Giovanola, 2009. "Re-Thinking the Anthropological and Ethical Foundation of Economics and Business: Human Richness and Capabilities Enhancement," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 431-444, September.
    7. Wiebke Kuklys, 2004. "Measuring Standard of Living in the UK - An Application of Sen's Functioning Approach Using Structural Equation Models," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2004-11, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Alkire, Sabina & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Peterman, Amber & Quisumbing, Agnes & Seymour, Greg & Vaz, Ana, 2013. "The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-91.
    2. Yiyan Chen & Zhaoyun Tang, 2023. "A Study of Multidimensional and Persistent Poverty among Migrant Workers: Evidence from China’s CFPS 2014–2020," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-15, May.
    3. André, Kévin, 2013. "Applying the Capability Approach to the French Education System: An Assessment of the "Pourquoi pas moi ?"," ESSEC Working Papers WP1316, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    4. Maria Ana Lugo & Esfandiar Maasoumi, 2008. "Multidimensional Poverty Measures from an Information Theory Perspective," Working Papers 85, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    5. Erasmo, Valentina, 2021. "Female economists and philosophers’ role in Amartya Sen’s thought: his colleagues and his scholars," MPRA Paper 105769, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Andrea Brandolini, 2013. "Poverty," Chapters, in: Luigino Bruni & Stefano Zamagni (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Reciprocity and Social Enterprise, chapter 26, pages 261-270, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Jürgen Volkert & Friedrich Schneider, 2011. "The Application of the Capability Approach to High-Income OECD Countries: A Preliminary Survey," CESifo Working Paper Series 3364, CESifo.
    8. Giulia Ferrari, 2022. "What is wellbeing for rural South African women? Textual analysis of focus group discussion transcripts and implications for programme design and evaluation," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, December.
    9. Elisabet Garriga, 2014. "Beyond Stakeholder Utility Function: Stakeholder Capability in the Value Creation Process," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(4), pages 489-507, April.
    10. Hyesun Hwang & Su-Jung Nam, 2020. "Differences in Multidimensional Poverty According to Householders’ Gender and Age in South Korea," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 147-165, March.
    11. Gough, Ian, 2014. "Climate change and sustainable welfare: an argument for the centrality of human needs," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58630, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Kévin André, 2013. "Applying the Capability Approach to the French Education System: An Assessment of the "Pourquoi pas moi ?" Programme," Working Papers hal-00880246, HAL.
    13. Erasmo, Valentina, 2021. "Self-sacrifice: an analysis of female economic behaviour in less developed countries through the lenses of Amartya Sen’s thought," MPRA Paper 108076, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Malapit, Hazel & Quisumbing, Agnes & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Seymour, Greg & Martinez, Elena M. & Heckert, Jessica & Rubin, Deborah & Vaz, Ana & Yount, Kathryn M., 2019. "Development of the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 675-692.
    15. Sophie Mitra & Kris Jones & Brandon Vick & David Brown & Eileen McGinn & Mary Alexander, 2013. "Implementing a Multidimensional Poverty Measure Using Mixed Methods and a Participatory Framework," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 1061-1081, February.
    16. Marco Ricardo Téllez Cabrera, 2018. "Giving arguments to operationalize health capabilities in economic evaluations of health interventions," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 20(2), pages 240-255, October.
    17. Le, Ha & Nguyen, Cuong & Phung, Tung, 2014. "Multidimensional Poverty: First Evidence from Vietnam," MPRA Paper 64704, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Alain Trannoy, 2015. "Inequality and welfare: Is Europe special?," Working Papers 384, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    19. Christoph Bader & Sabin Bieri & Urs Wiesmann & Andreas Heinimann, 2016. "Differences Between Monetary and Multidimensional Poverty in the Lao PDR: Implications for Targeting of Poverty Reduction Policies and Interventions," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(2), pages 171-197, June.
    20. Ian Gough, 2014. "Climate Change and Sustainable Welfare: An Argument for the Centrality of Human Needs," CASE Papers case182, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    agency; capabilities; responsibility; relationality; relationship (intrapersonal; interpersonal);
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • B59 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Other
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:108487. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.