Social Justice and the Capabilities Approach: Seeking a Global Blueprint for the EPAS

The Capability Approach in Social Work with Older People

“…Welfare is either something that is given to those in need, who use their individual abilities to make the best of their situation -or as functionings (knowledge, skills) that can be achieved in a democratic community where people share resources and support one another. In the best of worlds, these two different assumptions would be conflated, and it has been argued that the capability approach offers such an evaluative theoretical frame (Robeyns, 2005), which could be adopted, for example, in social work education (Carlson et al, 2016). However, Robeyns (2005) cautions against regarding the capability approach as simply a formula for interpersonal comparisons of welfare or as merely a theory of equality or social justice.…”

“…Social justice is also important to social work and it is defined in the Code of Ethics for social workers as well as in the definition of what social work is (The International Federation of Social Workers [IFSW], 2014). Discussions within social work have been highlighting the need for social work to develop its own theoretical basis for social justice and suggesting that the capability approach, as developed by Sen and Nussbaum, can provide a philosophical frame of justice for teaching social work (Carlson et al, 2016). Notwithstanding, Robeyns (2006) argues that the capability approach suggests complementary insights to other approaches, and does not replace other theories.…”

“…Neither power relations nor anti-oppressive strategies for researching marginalised groups are particularly pronounced in the capability approach. Although there are obvious connections between the capability approach and social work, questions about whether it is sufficiently critical of social power, oppression and global injustices have been raised (Carlson et al, 2016;Dean, 2009;Deneulin, 2008). Critical social work has both a narrow and a broad definition (Gray & Webb, 2009).…”

Aportaciones de Martha Nussbaum y Amartya Sen a la construcción de una dimensión ética en la relación socioeducativa: una revisión sistemática

“…Aunque tanto Sen como Nussbaum afirman que el enfoque de las capacidades no es una teoría de la justicia, sí se les puede ubicar dentro de ella (Chackalackal, 2010) ya que ofrece un marco normativo para pensar el bienestar de las personas (Cejudo, 2006;Gale & Molla, 2014). Aunque los autores niegan situarse dentro de una teoría ética, la libertad y las capacidades son materias de la justicia (Carlson, Nguyen & Reinardy, 2016) por lo que se puede entrever su componente ético. García (2009), por ejemplo, la clasifica como una teoría de la justicia mínima.…”

‘Just Knowledge’: Can Social Work’s ‘Guilty Knowledge’ Help Build a More Inclusive Knowledge Society?

“…A Rawlsian perspective of justice is built on a contractarian framework that assumes people share a mutual interest in laws that prevent one person's interests from dominating another's. For many years, Rawls' work has been central to social work discourse on social justice (Carlson et al, 2016), However, recently, social work scholars have begun to question the adequacy of Rawls' philosophical and political grounding (Banerjee, 2011) and looked to other complementary and competing perspectives on justice. For example, a number of social workers have begun to adopt the capabilities approach as a 'globally relevant social justice framework' (Carlson et al, 2016, p. 269).…”