O Rio Grande do Sul está entre os estados brasileiros que apresentam os melhores indicadores em relação aos estudos de qualidade de vida desenvolvidos por diversos institutos. Entretanto, é possível verificar ainda a existência de situações caracterizadas pelas carências em relação ao atendimento de algumas necessidades que acabam, por fim, caracterizando situações de pobreza no estado gaúcho. Sendo um estado bastante associado à atividade agrícola, que se desenvolve em ambientes predominantemente rurais, há em evidência uma discussão em relação às características da pobreza rural. Baseado em uma concepção conhecida como Abordagem das Capacitações, desenvolvida por Amartya Sen, o objetivo deste trabalho é o de identificar aspectos sócio-estruturais capazes de configurar as situações de carência em relação a determinados aspectos, buscando a caracterização da pobreza rural gaúcha. No trabalho as situações que configuram as carências estão associadas às possibilidades de acesso a oportunidades municipais (intitulamentos). Apresenta-se aqui uma sugestão analítica que procurou não estar limitada à situação de renda ou ao tipo de atividade produtiva. Neste sentido, a partir da análise de 108 (cento e oito) variáveis que reúnem alguns tipos de intitulamentos encontrados nos municípios, foram identificados grupos caracterizados em relação à ruralidade (associada a aspectos de paisagem e produtivos) e às situações de pobreza (associadas à renda municipal per capita e à variação da infra-estrutura relacionada a serviços de educação e saúde). / Rio Grande do Sul is between the Brazilian states that present the best indicators in relation to the studies of quality of life developed by several institutes. However, it is still possible to verify the existence of situations characterized by lacks in relation to the attendance of some necessities that, finally, characterize situations of poverty in the state. Being a state essentially associated to agriculture, which is developed predominantly in rural environments, there is evidence of a debate about the characteristics of rural poverty. Based in a conception associated with the capability approach, developed by Amartya Sen, the objective of this work is to identify social and structural aspects that are able to characterize situations of lack in relation the some aspects, aiming at the characterization of rural poverty in the state in relation to the situations that configure the access possibilities to the municipal opportunities (entitlements). An analytical suggestion is presented here that tried not to be limited to the situation of income or the type of productive activity. In this direction, through the analysis of 108 (one hundred and eight) variables that congregate some types of entitlements found in the municipalities, several groups were characterized in relation to the rurality (associated the productive and landscape aspects) and to the situations of poverty (associated to the per capita municipal income and the variation of the infrastructure related to services of education and health).

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo examinar a formação do senso de justiça das pessoas sob a perspectiva da teoria de justiça da escolha social e de rankings incompletos, de Amartya Sen (2009). Pretende também investigar algumas formas de educar o cidadão para a justiça a fim de se pensar políticas públicas nas escolas que estimulem o florescimento do sentido de justiça nas pessoas. Para tanto, a teoria de justiça de Sen (2009) é apresentada e relacionada a teorias sobre a formação do indivíduo e fases críticas de seu desenvolvimento, em específico a formação de aspectos cognitivos e não cognitivos e sua interação. Ao fim, são indicados caminhos para a educação voltada para a justiça. / This study aims to examine the development of the sense of justice following Amartya Sen’s (2009) social choice and incomplete rank justice theory. Alongside this, in order to present some alternatives about public policies in schools that could encourage the flourishing of a sense of justice, a reflection about ways to educate citizens towards justice is made. To do so, Sen’s Idea of Justice is introduced and related to theories about individual development, combined with an analysis of sensitive stages of human development. Particular attention is given on the interaction of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities. At the end, some thoughts about public policies and the education system are made.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo analisar teoricamente como as avaliações de professores podem auxiliar, através da expansão da base informacional,na construção de uma política educacional voltada para a melhoria da qualidade da educação dentro do framework proporcionado pela Abordagem das Capacitações de acordo com a perspectiva de Martha Nussbaum. Procura-se analisar os aspectos considerados mais relevantes da educação na literatura das capacitações e das avaliações de professores, em especial em relação ao que cada formato e metodologia avaliativa é capaz de medir. Por fim, foi propõe-se a utilização de um formato e de duas das seis metodologias de avaliação de professores analisadas a fim de aprimorar a base informacional utilizada na construção de um índice de desenvolvimento educacional. / This dissertation aims to analyze theoretically how teachers' assessments can help, through the expansion of the information base, in building a focused educational policy to improve the quality of education within the framework provided by the Capability Approach in accordance with the prospect of Martha Nussbaum. It seeks to analyze the most relevant aspects of education in the capability’s literature and teachers’ evaluations, especially in relation to what each format and evaluative methodology is able to measure. Finally, it is suggested the use of one format and two of the six analized teachers’ assessment methodologies to improve the informational base used in the construction of an educational development index.

