Valuing nature: Māori philosophy and the capability approach

Can the capability approach to well-being and development capture the way nature is valued within “Mātauranga Māori” (the philosophies of the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa/New Zealand)? This paper argues that current articulations of the capability approach, despite encouraging and requiring cross-cultural dialogue, are unable to include Māori values as they apply to nature. Māori values express a relationship with nature grounded in the physical and spiritual dimensions of “whakapapa” (genealogy). Such an approach differs markedly from that which values nature in light of human agency (as Amartya Sen’s theory does) or dignity (as Martha Nussbaum’s theory does). For the purposes of this paper, this difference highlights the need to create space for cross-cultural conversations which open up real opportunities for new ways forward. The capability approach helps to create the space needed for these conversations, but is unable to cover the ground required for their full expression. There is not enough breadth to guarantee a Māori voice within current articulations of the capability approach. There is a need for proponents of the capability approach to think beyond its limits in order to fully engage with those values yet to be fully considered within the capability framework.     

Specifying and Justifying a Basic Capability Set: Should the International Human Rights Framework be given a more Direct Role?

The paper considers the role that the international human rights framework should play in the extension and application of Sen's capability approach. It discusses how emerging international standards in the field of human rights, supported by international human rights law, provide a basis for the specification and justification of lists of central and basic capabilities, and associated lists of duties on governments, international organizations and other international obligation-holders (both at the individual level, and collectively—through international co-operation). The idea of combining the capability framework with a background or supplementary theory of international obligation in the field of human rights is examined in the light of broader theoretical debates about the extension and application of the capability approach. The notion of a “human rights-based capability list” is then introduced. Finally, the paper suggests some possible applications of “human rights-based capability lists” in human rights advocacy and international poverty analysis.     

Poverty and its many dimensions: The role of income as an indicator

Abstract

In this paper we analyse the choice of the dimension in which poverty is to be measured by reviewing some implications arising from the debate on the concept of welfare. By discussing Sen's capability approach, in particular, it is suggested that income or consumption are not necessarily the only indicators of interest in a poverty analysis. We then explore how comprehensive a picture of poverty can be gained by focusing on an income‐based measure, using Chilean data from 1992. We analyse the role of income both as having a direct impact on a set of indicators of well‐being and as proxying the relevant factors affecting them. In both cases the link is found to be weak. This suggests that poverty analysis is highly conditional on the indicators chosen and that the approach should be kept as broad as possible in order to capture more fully the multidimensional nature of such a complex phenomenon.     

Editor's introduction

This paper examines the relationship between capabilities, well-being and the impact of development efforts in Afghanistan. Using data from a nationally representative survey, it is argued that very vulnerable groups maintain a positive perception of well-being by referring to collective values and practices. The data suggest that deprivation of individual basic capabilities does not systematically lead to a low perception of well-being if individuals have access to other capabilities such as love, care and participation in community affairs. Nevertheless, access to basic capabilities remains crucial in order to ensure that social norms and expectations cease to constitute constraints and become factors through which agency and empowerment are enhanced. The results also show the dangers of tackling inequalities by designing policies that target individuals isolated from the group.     

Determinants of food security in Southern Ethiopia at the household level

In the early 1980s, a paradigm shift occurred in the field of food security, following Amartya Sens (1981) claims that food insecurity is more of a demand concern, affecting the poor's access to food, than a supply concern, affecting availability of food at the national level. Despite the wide acceptance of Sen's thinking, many controversies including the relative importance of supply‐side versus demand‐side variables in causing and solving food insecurity have remained in academic and policy circles. This study develops a recursive household food security model within the framework of consumer demand and production theories following Singh et al. (1986) , and parses out the relative importance of supply‐side versus demand‐side variables in determining household food security in southern Ethiopia. Based on results of a test of full/reduced model and the magnitude of changes in conditional probabilities of food security, we conclude that the supply‐side variables are more powerful determinants of food security than the demand‐side variables.     

Nussbaum’s capability approach and African environmental ethics: is the African voice heard?

ABSTRACT

Martha Nussbaum’s capability approach (CA) offers a framework for a universal conception of human development. This paper interrogates Nussbaum’s approach using African environmental ethics (AEE) to see if it captures African ways of valuing nature. It looks at two ways in which Nussbaum’s approach considers the value of the natural environment: a) by applying her list of capabilities to non-human animals and b) by including, what is here termed, an environmental capability in Nussbaum's list of ten central capabilities she deems necessary for a person to flourish. The author argues that, despite limitations and need for further exploration, the second way of ‘environment capability’ aligns well with how nature is valued in AEE. The author also shows that both Nussbaum and AEE value nature in a way that, while not necessarily intrinsic, goes beyond material instrumentality and opens avenues for further discussion of the capabilities approach in traditional value systems     

