Capabilities and Constraints

Sen’s capability approach emphasises the importance of freedom and choice in leading the life that one values. This paper seeks to argue that, nonetheless, the capability approach is fully cognisant of the constraints that restrict individuals from achieving capabilities. Since the achievement of capabilities is set within a social context, and also because the constraints to capability-achievement are often of a social nature, it is useful to keep in mind the social context. An account of the capability approach that places adequate stress on the constraints that confront individuals and the institutional context will describe their situation more accurately; it will also be of more use for policy purposes.     

INTRA-HOUSEHOLD INEQUALITY: A CHALLENGE FOR THE CAPABILITY APPROACH?

In this paper, the author examines the capability approach and how it applies in the context of individuals and families living together on unequal terms. The interpretations of agency, freedom, and choice in Sen's framework are analyzed from a feminist perspective, and the author suggests that these important concepts invite special attention in the presence of domestic power imbalances. Problems with the interpretations embedded in the capability approach are pinpointed and adjustments proposed. Drawing on the vast literature on household behavior in developing countries, the author argues that capabilities have a distinctly interdependent dimension. While the discussion of agency in the capability approach has been either normative or policy-oriented, exercises that seek to evaluate individual well-being should pay more attention to the existence of alternative types of power within the realm of the household.     

Review Essay

Sen's capability approach has a culturally specific side, with capabilities influenced by social structures and institutions. Although Sen acknowledges this, he expresses his theory in individualistic terms and makes little allowance for culture or social structure. The present paper draws from recent social theory to discuss how the capability approach could be developed to give an explicit treatment of cultural and structural matters. Capabilities depend not only on entitlements but on institutional roles and personal relations: these can be represented openly if capabilities are disaggregated into individual, social and structural capacities. The three layers interact, and a full analysis of capabilities should consider them all. A stratified method implies that raising entitlements will not on its own be enough to enhance capabilities and that cultural and structural changes will be needed.     

DEVELOPMENT AS EMPOWERMENT

Amartya Sen's capability approach to human welfare recognizes the impact of social institutions on human capabilities. But as an evaluative framework, it does not analyze the role of institutionalized power in causing or perpetuating inequalities in individual opportunities to achieve. Drawing on authors who are receptive to the capability approach and who have examined the political aspects of advancing human capabilities, this paper presents a view of social power and its exercise that is congruent with the capability approach. This examination of power continues the exploration of intergroup relationships that Sen has advocated, and it can be expected to yield new criteria for policy evaluation as well as new policy options.     

Capabilities and (Missed) Opportunity for Women’s Entrepreneurship in Kuwait

Abstract

Kuwait offers a powerful context for investigating the entrepreneurial cultures developing in Gulf countries in response to the concurrent trends of pursuing economic diversification and efficiency, and the constraints posed by cultural narratives that maintain inequality between the sexes. Bringing a capabilities lens to the analysis of entrepreneurship promotion programs means shifting from a focus on meeting basic human needs to ensuring capabilities development. To begin, we discuss the capabilities approach to entrepreneurship with a focus on the necessity/opportunity classification. Next, we review the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Kuwait, including its focus on opportunity entrepreneurs and the legal, economic, and sociocultural framework in which they operate. After considering the impact of Kuwait’s gender-blind approach on women’s entrepreneurship, we conclude with some suggestions for strengthening Kuwait’s potential for capability expansion through entrepreneurship.     

Conditional factors Pushing catch-up across developed and emerging countries in the nanotechnology sector, 2000–2010

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to test national and sectorial technological and innovation capability factors, as well as social capability indicators, which could explain a possible conditional convergence across countries in nanotechnology within the context of a model of innovative technological knowledge β convergence. Based on growth convergence models, our proposal also takes into account the Schumpeterian theory, the National System Innovation –NSI– approach, and particularly the sectorial system of innovation and the technological catch-up hypothesis, as well as theoretical and empirical literature on conditional convergence. The findings allow us to confirm that new nanotechnology knowledge convergence is conditioned by a higher growth rate of technological capabilities in nanotechnology: growth from the initial level of patents granted, cumulative knowledge, and links to technological and scientific activities. Finally, as regards social capabilities, only the institutional weakness variable (corruption index) associates negatively with β convergence. As an emergent paradigm, we realize that convergence and catch-up are starting processes, which could allow less technologically developed countries to benefit from higher growth of some of the factors identified.     

