Valuing Freedoms: Sen's Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction

Sabina Alkire shows how Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen's capability approach can be coherently--and practically--put to work in poverty reduction activities. Sen argues that economic development should expand valuable freedoms. Alkire probes how we identify what is valuable. Foundational issues are addressed critically--dimensions of development, practical reason, culture, basic needs--drawing on Thomist authors who give central place to authentic participation. A participatory procedure for identifying capability change is then developed. Case studies of three Oxfam activities in Pakistan--goat-rearing, female literacy, and rose cultivation--illustrate this novel approach.


Author: Sabina Alkire
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 05/12/2005
Pages: 350
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.16lbs
Size: 9.13h x 6.25w x 0.76d
ISBN: 9780199283316

About the Author

Sabina Alkire coordinates a research and learning programme on Culture and Poverty in the Poverty Group at the World Bank. She is also a deacon in the Anglican Church.

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