Valuing Freedoms: Sen's Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction
ISBN: 9780191600838
Platform/Publisher: Oxford Academic / Oxford University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited
Subjects: Economics and Finance;

Sabina Alkire shows how Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen's capability approach can be coherently--and practically--put to work in poverty reduction activities. Sen argues that economic development should expand "valuable" freedoms. Alkire probes how we identify what is valuable. Foundational issues are addressed critically--dimensions of development, practical reason, culture, basic needs--drawing on Thomist authors who give central place to authentic participation. A participatory procedure for identifying capability change is then developed. Case studies of three Oxfam activities in Pakistan--goat-rearing, female literacy, and rose cultivation--illustrate this novel approach.


Sabina Alkire coordinates a research and learning programme on Culture and Poverty in the Poverty Group at the World Bank. She is also a deacon in the Anglican Church.

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