Education, Welfare and the Capabilities Approach

Book excerpt: Capabilities Approach The authors assess the potentials and pitfalls of the Capabilities Approach to issues of education and welfare. Renowned philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, economists and educational scientists explore the conceptual and practical implications of this approach for delivering socially just policies. The volume analyses the potentials and pitfalls of the Capabilities Approach (CA) which was initially developed by the Indian economist Amartya Sen and the American philosopher Martha Nussbaum. CA is considered as a philosophical approach to social justice, a scientific approach to research welfare production and eventually as a potentially new practically adoptable fundament for educational and social service delivery. CA is one of the currently most influential attempts to reconcile the competing demands which are associated with the fundamental conceptions of equality, recognition and liberty and advocates an egalitarian, political conception of social justice which is concerned with the cultivation, maximization and just distribution of the (real) freedom of individuals. Renowned philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, economists and educational scientists investigate the complex relation of education and welfare against the background of major economic, political and cultural transformations within and across European societies.