The Capabilities Approach: A Panacea for Labour Law’s Ills? Review of the Capability Approach to Labour Law

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Louis Cabrelli
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
The Capability Approach

What is Labour Law? Implications of the Capability Approach

2019 ◽  
pp. 122-140
Author(s):  
Brian Langille
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Legal Subject ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Scope Of Application ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Capability Approach

Creating real capabilities to engage in decent work is a vital social project. Labour law is best conceived of as that part of our law which seeks to remove obstacles to, and to nurture, such capabilities. Labour law’s undertaking is thus part of the larger project of human development—of advancing the cause of substantive human freedom conceived of as the real capacity to lead a life we have reason to value. On this view, the world of labour law is large (it is concerned with all who work) and its mission one which is both important and coheres with our basic values in all aspects of our lives. But labour law has, at present, another account of itself, long successful, but which is narrower and less ambitious. The legal starting point for that view is contract, and labour law’s mission is to control contract power. This is an important but narrower normative vision, which both restricts our understanding of what labour law is and limits its scope of application. Attempts to advance labour law’s self-understanding by appealing to the capability approach have been made, but met with resistance. In this chapter, this encounter is reviewed and assessed by examining the role of the capabilities approach (CA) in constituting labour law as a legal subject. In so doing, this chapter draws attention to another issue—the relationship between the normative narrative underpinning a discipline such as labour law (whatever it may be) and its expression in law.

Aristóteles Contra o Bem dos Economistas

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-234
Author(s):  
Mário Maximo
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Real Function ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Ethical Naturalism ◽  
Human Form ◽  
The Real ◽  
Weak Points ◽  
The Capability Approach

Despite its origins within moral philosophy, economists think their science has nothing to do with the good. They appeal to some kind of Hume’s guillotine that divides the descriptive and the normative. With that in hand, they affirm the solely descriptive aspect of their discipline. I argue this is not the case. Economists have, as they need to, an all encompassing notion of the good. I suggest going back to Aristotelian arguments to show the shortcomings of this good of economists. Aristotle is helpful because of his analysis of chrematistics and the real function of money. Hence, the loosely utilitarian good of the economists is confronted with a robust sense of the good and the human form. The capability approach is the first to identify these weak points on economic theory and to propose a sort of Aristotelian comeback. However, I claim the capabilities approach itself doesn’t follow the Aristotelian arguments used to attack economists to its necessary conclusion. Therefore, I suggest that the recent advances in neo-Aristotelian ethical naturalism can be used to reformulate economics by dispossessing economists of their sumo bonnun.

PAR and Digital Inclusion, An Analysis Using the Capabilities Approach and Critical Pedagogy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1120-1135
Author(s):  
Sammia Cristina Poveda Villalba
Keyword(s):  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Digital Inclusion ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Adaptive Preference ◽  
The Capability Approach

This paper draws upon the capability approach and critical pedagogy to analyse the value of using Problem-posing Education, a participatory action research method, in a digital inclusion initiative in Brazil. First it the capability approach and explains why using critical pedagogy is a valuable way to deal with issues of power, collective conscientisation and adaptive preference. Freire's pedagogy is then presented and conscientisation is explained as a process of raising critical awareness and praxis. The case study, presents empirical work conducted in Campinas, together with a NGO named CDI, which offers free internet access and basic ICT skills using a Freire's inspired methodology. Findings are then explained and discussed using the theoretical framework. This paper concludes that there is great value in using Freire's critical pedagogy for digital inclusion, but that further research is necessary to identify less resource intense solutions that can provide students with both conscientisation and skills.

PAR and Digital Inclusion, An Analysis Using the Capabilities Approach and Critical Pedagogy

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Sammia Cristina Poveda Villalba
Keyword(s):  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Digital Inclusion ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Ict Skills ◽  
Adaptive Preference ◽  
The Capability Approach

This paper draws upon the capability approach and critical pedagogy to analyse the value of using Problem-posing Education, a participatory action research method, in a digital inclusion initiative in Brazil. First it the capability approach and explains why using critical pedagogy is a valuable way to deal with issues of power, collective conscientisation and adaptive preference. Freire's pedagogy is then presented and conscientisation is explained as a process of raising critical awareness and praxis. The case study, presents empirical work conducted in Campinas, together with a NGO named CDI, which offers free internet access and basic ICT skills using a Freire's inspired methodology. Findings are then explained and discussed using the theoretical framework. This paper concludes that there is great value in using Freire's critical pedagogy for digital inclusion, but that further research is necessary to identify less resource intense solutions that can provide students with both conscientisation and skills.

The Capability Approach and Labour Law: Identifying the Areas of Fit

2019 ◽  
pp. 42-61
Author(s):  
Guy Davidov
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Working Time ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Entire Field ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Capability Approach

The goal of this chapter is to assess to what extent the Capability Approach (CA) can be useful for labour law theory. It begins by asking, what is the purpose of looking for a purpose for labour law? The chapter distinguishes between legal purposes (such as purposive interpretation) and non-legal purposes (for example, defending the law against economic and libertarian critiques). It argues that, for legal purposes, there must be a ‘fit’ between the proposed normative theory and existing laws. It then distinguishes between three different strands in the literature regarding what do we want people to be capable of: whatever they want (‘substantive freedom’); specific capabilities (justified by another theory); or effective ability to enjoy labour laws (that require separate justifications). The chapter argues that the first two strands can be used to justify some specific laws—notably, workplace equality, health and safety, and working time law—but certainly not the entire field. The third strand can be used as a ‘supplementary device’ to justify specific means that will make the laws effective—but does not provide the primary justification for the laws themselves.

