Rethinking human well‐being: a dialogue with Amartya Sen

Giri, Ananta Kumar

doi:10.1002/1099-1328(200010)12:7<1003::aid-jid698>3.3.co;2-l

Cited by 10 publications

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“…Similar to health, well-being is simultaneously seen as a state and a process, an outcome as well as an ideal. For other scholars it is the set of tools needed to deal with the stresses and challenges of everyday life (Giri 2000;Diener et al 1999). Emerging from the disciplines of psychology and sociology, comprehensive studies on patterns of well-being have been carried out in many parts of the world but have been limited in the arctic until recent years (Diener et al 1999).…”

Section: Theoretical Framework: Concepts Of Well-being-what Does It Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Well-being and environmental change in the arctic: a synthesis of selected research from Canada’s International Polar Year program

Parlee

Furgal

2012

Climatic Change

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The social and cultural dimensions of arctic environmental change were explored through Canada's International Polar Year (IPY) research program. Drawing on concepts of vulnerability, resilience and human security, we discuss preliminary results of 15 IPY research projects (of 52) which dealt with the effects and responses of northern communities to issues of ecological variability, natural resource development and climate change. This paper attempts to determine whether the preliminary results of these projects have contributed to the IPY program goal of building knowledge about well-being in the arctic. The projects were diverse in focus and approach but together offer a valuable pan-northern perspective on many themes including land and resource use, food security, poverty and best practices of northern engagement. Case study research using self-reported measures suggests individual views of their own well-being differ from regional and territorial standardized statistics on quality of life. A large body of work was developed around changes in land and resource use. A decline in land and resource use in some areas and consequent concerns for food security, are directly linked to the effects of climate change, particularly in coastal areas where melting sea ice, erratic weather events and changes in the stability of landscapes (e.g., erosion, slumping) are leading to increased risks for land users. Natural resource development, while creating some new economic opportunities, may be compounding rather than offsetting such stresses of environmental change for vulnerable populations. While the IPY program has contributed to our understanding of some aspects of well-being in the arctic, many other issues of social, economic, cultural and political significance, including those unrelated to environmental change, remain poorly understood.Climatic Change

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Section: Theoretical Framework: Concepts Of Well-being-what Does It Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Well-being and environmental change in the arctic: a synthesis of selected research from Canada’s International Polar Year program

Parlee

Furgal

2012

Climatic Change

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“…Reason by itself is not enough to sustain a reasonable society. That 'requires a far fuller appreciation and acceptance and invitation of the other into one's ovm' writes Giri (2000Giri ( , p. 1014, who argues that the still strong self-as-distinct-from-other contrast which Sen uses becomes limiting. Thus Sen's sympathy and commitment categories may as yet figure like optional extras in the schema, not as essential parts of a healthy human being; and so his discussi on of what can promote them comes rather in passing (Sen,l 999b ).…”

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus Sen's sympathy and commitment categories may as yet figure like optional extras in the schema, not as essential parts of a healthy human being; and so his discussi on of what can promote them comes rather in passing (Sen,l 999b ). The idea that the self needs sympathy and commitment towards 'itself likewise remain peripheral (Sen, 1999c;Giri, 2000). Giri and Carmen hold further that Sen's 0-capability approach has not attended to capability dynamics, the self-development potential of persons or the potential for mobilized, group leaming; and that it, so far at least, connects insufficiently to building capacity for personal and social action, change and transfonnation.…”

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is Sen's Capability Approach an Adequate Basis for Considering Human Development?

Gasper

2002

Review of Political Economy

201

124

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Sen's capability approach (SCA) has supported valuable work on Human Development (HD). It has brought attention to a much wider range of information on people's freedoms and well-being than in most earlier economic planning; but it also has troubling features and requires modification and enrichment. This paper first identifies the approach's components, the contributions of the HD Reports, and the doubts about whether SCA has a sufficient conception of human personhood to sustain work on HD beyond finding indices superior to GDP. It then examines SCA's central concepts. The concepts of capability and functioning lead us to consider both possibilities and outcomes, but their definition and use has been confusing. Besides Sen's opportunity concept of 'capability' we must distinguish skills and potentials; and distinguish levels and types of 'functioning'. To understand both consumerism and what can motivate and drive more humanly fulfilling development, we must elaborate different aspects and sources of 'well-being' and the content and requirements of 'agency', more than in Sen's chosen strategy. SCA's priority category of opportunity-capability must be read as a measure of personal advantage relevant in many public policy situations, rather than as a theory of well-being; and its concept of freedom must be partnered by concepts of reason and need.

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“…Autores como Van Parijs (1996), Giri (2000) Van Staveren (2001) y Deneulin (2006; han corroborado, -siguiendo una línea de corte claramente individualista en los tres primeros-la pronunciada devaluación que supone para la teoría seniana la negación analítica de sus implicaciones sociales. "Una sociedad cuyos miembros son realmente libres requiere que la libertad se componga de seguridad, propiedad de sí y oportunidad, y no solo de esta última" (Van Parijs 1996:42).…”

Section: Controvertido De La Cuestiónunclassified

Amartya Sen frente al espejo social de la libertad. Límites al enfoque de las capacidades individuales

Castillo

2016

Rev. int. sociol.

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Copyright: © 2016 CSIC. Este es un artículo de acceso abierto distribuido bajo los términos de la licencia Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) España 3.0. ResumenEn este trabajo se ilustran algunos aspectos relativos al enfoque de las capacidades desarrollado por el economista y filósofo Amartya Sen. Particularmente se examina cómo el concepto de libertad ("de oportunidad") se revela imposibilitado para atenerse empírica y normativamente a la noción de libertad como capacidad. A partir de tal contradicción categorial se presentan una serie de conceptos inéditos que, vinculados al carácter más social de la libertad, permitan librarnos de tal desajuste. Las conclusiones de este trabajo van enfocadas hacia la enfatización del entorno social como estado donde, lejos de su reconocida influencia sobre las capacidades individuales, atesora elementos potencialmente capacitadores. PalabRas ClaveCapacidad social; Contra-capacidad; Libertad; Metacapacidad. abstRaCtThis paper illustrates somehow aspect of the capabilities approach developed by the economist and philosopher Amartya Sen. Particularly it examines how the concept of freedom (as "opportunity") reveals unable to empirically and normatively adjust to the notion of freedom as capability. From such categorical contradiction is introduced a set of unprecedented concepts that, gathered to the largest social dimension of freedom, allow releasing from such mismatch. Conclusions are focused on the emphasis of social environment as state that far from its recognized influence on individual capabilities has potentially enablers' elements.

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Rethinking human well‐being: a dialogue with Amartya Sen

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Well-being and environmental change in the arctic: a synthesis of selected research from Canada’s International Polar Year program

Well-being and environmental change in the arctic: a synthesis of selected research from Canada’s International Polar Year program

Is Sen's Capability Approach an Adequate Basis for Considering Human Development?

Amartya Sen frente al espejo social de la libertad. Límites al enfoque de las capacidades individuales

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