数字化情境下创业动态能力有效前因组态研究

为探究数字化情境下创业动态能力前因变量协同作用机制,以江浙沪地区初创企业为研究对象,采用fsQCA和NCA方法,探讨先前经验、社会网络、创业学习和数字技术对创业动态能力的影响路径与作用机制。研究发现,数字化情境下创业动态能力存在多种前因组态,其中高创业机会能力存在数据驱动型、主观能动型、经验基础型3种组态,非高创业机会能力存在数据缺位型、经验缺失型、主动不足型3种组态,高创业资源能力存在数据助力型、传统模式型、主观能动型3种组态,非高创业资源能力存在数据缺位型、学习不足型、网络欠缺型3种组态;另外,数字技术和创业学习是高创业机会能力的重要前因变量,数字技术和网络行为是高创业资源能力的重要前因变量。研究结论有助于拓展数字技术创业和创业动态能力相关研究,对于提升数字技术能力、指导数字创业实践具有一定启示意义。     

Book Reviews

The evaluative function of local public actors has been exacerbated in recent years with the individualisation of social policies. One of their tasks is to select the appropriate informational basis in order to assess welfare claimants. Amartya Sen's capability approach offers a theoretical and normative framework to analyse this evaluative function. In particular, it insists on the importance of “objectivating” people's preferences with reference to their capabilities. The weight that is to be attached to individual preferences in the course of public action can be a matter of controversy. Claimants “capability for voice”, we argue, should be developed. This capability refers to their effective possibility to express their concerns with regard to the choice of the informational basis. It is argued that local institutions prohibiting capability for voice will produce adaptive preferences, whereas procedural institutions promoting reflexive public evaluation and capability for voice will result in a fairer wording of individual preferences. At a situated level, the way to connect subjective and objective information when assessing people very much depends on the position of the evaluator. Several illustrations show that the fairness of evaluation, and its impact on the people's capability set, depend on this positional perspective.     

Capabilities and Functionings: The Role of Social Capital for Accessing New Capabilities

This paper connects two relatively recent streams of research in social science: the capabilities approach and the literature on social capital. The aim is to show that these are strictly connected in a dynamic process linking functionings and capabilities through social capital. The ability to attain new capabilities is enhanced by the possession of social capital; hence investing in its accumulation allows individuals to improve their welfare. Furthermore, new capabilities allow the individual to create new connections and access new networks, accruing his or her stock of social capital and opening the door to the possibility of attaining new capabilities. The paper hypothesizes that a dynamic spiral interweaves social capital, capabilities and functionings.     

Gender Differences in Italian Children's Capabilities

This paper analyzes children's well-being using the capability approach, with a special focus on gender differences. The two areas analyzed are the capability of senses, imagination, and thought; and the capability of play. Using data from the 2008 Multipurpose Survey on Daily Life released by the Italian National Institute of Statistics, a structural equation model is estimated in which the capabilities are defined as latent variables that are intrinsically interrelated. For each capability, a set of indicators of functionings is utilized and the effects of individual and social conversion factors – including parents’ unpaid work, their level of education, and employment status – are analyzed. The model is applied to Italian girls and boys ages 6–10 in 2008. The analysis confirms that the two capabilities are interrelated. Policies aimed at improving children's achievements in education also improve the capability of play and vice versa. Differences by gender occur in the factors’ effects.     

产业技术创新联盟中企业联盟能力的构建——一个多层面互动的模型

在新的竞争环境下,产业技术创新联盟成为了企业实施技术创新战略的主要形式,而对创新联盟以及创新联盟网络的管理能力也因此成为了企业竞争优势的关键来源。文章超越了现有大多数联盟能力研究所采取的单一分析层面的做法,着重探索了影响产业技术创新联盟中企业联盟能力的组织和个体两个层面的多因素互动机制。在案例研究的基础上,建立了一个联盟能力的多维动态框架,包括组织维度的战略和结构以及个体维度的能力等因素,分别从战略锚定、支持结构和联盟思维等方面阐述了企业联盟能力构建的途径和方法,强调组织层面的因素与个体层面的因素之间的互动是创新联盟中企业联盟能力构建的关键,联盟能力是企业组织层面的战略-结构因素与个体层面的认知结构和能力因素交互作用的函数,从而为企业构建联盟能力以更好地从技术创新联盟中获益提供了一定的指导和借鉴。     

协同创新团队交易型领导力与动态能力关系实证研究：调节定向的中介作用

领导力对创新能力的作用机制受到学术界的广泛关注，但是关于交易型领导力的研究很少，实证研究更加缺乏。基于此，研究了协同创新背景下交易型领导力对动态能力的作用机制，并且引入促进定向的中介作用，提升了模型解释力。通过结构化问卷获得301份来自高技术产学研协同创新团队的数据，采用统计分析方法进行假设检验。研究结果表明，权变奖励与感知、掌握能力呈显著正相关关系，例外管理与重构能力呈显著正相关关系，促进定向与预防定向在上述关系中分别起中介作用。该项研究验证了交易型领导力对动态能力的差异化影响，进一步丰富了战略领导理论与动态能力理论，有助于产学研协同创新管理实践。     

