An Agency‐Based Capability Theory of Justice

Abstract

The capability approach is one of the main contenders in the field of theorizing social justice. Each citizen is entitled to a set of basic capabilities. But which are these? Martha Nussbaum formulated a set of ten central capabilities. Amartya Sen argued they should be selected in a process of public reasoning. Critics object that the Nussbaum‐approach is too perfectionist and the Sen‐approach is too proceduralist. This paper presents a third alternative: a substantive but non‐perfectionist capability theory of justice. It presents a two‐level concept of individual agency as connected to social practices. It then argues basic capabilities are those necessary to for the agency necessary to navigate freely and autonomously between different social practices.

European Duties of Social Justice: A Kantian Framework

“…Justice is here related to a ‘non‐relational’ concern, namely with a characteristic of individuals: their freedom. However, since freedom is always exercised within social practices and since its opposite, coercion by others, is also a feature of social practices, this non‐relational concern is not atomistic or non‐relational in the stronger sense (implicit is a relational conception of free agency itself (see Claassen, , ). In Kant's terms, each individual has an innate right to freedom, defined as ‘independence from being constrained by another's choice’ (Kant, , p. 393).…”

Auf dem Weg zu einer Post-Neoliberalen Sozialpolitik? Sozialinvestition versus Capability-Ansatz

“…Thus, in contrast to both retrenchment and social investment, the capability approach involves a broad understanding of positive freedom -'what the person is free to do and achieve in pursuit of whatever goals or values he or she regards as important' (Sen 1985: 303) -and especially one that includes people's political agency (rather than their economic agency alone). From this viewpoint, capability-enhancing social policy aims at establishing 'democratic citizenship' rather than at including people in the economy (Jayal 2009), promoting people's agency not only to participate within given social practices but also to co-govern and reform existing social practices as well as to create new ones (Claassen 2017(Claassen : 1290(Claassen -1294. The type of freedom promoted by the capability approach to social policy can be referred to as 'supported broad agency' .…”

Realizing and Maintaining Capabilities: Late Life as a Social Project

“…Third, and finally, critical gerontologists have claimed recently that aging is better characterized as a precarious phase of life. 20 The concept of precarity draws attention to the fact that an older person is disadvantaged not only by the onset of age-related health problems but also by additional, intersectional, and often cumulative disadvantages caused by negative social and material conditions. Such disadvantages lead to more common experiences of risk and insecurity, heightened further at times of fiscal austerity.…”