Changes in farmers’ welfare from land requisition in the process of rapid urbanization

The marked impact of the welfare gap on total welfare within collectives has rarely, if at all, been addressed in traditional welfare theories and in Amartya Sen's theory of welfare functioning and capabilities. With this observation as our starting point, we constructed a research framework that combined welfare functioning, the welfare gap, and welfare capability to assess and analyze changes in the welfare of farmers whose land was requisitioned in Zhejiang province. The findings of our study were as follows. (1) The total welfare functioning of farmers whose land was requisitioned increased by 11.8% as a result of improvements in economic and dwelling conditions and community surroundings. However, social security and psychological conditions deteriorated. (2) Although total welfare functioning has improved, gaps are widening in the distribution of welfare functioning among farmers who underwent land requisition. This was evidenced by the increase of the weighted Gini coefficient, which rose from 0.26 to 0.32 after land requisition. (3) As a result of the improvement in welfare capability, a judgmental bias is evident when farmers assess whether they have gained or lost welfare after land requisition. We conclude that welfare studies should focus not only on the quantitative aspects of welfare distribution, but should also pay more attention to its fairness and impartiality. This can prevent social problems posed by an oversized welfare gap. Moreover, after land requisition, the government and community should provide education and training services, and the current one-time compensation model should be replaced by a lifelong compensation model. At the same time, endowment insurance should be extended in rural areas and urban medical insurance should be progressively incorporated into the social security benefits of farmers who have undergone land requisition.     

Dealing with Dirt and the Disorder of Development: Managing Rubbish in Urban Pakistan

This article unveils the different “thought worlds” that inform urban development policy and the reality of urban service delivery in Faisalabad, Pakistan's third largest city. Focusing on changing patterns of residential waste removal and based on ethnographic work among minority Christian street sweepers, the “little sub-worlds” involved in domestic rubbish collection are explored, showing how these articulate with larger “thought worlds” about dirt and disorder. The symbolic meanings of dirt across public and private spheres are examined alongside efforts by development practitioners and donors to impose generic policy solutions related to privatized delivery. Drawing on Mary Douglas's insights about how ritual pollution or danger-beliefs serve generally to maintain social categories and hierarchies, the article nevertheless points to the historically contingent specificities of caste-like relations in urban Pakistan and how these have been constructed. It shows how, under increasing competition for scarce jobs, entitlements associated with hereditary status-based occupations are once more appealed to and reconstructed by these vulnerable waste workers, shaping in the process urban service delivery and the relations that underpin it. The disjuncture born of diverse logics about dirt and disorder reveals an institutional multiplicity and messy social reality that sits uneasily with development as an ordering and unidirectional process.     

Unlocking the Black Box of Institutions in Livelihoods Analysis: Case Study from Andhra Pradesh,India

Weaknesses of sustainable-livelihoods analysis include the neglect of power relations; a focus on the material bases of livelihoods, ignoring social and cultural aspects; and failing to incorporate dynamism. This paper seeks to reinvigorate sustainable-livelihoods frameworks through a broader conceptualisation of institutions which identifies the multiple ways in which they mediate livelihoods. It draws upon Scott's (1995) three pillars of institutions (regulative, normative and cognitive) and the three schools of neo-institutionalism (rational, cultural and historical) to present a more comprehensive approach to understanding the ways in which institutions mediate livelihoods. These approaches are in themselves limited in their understanding of agency and institutional transformation. The paper argues that attention to “complex subjectivities” and contestations over meaning within a broader institutional context can identify entry points for strategic development interventions. The utility of the approach for development practice and research is demonstrated through its application to rural livelihoods in Andhra Pradesh, India.     

农户参与农业全程生产托管诱因及福祉效应研究

[目的]农业生产托管作为面向小农户的社会化服务体系，在一定程度上解决了小农户在劳动力、技术、资金等方面的实际困难，对农户福利变化及差异产生重要影响。研究农户参与的诱因及福祉效应，对于促进农业生产托管推广应用，实现农业现代化发展有着重要的现实意义。[方法]基于2021年陕西省关中地区1 169份农户微观调研数据，文章通过熵值法对农户的主客观福祉水平进行测算，并运用倾向得分匹配模型实证分析农户参与全程托管的诱因及对其福祉效应的影响。[结果](1)农业全程托管对农户的主客观福祉水平均具有显著的正向影响，不仅在收入与物质需求、选择与行动自由两个维度上增进农户的客观福祉，也有助于农户主观福祉中“三生空间”满意度的提升。(2)全程托管的福祉效应在不同群体间存在显著的差异，对老龄化程度高、经营规模0.67hm²(10亩)以下及粮食作物种植的农户和家庭福祉效应的提升效果较佳。(3)农户全程托管是其理性决策的结果，个人及家庭特征、农业经营特征及组织支持等是农户全程托管的重要影响因素。[结论]继续加大农业生产托管的推广普及，扩大全程托管覆盖面。结合农户特征，制定差异化、精准化的支持举...     