The Capabilities Conception of the Individual 1

This paper advances a capabilities conception of the individual, and considers some of the problems involved in developing such a conception. It also makes claims about the nature of the capability space as a whole, frames personal development in terms of the idea of moving though the capability space, and argues that people are alike in being increasingly heterogeneous. A key problem for a capabilities conception of the individual is that some capabilities, such as belonging to social groups and having social identities, can undermine individuality. The paper discusses an example in which people can have social identities but can nonetheless be relatively independent when seen as self-organizing. Brief comments on one goal of social economic policy as being identity-promoting conclude the paper.     

The complementary nature of technological capabilities: Measurement and robustness issues

The application of composite indicators to complex phenomena in social science has come to remarkable prominence. As a result, they have been widely applied in wide-ranging fields. This paper explores the application of a composite indicator of technological capabilities that can be also valid for composite indicators in other fields. We focus on whether different methodologies to build composite indicators lead to different results. The arithmetic mean to aggregate technological capabilities variables has been widely criticized, as it allows for perfect substitutability between variables, thus disregarding the complementary nature of technological capabilities. We introduce a new aggregation rule, the concave mean, in order to take into account the complementarity argument in a Science-Technology-Innovation context. Using a dataset for 138 countries, we show that the arithmetic mean is biased in principle but robust in practice. This depends upon the fact that technologically more advanced countries tend to have a more complementary structure in their technological capabilities compared to less developed nations.     

What the Welfare State Left Behind—Securing the Capability to Move for the Vulnerable

The purpose of the present paper is to measure the disadvantage of the vulnerable in contemporary Japan, focusing on their capabilities in moving both outside and inside the home. Our research interest is to find a new informational base other than consumption expenditure, which provides a strong clue about how to assess the eligibility for social support. We examine theoretical methods to apply the capability approach empirically, extending existing multidimensional poverty measurements. We find that people with disabilities and nursing care users are significantly restricted in their capabilities. The elderly in general, whom we have used as a reference group, are also in a precarious situation.     

小微企业如何提升信息沟通绩效——基于社会化客户关系管理能力与社交媒体可见度的研究

小微企业将社交媒体视为可用资源进行信息沟通的能力,将有力改善公众对其社会存在性的感知。本文就此提出社交媒体可见度这个信息沟通绩效目标,并以资源基础观和能力基础观为理论基础,确认了一个新的客户关系管理能力的分析框架——面向社会化客户的信息生成、信息传播和信息响应能力的三维六要素模型。通过问卷调查和收集实际运营数据展开定量分析,研究发现提升小微企业社交媒体可见度的客户关系管理能力分别为：经常性生成信息的能力、基于奖励的信息传播能力、基于服务的信息响应能力;并且,基于内容的信息响应能力也在多项检验中具有显著性。调节效应还显示,年轻企业主经营的小微企业,其社会化客户关系管理能力对可见度的促进作用更强。本文探讨了小微企业在网络经济下的社交媒体行为,对于提升小微企业生存能力具有重要实践意义。     

Macroeconomic determinants of growth: new measurement and evidence on the effect of political freedom

Empirical results based on the re-examination of the data and models offered by Kormendi and Meguire (1985) and Gupta (1988) suggest that the impact of political freedom on economic growth is positive and significant. In particular, the replacement of their civil liberties variable by a new varible representing social capabilities improves the magnitude and significance of the estimated parameters and explanatory power of the regressions. The marginal contribution of social capabilities to explaining the percentage variations in the mean rate of income growth is the third highest among all determinants of growth, suggesting that the effect of freedom on growth is more pronounced than previously measured. It is argued that freedom will enable individuals to expand the range of socio-economic opportunities and to establish greater control over the human environment in order to improve material well-being.     

Asymmetric memory recall of positive and negative events in social interactions

Previous studies have suggested that negative emotion can enhance memory accuracy. However, they were not conducted in the context of social interactions using the methodology of experimental economics. Based on the present study, we find that in such a context, individuals’ memory recall accuracy depends on the kindness of acts and who performed them, and negative emotion may lower memory accuracy. A victim of an unkind act is more likely to forget than someone who benefited from a kind act. This result supports the hypothesis that individuals may strategically manipulate their memory by forgetting an unpleasant experience. We also find that individuals who committed an unkind act tend to perceive it as less unkind as time moves on. They also tend to believe that a higher percentage of players have also committed the unkind act. Overall, the results support the hypothesis that individuals strategically manipulate their memory and beliefs to maintain self-esteem or feel less guilty.