🗓️ Session 3: Human Development and the Capabilities Approach
Abstract
This session explores the capabilities approach to development, which shifts the focus from income and economic growth to human freedoms and opportunities. We will examine Amartya Sen’s conceptual framework, which distinguishes between functionings, capabilities, and agency. Then, we will discuss how these ideas have been operationalized through the UNDP’s Human Development Index and related measures.
Through an interactive exercise, you will engage with the debate between universal approaches, as proposed by Nussbaum, and context-specific deliberation, as proposed by Sen. Finally, we will examine how gender inequalities are measured and addressed in development practice.
🖥️ Lecture Slides
Either click on the slide area below or click here to download the slides.
🎯 Interactive Exercise
Download the worksheet for our in-class exercise on building your own capabilities list:
This exercise will help you engage with the central debate in capabilities theory before we introduce the formal frameworks. You’ll create your own list of essential capabilities and discuss whether development standards should be universal or context-specific.
📚 Mandatory Reading
- Sen (1990) (Download PDF)
🏆 Further Readings
- Technical notes for the 2025 Human Development Report
- Official, but still straightforward description of how the HDI gets calculated
- Ravallion (2012)
- A critical discussion of the HDI methodology, which is still relevant as the underlying methodology has not changed since the publication
- Sen (2000) , Introduction + Chapter 3
- The foundational text for the capabilities approach
- Nussbaum (2013), Chapters 1-2.
- Clear exposition of capabilities approach, different interpretation than Sen
- Introduces the 10 central capabilities proposed by Martha Nussbaum
- Robeyns (2005)
- A good critical overview of the approach
- Alkire and Deneulin (2009)
- Comprehensive but accessible synthesis
- Stiglitz et al. (2010)
- Policy-oriented critique of GDP with capability perspective
✍️ Coursework
Here are some additional exercises I suggest for a recap of the session and exam preparation. If questions emerge, feel free to post on the Moodle forum.
Exercise 1: HDI Discrepancy Analysis (350-400 words)
Compare HDI rankings with GDP per capita rankings for 10 countries of your choice using the UNDP database.
- Identify the 3 biggest positive discrepancies (countries ranking higher on HDI than GDP)
- Identify the 3 biggest negative discrepancies (countries ranking lower on HDI than GDP)
- Explain these differences using capabilities theory concepts (functionings, conversion factors, instrumental freedoms)
Exercise 2: Capability Assessment (400 words)
Choose a specific development challenge you’re familiar with (e.g., urban slums, rural education access, youth unemployment, refugee integration). Analyze it through the capabilities lens:
- Which functionings are people unable to achieve?
- What conversion factors (personal, social, environmental) are at play?
- Which of Sen’s five instrumental freedoms are lacking?
- What would a capability-enhancing policy look like?
Exercise 3: The Sen-Nussbaum Debate (300-350 words)
Reflect on the interactive exercise from class:
If you have questions or problems, please post them in the Moodle forum.
🔗 Additional Resources
- UNDP Human Development Data Center: http://hdr.undp.org/en/data
- Interactive dashboards for HDI, IHDI, GII, MPI
- Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI): https://ophi.org.uk/
- Research and data on multidimensional poverty