The well-being of South African university students from low-income households

ABSTRACT

The role of higher education in development and social mobility is now widely acknowledged and globally recognised. In South Africa in particular, graduates have greatly increased employment prospects. This paper takes up the importance of addressing South African university students’ multi-dimensional well-being in the light of global higher education development agendas. Considering poverty and development in the space of higher education – specifically in the lives of youth from low-income households in South Africa – I draw on two waves of life history data from undergraduate students at five universities. Material-cultural conditions for a threshold of well-being emerged powerfully in every single student narrative, indicating a need for some rethinking of capability deprivation and poverty. This paper conceptualises three broad hardship categories specific to higher education, considering the multiplicity of factors and complexity of low-income in student experiences and achievements. Even though the theoretical framing draws on Sen’s capability approach and its attractive moral perspective, the paper also foregrounds students’ material well-being as significant in understanding how education can advance change, and not only reproduce social inequalities. The challenge remains, how do we reconcile resources and capabilities, and to link freedoms to financial analysis in evaluating the lives that students value?     

Operationalising the capability approach: developing culturally relevant indicators of indigenous wellbeing – an Australian example

The tension that exists between the worldviews of Indigenous peoples and government reporting frameworks is what Taylor has termed ‘the recognition or translation space’. The meaningful operation of the ‘recognition space’ hinges on four key points – firstly, why measure wellbeing, secondly, how wellbeing is conceptualised, thirdly, by what process the wellbeing measures are decided, and finally, who makes those decisions. Sen’s capability approach is concerned with development as a process of expanding people’s freedoms to live the life they have reason to value. It is in this spirit of freedom that Sen has not prescribed a fixed list of functioning and capabilities. The open-ended nature of this approach, in letting the identification of important capabilities be dependent on specific contexts and people’s own values, aligns with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples which asserts that Indigenous people must be agents of their own development. This paper contributes to the understanding of what a good life means by augmenting the capability approach to incorporate Indigenous worldviews. Through participatory research methodologies we define and select indicators of wellbeing which are grounded in the lived experiences of the Yawuru people in Broome, Western Australia.     

Trialling a method to quantify the ‘cultural services’ of the English landscape using Countryside Survey data

Increasing pressure on natural resources driven by population growth and higher levels of individual resource consumption have led to the need to measure and ultimately place values on the diversity of ecosystem services supported by land in order to manage it appropriately. The complexity underlying the provision of many seemingly simple ecosystem services, e.g. drinking water, make the process of identifying and making appropriate measures far from simple. Cultural services, defined as the nonmaterial benefits that people obtain from ecosystems, comprise a range of experiences of nature which enhance human well-being in a variety of ways. Measurement of the experiential benefits of ecosystems has proved difficult, despite their acknowledged importance. This paper describes a novel approach for providing measures of cultural services at national scale (England). The interdisciplinary approach described combines data from a national survey of the biophysical components of the UK countryside with data collected from regional assessments of experiential qualities of landscape in England. The paper discusses the results, merits and limitations of the datasets and approaches used.     

Capability approach to compulsory purchase compensation: evidence of the functionings of land identified by affected landowners in Scotland

This research was inspired by the challenges faced by landowners seeking adequate compensation for all their losses following the compulsory acquisition of land by public authorities in Scotland. This research uses Sen’s ‘capability approach’ and argues that the well-being contribution of land extends beyond its market value and therefore compensation payable following compulsory acquisition should include these other losses. The aim of this research is to identify the valuable functionings (or usefulness) of land from the perspective of the existing landowners. The functionings which contribute to their well-being can be both financial and non-financial and should be appropriately compensated. This research identifies and creates a list of valuable ‘functionings’ of individual landowners who have suffered losses due to compulsory acquisition, servitude and severance under various public projects in Scotland. Qualitative Content Analysis is applied to analyse case reports prepared by the Lands Tribunal for Scotland. In-depth analysis of 19 relevant cases is performed with the use of NVIVO software and reveals a list of 15 different functionings of land. Results show that financial functionings are the most frequently discussed at the Lands Tribunal. The debate on the loss of financial benefits from expected and planned development on land in the near future is the most debated topic by the landowners.     

