Centre for Policy on Ageing



The capabilities approach and critical social policy — lessons from the majority world?
Author(s)	Mick Carpenter
Journal title	Critical Social Policy, vol 29, no 3, issue 100, August 2009
Pages	pp 351-373
Source	http://csp.sagepub.com
Keywords	Sexual equality ; Rights [elderly] ; Social policy ; Theory ; Literature reviews.
Annotation	The tenets of the capabilities approach (CA) concern themes such as how to judge human progress, how to reconcile liberty and justice, and the requirements for ensuring social justice. The capabilities approach most closely associated with Sen's "thinner" version (in 'Development and freedom', 1999) and M C Nussbaum's "thicker" version (e.g. in 'Women and human development: the capabilities approach', 2000) has the potential to provide a paradigm shift for critical social policy, encompassing but also transcending some of the limitations associated with the Marshallian social citizenship approach. The article argues, however, that it cannot simply be imported from the majority world; rather there is a need to bear in mind the critical literature that developed around it. This is generally discussed and then critically applied to case studies of CA in the developed capitalist world, particularly the Equalities Review conducted for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (ECHR). (KJ/RH).
Accession Number	CPA-090903214 A
Classmark	TM8: IKR: TM2: 4D: 64A
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.