The paper aims to examine the relationship between creating capabilities and political liberalism. It argues that the reality of climate change calls for the capabilities approach…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to examine the relationship between creating capabilities and political liberalism. It argues that the reality of climate change calls for the capabilities approach to be more rooted in a relational anthropology which the Aristotelian ethical tradition is more akin to.
Design/methodology/approach
It discusses how traces of this ethical tradition can be found in Nussbaum's capabilities approach itself: affiliation as an architectonic capability leads to the common good being the end of political action, and practical reason as an architectonic capability leads to reasoning being structured by concerns for the common good.
Findings
The paper suggests some practical implications of an Aristotelian version of the capabilities approach.
Originality/value
The paper seeks to build an account of social justice based on the capabilities approach with Aristotelian roots.
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Keywords
This article aims to provide a response to the papers in this issue.
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to provide a response to the papers in this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology employed is philosophical.
Findings
In her response, Nussbaum thanks the authors for their contributions and addresses their most salient arguments.
Originality/value
Nussbaum in this article responds to the papers in this issue of IJSE and addresses the authors' most salient arguments.
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Keywords
Séverine Deneulin and Nicholas Townsend
Public economics has recently introduced the concept of global public goods as a new category of public goods whose provision is central for promoting the well‐being of…
Abstract
Purpose
Public economics has recently introduced the concept of global public goods as a new category of public goods whose provision is central for promoting the well‐being of individuals in today's globalized world. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which introducing this new concept in international development is helpful for understanding human well‐being enhancement.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper considers some implications of the concept of the common good for international development.
Findings
The concept of global public goods could be more effective if the conception of well‐being it assumes is broadened beyond the individual level. “Living well” or the “good life” does not dwell in individual lives only, but also in the lives of the communities which human beings form. A successful provision of global public goods depends on this recognition that the “good life” of the communities that people form is a constitutive component of the “good life” of individual human beings.
Originality/value
The paper suggests that the rediscovery of the concept of the common good, and identification of how to nurture it, constitute one of the major tasks for development theory and policy.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to present exploration of themes that interconnect six studies in environmentally and socially sustainable human development.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present exploration of themes that interconnect six studies in environmentally and socially sustainable human development.
Design/methodology/approach
The article presents an overview of the papers included in this special issue.
Findings
As humanity threatens to undermine its habitat, a social economics returns to core concepts and themes that became expunged from neoclassical economics: serious examination of persons, seen as more than given points of desire; a broadened perspective on types of good, including a non‐neoclassical conception of public goods as publicly deliberated priority goods that are not well managed through free markets and “common goods” as shared bases vital for everyone; study of what commodities and goods do to and for people; a central role for public reasoning about which are public priority goods, rather than using only a technical definition of a public good; an acceptance of notions of ethical responsibility and responsibilities concerning the provision and maintenance of public priority goods determined through public reasoning; and attention to institutional formats for such deliberation. Amongst the greatest of public priority “goods” are the concepts of common good and responsibility.
Research limitations/Implications
The findings reinforce the agenda of socio‐economics for central attention to the mutual conditioning of economy, society, polity, and environment, including analysis of the sociocultural formation of economic actors and of ideas of “common good”.
Originality/value
Cross‐fertilization of theorization with cases from Costa Rica, Kenya, Nepal, Thailand, Rwanda, sub‐Saharan Africa and global arenas.