More and more women from poor areas of the world are migrating to rich countries for domestic work. Given the increasing published research on their exploitation and ‘slavery,’ much policy action has been oriented towards their protection as victims. Far from protecting the livelihood needs of these migrant workers, however, this victim-based approach has instead resulted in legitimising the protection of rich countries’ borders. An emerging perspective underscoring migrant women’s agency is producing a counter-approach that fights for migrant workers’ rights: not as victims but as workers. Yet despite this important development in research and policy agendas, increasing inequality in the global economy and stringent immigration policies render a rights-based approach ineffective. From poor countries, and with very limited livelihood options, these migrant women choose overseas domestic work often at the expense of their human rights. As migrants, they are outsiders whose rights are superseded by the rights of the sovereign, receiving-state. How is it possible then, to protect the rights of these workers? This thesis employs Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum’s Capability Approach to evaluate the efficacy of these women’s agency in overcoming victimisation. This evaluation gives equal consideration to the victim and rights-based perspectives. It synthesises the Capability Approach with Anthony Giddens’ Structuration Theory in order to reconcile the polarised theories underlying the victim and rights-based perspectives - feminist structural theory and migration agency theory, respectively. In so doing, the study is able to refine the conceptualisation of agency from the highly ambiguous rights-based approach, to a more theoretically sound and feasible capability approach. The main hypothesis is that agency requires capability to successfully mediate victimisation; agency in itself is insufficient. The study draws on the experiences of Filipina overseas domestic workers in Paris and Hong Kong to test this hypothesis, and demonstrates how it is ‘capability’ that can turn the ‘slave’ into ‘the worker’, and protect ‘the worker’ from turning into a ‘slave.’

This thesis is an examination of the concept of human development and does a comparative study of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. Sen rectifies the emphasis on income by welfare economics, and argues for the ‘equality of capability’; a goal that he says can be achieved by means of the intrinsic and instrumental role of democracy. However, the author notes that Sen’s development paradigm is inadequate as an account for what constitutes the kind of well-being that is fully human and asserts that Sen’s framework should be concretized politically. In view of this, the author argues that Nussbaum’s articulation of a ‘threshold of capabilities’, anchored on her reading Aristotle’s concept of human flourishing and Marx’s insight on human dignity, is a politically realistic human development framework. Nussbaum thinks that the essential human capabilities are entitlements that must be constitutionally guaranteed to ensure a decent and dignified human life for all. As a response to the reality of pluralism, Nussbaum says that the universality of these entitlements can be secured by means of an overlapping consensus. Furthermore, the extreme poverty in many nations which exposes women and children to much vulnerability has provoked the author to inquire about the applicability of Nussbaum’s framework to the global arena. As such, the thesis argues for the radical expansion of the Human Development Index used by the United Nations Development Program in measuring the quality of human life, notably the inclusion of political liberties and gender equality. In addition to this, the study puts forward the argument that global human development is best achieved through democracy, and asserts that global institutions have a moral duty to protect and promote the central human capabilities.

