This paper has a threefold objective. First, it provides a comprehensive review of different approaches to analysing food security. Second, it highlights the added value provided by the capability approach and the human development paradigm. Third, it proposes a methodology to assess food security through this approach. Our proposal entails three basic steps: (1) analysis of food entitlements; (2) analysis of nutritional capabilities and (3) analysis of the capability to be food secure. In this way, we can move beyond income, entitlement or livelihood related frameworks, and identify the root causes of food insecurity. Food insecurity can be the result of a lack of education, health or other basic capabilities that constitute people's wellbeing. This, therefore, allows situating the study within the broader area of wellbeing and development

The measurement of development or poverty as multidimensional phenomena is very difficult because there are several theoretical, methodological and empirical problems involved. The literature of composite indicators offers a wide variety of aggregation methods, all with their pros and cons. In this paper, we propose a new, alternative composite index denoted as MPI (Mazziotta-Pareto Index) which, starting from a linear aggregation, introduces penalties for the countries or geographical areas with 'unbalanced' values of the indicators. As an example of application of the MPI, we consider a set of indicators in order to measure the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and we present a comparison between HDI (Human Development Index) methodology, HPI (Human Poverty Index) methodology and MPI

The article aims to analyse the evolution and modernization of Rome in the last 30 years. To this end, we focus on both structural and institutional change and try to identify the main ruptures, continuities and driving forces of the new Roman model. After the second world war, Rome was generally considered to be a cumbersome capital city with a heavy bureaucratic sector and without any strong 'local' political forces and social movements capable of bringing about economic and political change. Nevertheless, a new and more democratic local governance and subregulation mode emerged during the post-Fordist era, which allowed the production and reproduction of new socio-economic relations that in turn influenced a new economic model for the city. This new governance has led to some interesting forms of 'democratization' that are difficult to find in other post-Fordist metropolises. However, the Roman model is also characterized -as in other global metropolises -by forms of social exclusion, poverty and polarization between the peripheries and central/high-income districts, in a sort of two-speed development. At the same time, the traditional bureaucracy and its connected 'state bourgeoisie ', although still relevant, are no longer dominant. New service activities have brought about new agents, new powers and new institutions.'Any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich; these are at war with one another.' Plato, The Republic

Multidimensional theories of well-being are locked into a debate about value judgment. They seek to settle which dimensions should matter for measurement and policy, and, more importantly, on what grounds to decide what should matter. Moreover, there is a gulf between theory and practice, given that measurement and policy are rarely rooted in a coherent ethical framework. Our paper engages in the debate concerning the legitimate grounds for selecting dimensions. Combining Amartya Sen's capability approach and John Rawls' method of political constructivism, we explore whether the constitution and its public culture can be used as an ethically sound informational base for selecting dimensions, and if so, why. We apply this 'constitutional approach' to the Italian case with the aim of deriving a set of publicly justifiable dimensions of wellbeing. It is a long-standing Constitution with broad public consultation at its base, which still enjoys a wide consensus. We seek to show why there is a need for more ethically sound methodological approaches to measuring well-being, pointing out the advantages of the constitutional approach, and how it may enrich the work of practitioners engaged in the policies of well-being.

The paper addresses the problem of justifying ethically sound dimensions of poverty or well-being for use in a multidimensional framework. We combine Sen’s capability approach and Rawls’ method of political constructivism and argue that the constitution and its interpretative practice can serve as an ethically suitable informational basis for selecting dimensions, under certain conditions. We illustrate our Constitutional Approach by deriving a set of well-being dimensions from an analysis of the Italian Constitution. We argue that this method is both an improvement on those used in the existing literature from the ethical point of view, and has a strong potential for providing the ethical basis of a conception of well-being for the public affairs of a pluralist society. In the final part, we elaborate on the implications for measuring well-being based on data, by ranking Italian regions in terms of well-being, and pointing out the differences in results produced by different methods.