The Capabilities Approach and Gendered Education

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Unterhalter
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
South African ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Gender And Race ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Race Inequality ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
Complex Settings ◽  
The Capability Approach

This article examines Amartya Sen's writings on the capabilities approach and education. Sen sometimes suggests a loose association between education and schooling. Elsewhere he concludes that one can read off the outputs of schooling as an indication of capabilities and an enhancement of freedom. While the capability approach provides a valuable way beyond human capital theorizing about education, Sen's writing fails to take account of the complex settings in which schooling takes place. Sometimes schooling does not entail an enhancement of capabilities and substantive freedom. South African policy responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic highlight how using the capability approach to evaluation without paying attention to conditions of gender and race inequality yield only half the picture.

Specters of Democracy

John Rawls ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 183-200
Author(s):  
Tony Fitzpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Elasticity Problem ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ideal Solution ◽  
Policy Studies ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Primary Goods ◽  
The Capability Approach

This chapter explores how those interested in the making, implementation, and effects of government policies might approach the stand-off between Rawlsians and the capabilities approach. It proposes we should want any theory of justice to do lots of different things. It argues that both perspectives wrestle with an “elasticity problem” to which there is no final, ideal solution. The limitations of Rawls lie in trying to make capabilities adjuncts to the primary goods; the limitations of the capability approach derive from allowing capabilities to occlude the material-distributive characteristics of resources and the political strategies of capitalism. The chapter considers several means of dealing with the elasticity problem, before proposing a possible way forward. This involves not a grand, syncretic reconciliation but one that is, nonetheless, multiperspectivist in intent and method. The task for students of policy studies is therefore to find practical, institutional forms for this multiperspectivism.

The Capability Approach and the Economics of Labour Law

2019 ◽  
pp. 143-158
Author(s):  
Simon Deakin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Complete Theory ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
The Capability Approach

The implications of the capability approach for the positive and normative analysis of labour law are considered in this chapter. It is argued that the capability approach does not offer a complete theory of labour law and does not, in itself, provide substantive guidance for labour law reform, but that it offers a distinct ontological and methodological perspective which can help to reframe the debate over the economic effects of labour law. In its emphasis on the importance of institutions for creating the conditions for human freedom, and in its advocacy of a range of indicators of human well-being beyond those based on economic growth alone, the capability approach underpins the idea that labour law can play a role in creating the conditions for sustainable development.

The Need to Become Fashionable

2019 ◽  
pp. 103-121
Author(s):  
Supriya Routh
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Traditional Account ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Conceptual Articulation ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
The Capability Approach

This chapter evaluates the capability approach both in its ability to justify the traditional account of labour law and in its usefulness in furthering a newer conceptual articulation of regulation of work (labour law). The chapter undertakes this evaluation through an exploration of labour law scholars’ engagement with the capability approach. While labour law scholars’ engagement with the capability approach is varied, several of them offer a narrow interpretation of the approach. That interpersonal variations mandate different levels of resources and circumstances for individuals to attain similar functioning ability is one of the fundamental insights of the capability approach. Seen in the context of legal entitlements of heterogeneous workers—from Uber drivers to domestic workers—this insight signifies that substantive entitlements of workers need to be context-specific and diverse so that each different category of workers could expand their overall capability to a roughly equal level. It is the capability approach that is able to offer a coherent idea of legal regulation integrating heterogeneous legal entitlements under one conceptual whole. The chapter contends that while it is possible to justify the traditional account of labour law by employing the capability approach, full potential of the approach will be realized in engaging it in normative (re)conceptualization of regulation of work.

The Capability Approach to Labour Law

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Age Discrimination ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Employment Policy ◽  
Freedom Of Association ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Normative Basis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Capability Approach

In this volume, leading scholars of both labour law and the Capability Approach (CA) explore the possible connections between their disciplines. Accounts of the CA—particularly those of Martha C. Nussbaum and Amartya Sen—do not specifically address labour law, but the CA is attractive to labour lawyers and scholars examining the foundations of their discipline. The questions being asked are whether the CA has anything to offer labour law, and if it does, what forms might this offering take? And, conversely, what light labour law might shine on the CA? In addressing these questions, the chapters in Part I inquire into the nature of the relationship between the CA and labour law—whether it is positive or negative and whether the CA can provide a normative basis for, or an understanding of, labour law. The chapters in Part II explore the CA/labour law debate through different and well-known perspectives on labour law, including economics, history, critical theory, restorative justice, and human rights. The final set of chapters examine the possible relevance of the CA to a range of specific labour law issues, such as freedom of association, age discrimination in the workplace, trade, employment policy, and sweatshop goods. As with this set of specific issues, the book as a whole is not meant to be an exhaustive account of the CA/labour law connection. Rather, it is offered as a first focused effort to open up the discussion and to stimulate further inquiry in this interdisciplinary enterprise.

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