The role of human recognition in development

This paper introduces the concept of human recognition and examines its role in development. Human recognition is defined as the extent to which an individual is acknowledged by others to be of inherent value by virtue of being a fellow human being. A review of literature in various disciplines on related concepts helps to establish the foundation for the study of human recognition and to distinguish it from other concepts. The paper describes human recognition, the domains in which individuals receive it, and its psychic and material effects on well-being. Human recognition influences development outcomes and, conversely, development programmes and policies can influence human recognition through the content of interventions and through how interventions are implemented. By defining human recognition and analyzing its role in economic development, the paper identifies and examines an aspect of development that has not been directly studied before.     

The Human Development Approach: An Overview

The human development (HD) approach puts the improvement of people’s lives as the central objective of development. This paper provides an overview of major aspects of the approach. It shows how it emerged with the evolution of development thought and a widening of development objectives The paper explores the two-way relationship between HD and the rival objective, economic growth, is explored and broad characteristics of countries that have been exceptionally successful or unsuccessful , countries with three country cases considered in greater depth. The paper identifies major dimensions of HD, beyond the three elements included in the Human Development Index (HDI) and shows they are poorly captured by the HDI. An overview of global change on HD dimensions from 1980 to 2015 gives a mixed picture with progress on basic HD, uneven trends in some areas, and notable worsening on the environmental dimension. In conclusion, the paper discusses some outstanding issues which need more attention.     

A conceptual framework of adoption of an agricultural innovation

In this paper we present a conceptual framework of individual farmers' decisions on adoption of a new innovation, using the example of a new crop species. This framework overcomes the shortcomings of a number of previous studies. It represents the adoption of an innovation as a dynamic decision problem spanning at least several years. The model allows for generation of potentially valuable information from trialing the innovation. The value of such trials is due to development of skills (e.g. in agronomic management of a crop) as well as reduction in uncertainty about the innovation's long-term profitability. The framework also includes the farmer's personal perceptions, managerial abilities and risk preferences in order to properly represent the adoption decision process. The influences of socio-demographic factors within the framework are discussed.     

珍惜地球资源 倡导绿色开发利用 推动科学发展

地球资源破坏日益严重,环境问题日益突出,今天的人类面临生存与发展的重大难题,必须创新制度,转变资源开发利用的方式和资源经济发展模式,通过资源的绿色开发和绿色利用,协调资源开发与环境保护的关系,推进绿色发展和科学发展。     

首轮退耕补贴到期对农户退耕地利用意愿影响研究——基于农户主观福利的中介检验

[目的]考察退耕补贴到期对农户退耕地利用意愿的影响以及主观福利的中介效应,为巩固退耕还林成果、推动退耕还林高质量发展提供决策参考。[方法]文章基于河北省473户参与首轮退耕的农户数据,构建类别变量中介模型,实证检验退耕补贴到期对农户退耕地利用意愿的影响,并进一步探究主观福利是否在退耕补贴到期影响农户退耕地利用意愿的关系中具有中介效应。[结果]（1）退耕补贴到期会增强农户对退耕地的复耕、换树种和流转意愿,降低农户的管护意愿;（2）退耕补贴到期会造成农户主观福利的下降;（3）主观福利在退耕补贴到期与农户退耕地管护、复耕和换树种意愿的关系中具有中介效应。[结论]政府应及时出台退耕还林后续相关政策,提升农户主观福利水平,并加强退耕地流转机制建设,从而保障退耕还林成果的可持续性,实现退耕还林的高质量发展。     

农村居民幸福感与绿色炊事能源消费选择基于中国家庭追踪调查数据的实证分析

目的 目前关于幸福感的文献,多以研究产生幸福感的前置因素为主,但是对幸福感的逆向效应的研究常常被忽视。幸福感和生态环境之间存在着相互促进的作用。文章通过对中国农村居民炊事能源消费的微观数据调查和分析,探讨农村居民的幸福感水平对绿色炊事能源消费选择因素的影响,有助于理解农村居民绿色炊事能源消费背后的驱动因素,以期对农村绿色能源消费引导政策提供指导。方法 该文基于2016年CFPS的数据,运用描述分析和Binary Logistic 回归,并采用变异系数赋权法对个人幸福感的主观幸福感和客观幸福感进行赋权分析,重点分析农村居民的主观幸福感和客观幸福感对绿色炊事能源消费选择的影响。结果 （1）农村居民的主观、客观幸福感在选择绿色炊事能源消费决策中发挥着重要的促进作用。（2）客观幸福感对男性组和女性组选择绿色炊事能源消费均表现出显著正效应。而主观幸福感只对女性组选择绿色炊事消费有显著正效应。（3）幸福感对农村居民预测绿色炊事能源消费有显著的地域差异。主观幸福感只对东北地区的农村居民绿色炊事消费有显著正效应。（4）年龄小的女性群体更容易实施绿色炊事消费行为。结论 农村居民的幸福感水平的提升对于预测绿色炊事能源消费有显著的影响。