Bernhard Babic
Capabilities and Reciprocity –
basic reflections on their
compatibility
1. The Capability Approach (CA)
2. The CA‘s applicability and added value for social work
3. Potential compatibility with Reciprocity
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14.09.2012 |
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Bernhard Babic
1. The Capability Approach (CA)
 originally developed by the economist, philosopher, and Nobel
Laureate Amartya Sen as an alternative to neo-liberal and
utilitarian concepts
 according to Clark (2005) „the most influential alternative to
standard economic frameworks for thinking about poverty,
inequality, and human development”
 focus on what people are effectively able to do and to be; that is,
on their capabilities
 contrasts with other approaches that concentrate on people’s
happiness or desire-fulfilment, or on income, expenditures, or
consumption
 suggests that evaluations and policies should focus on the
enhancement of people‘s capabilities; we should ask if and to
what extent do they really support people to lead a life “they have
reason to choose and value” (Sen 2001)
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Bernhard Babic
The ‚usual‘ economical assessment of the standard of living
(Leßmann 2012)
resources/
commodities
utility/
assessment
x1
(x1, x2)
u (x1, x2)
budget
x2
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Assessment of the standard of living according to Sen‘s CA
(Leßmann 2012)
resources/
commodities
functionings/ life
situation
x1
personal
technology
f (x1, x2)
(x1, x2)
budget
utility/
assessment
vi = vi (bi/Qi)
b1
personal, social and
environmental factors
x2
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bi= f(x1, x2)
Qi = {bi|bi = f(x1, x2)}
b2
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Bernhard Babic
Central terms of the CA
(Leßmann 2012)
Conversion
factors
Achieved
Capability
set
Choice functionings
Resources
Resources: goods and services available with a certain budget/income
Conversion factors: individual, social and environmental
Capability set: amount of functionings, a person basically could realise
Achieved functionings: functionings a person realised
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Bernhard Babic
Key characteristics of the CA
• Multidimensionality
– Functionings = doings and beings as dimensions
– Not (just) resources, utility/happiness/satisfaction
– money is important but not everything
– life situation is influenced by many different aspects
• Choice
– represented as a set of opportunities/functionings
– humans are actively shaping their lives
– choice has an positive effect on human well-being
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Bernhard Babic
Constrains of the CA
 How to identify valuable functionings/capabilities:
Nussbaum (2000, 2006) defines a list of essential capabilities,
while Sen (1999, 2004) rejects such predefined lists. From his
point of view the choice of valuable functionings/ capabilities has
to be settled in a democratic process, involving not at least the
directly affected people.
 Lack of lack of a model of temporal interaction:
The “description of functionings and capabilities (…) suggests
their development and education, but the formal model of Sen is
(…) a comparative static model and Nussbaum’s ideas (…)
remain sketchy” (Leßmann 2009).
As a consequence, the CA needs to be adapted very carefully to a
specific field of work.
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Bernhard Babic
2. The CA‘s applicability and added value for
social work
• Example: „Approaching Capabilities with Children in Care“
Between October 2009 and March 2010 within two field studies in
Nicaragua and Namibia 177 childern/young people in various
forms of care (and 138 ‚relevant adults‘) were asked qualitatively
for
 the life they would like to lead later on
 how they asses their chances to realise their plans
 what kind of support they already receive
 what kind of support they need additionally to achieve
their goals
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Bernhard Babic
It was possible to extract a culturally adequate notion
of a flourishing life from the data, which provided SOS Children’s
Villages with reliable criteria to assess and optimise their work and
to support the development of new programmes and services (e.g.
creating more opportunities for positive peer experiences).
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Bernhard Babic
• What makes the CA attractive for social work?
 focus on the individual values/needs of a person without
ignoring the interdependence of social/environmental factors
and individual well-being
 (according to Sen) extensive participation of target groups
concerning the problem definition and the identification of
appropriate solutions
 explicite openness towards and appreciation of socio-cultural
diversity (huge inclusive potential)
 many analogies with community social work/community
development
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Bernhard Babic
 commits the state/society (and the agents acting on his/her
authority) to enable the people to live a life they have reason
to choose and value
 incorporates economical standard concepts and goes beyond
them
 has already proven his ability to generate added value, e.g. in
form of the HDI, that showed that a high living expectation is
not necessarily correlated with a high GDP (gross domestic
product) and caused therefore some significant shifts in the
field of international development cooperation
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Bernhard Babic
3. Potential compatibility with Reciprocity
• Relevant axioms of the CA:
 People and their values are ends in themselves and must
not be instrumentalised in any way (the economy/the state
has to serve the people, not the other way round).
 As well-being correlates with the ability to live according to
one‘s values, limitations of the personal freedom (reflected
in one‘s capability set) have to be reduced wherever
possible.
 Accordingly, the quality of societies, policies, services,
developments etc. depends on the extent to which they
contribute to people‘s well-being.
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Bernhard Babic
• Consequences and assumptions concerning Reciprocity:
 Well-being is against this background actually the results of
a successful coproduction of an individual, that actively
pursues his/her goals and has the necessary conversion
factors at his/her disposal, and of an environment that
offers according opportunities.
 In case of a lack of agency or opportunity, well-being will
hardly be reached, if the necessarily involved parties do not
understand and treat each other respectfully as
indispensable resources.
 Therefore, adequate opportunities for participation (this is at
least bringing in one‘s values) have to be seen as a
precondition of individual well-being as well as for an
appropriate accomplishment of tasks by the representatives
of the society and her authorities (including social workers).
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Bernhard Babic
 And finally, if we accept the axiom of the CA, that the
individual values should be the starting point of any activitiy
that aims at the realisation of well-being, the CA might even
be able to tell us, what should be the subject of the
according reciprocal processes: it should be an exchange
on values and how to meet them.
Conversion
factors
Achieved
Capability
set
Choice functionings
Resources
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Bernhard Babic
Thank you very much for your attention!
Kiitos huomiostanne!
Contact:
Bernhard Babic
Gertraudenstr. 1
96050 Bamberg
Germany
Bernhard.babic@web.de
http://www.bernhard-babic.de
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