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  • © 2019

The Capability Approach, Empowerment and Participation

Concepts, Methods and Applications

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Offers theoretical and practical solutions for safeguarding the transformative roots of participation and facilitating empowerment
  • Reflects on local and global partnerships for sustainable human development
  • Expands on key concepts in the literature including freedom, agency and empowered learning

Part of the book series: Rethinking International Development series (RID)

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxv
  2. Introduction

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. Human Development and the Capability Approach: The Role of Empowerment and Participation

      • Alexandre Apsan Frediani, David Alexander Clark, Mario Biggeri
      Pages 3-36
  3. Conclusions and Policy Lessons

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 361-361
    2. Capability Development and Decentralization

      • Santosh Mehrotra
      Pages 363-383
    3. Participation, Empowerment and Capabilities: Key Lessons and Future Challenges

      • David Alexander Clark, Mario Biggeri, Alexandre Apsan Frediani
      Pages 385-402

About this book

This book explores the linkages between Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach and participatory forms of development – especially those associated with critical pedagogy and empowerment from the bottom-up. It shows how the capability approach and the participatory movement can complement and reinforce each other helping to ensure that democratic principles are respected and become the foundation for sustainable human development. The Capability Approach provides guiding principles for protecting the transformative roots of participation (safeguarding ownership, accountability and empowerment), while participation delivers vital methods for making the Capability Approach operational. Divided into three overlapping parts that focus on concepts, methods and applications, this work draws on diverse fieldwork experiences to unpack power relations, address adaptive preferences, explore individual and collective agency, consider new partnerships for development, and develop innovative concepts.



Editors and Affiliations

  • Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    David Alexander Clark

  • Action Research for CO-Development (ARCO), PIN-Educational and Scientific Services for the University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    David Alexander Clark, Mario Biggeri

  • Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Mario Biggeri

  • Development Planning Unit, University College London, London, UK

    Alexandre Apsan Frediani

About the editors

David Alexander Clark is Affiliated Lecturer in the Centre of Development Studies at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Mario Biggeri is Associate Professor in Development Economics at the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Florence, Italy.

Alexandre Apsan Frediani is Associate Professor in the Bartlett Development Planning Unit at University College London, UK.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access