Sen and Nussbaum generate very different degrees of obligation for the affluent under their theories of justice, despite each of them deriving their theory of justice from capability as a metric for quality of life. On one hand, Sen’s account of obligation seems very weak, while Nussbaum’s seems overwhelmingly robust. I argue that the sufficient/decisivereasons framework as put forth by philosopher Derek Parfit captures the nuances of their extremely different accounts of obligation. Further, I argue that this framework convincingly demonstrates that the accounts of obligation that Sen and Nussbaum offer in each of their versions of the capability approach are unsatisfying, as each approach occupies such extremes that they are unreasonable. In spite of this, supplementing the capability approach with a different and perhaps more centrist account of obligation can make the capability approach a more consistent and appealing theory of justice. To this end, I appropriate Thomas Pogge’s account of obligation.

The purpose of this research is to study the role of information and communication technology (ICT) and information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) in Cambodian non-government organizations (NGOs). By focusing on a workshop on the ICT applications Unicode and Open Office, initiated by the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (the CCC), I intend to see how these applications were adopted, how they are used and what the future is for ICT and ICT4D in Cambodia. The research is based on qualitative, semi structured interviews with employees at CCC as well as NGO workers who were participants at the workshops. The theories that I have used are Amartya Sen’s capability approach, Everett Rogers’ diffusion of innovation theory and intercultural communication. This study shows that ICT is considered to be a very important tool for the development of Cambodia. Unicode has contributed with an easier way to type and read documents in Khmer and it is considered to promote the Khmer language. Open Office have not found its renaissance yet since people find it difficult to use although the NGOs sees its’ potential and wants to learn it. According to the NGO workers, ICT and ICT4D will play an important role for the Cambodian development in the future but because of a lack of infrastructure and proper knowledge about the new technology, it has not been used to its full capacity. In order for us to understand how ICT can reach its full potential within NGOs, there have to exist an understanding of Cambodian culture and history since the Khmer people’s values affect how the NGO workers look at development and the tools they are using.

Within the field of Product Design there is an increasing interest in designing with emerging markets. Considering how long people have already been concerned with increasing global living standards it is surprising how little has been achieved. This suggests our current methods are insufficient. The Capability Approach (CA) by Amartya Sen offers a new way of assessing inequality and poverty, focusing on what people have reason to value to be or do. Products can be means to achieve these beings and doings. An evaluation framework inspired by this philosophy was developed. The framework was tested in a case study. The sociological impact was evaluated of the Philips Chulha, a subsidized cooking stove implemented in tribal India. The impact in terms of the CA was identified and explained using Kleine&rsquo / s Choice Framework and Bourdieu&rsquo / s concept of habitus. The framework was successful in engaging into deep dialogues with the target users. The interpreter appeared to be highly influential on the way the study was executed. Since the research was conducted in one region, no firm statements could be made based on this single case study. The framework needs further testing and developing in order to increase the collaboration between the interviewer and the interviewee. Eventually product designers can use the improved evaluation framework as a prospective framework to uncover design opportunities for developmental purposes.

<p>This thesis is an examination of the concept of human development and does a comparative study of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. Sen rectifies the emphasis on income by welfare economics, and argues for the ‘equality of capability’; a goal that he says can be achieved by means of the intrinsic and instrumental role of democracy. However, the author notes that Sen’s development paradigm is inadequate as an account for what constitutes the kind of well-being that is fully human and asserts that Sen’s framework should be concretized politically. In view of this, the author argues that Nussbaum’s articulation of a ‘threshold of capabilities’, anchored on her reading Aristotle’s concept of human flourishing and Marx’s insight on human dignity, is a politically realistic human development framework. Nussbaum thinks that the essential human capabilities are entitlements that must be constitutionally guaranteed to ensure a decent and dignified human life for all. As a response to the reality of pluralism, Nussbaum says that the universality of these entitlements can be secured by means of an overlapping consensus. Furthermore, the extreme poverty in many nations which exposes women and children to much vulnerability has provoked the author to inquire about the applicability of Nussbaum’s framework to the global arena. As such, the thesis argues for the radical expansion of the Human Development Index used by the United Nations Development Program in measuring the quality of human life, notably the inclusion of political liberties and gender equality. In addition to this, the study puts forward the argument that global human development is best achieved through democracy, and asserts that global institutions have a moral duty to protect and promote the central human capabilities.</p>

The aim of this dissertation is to explore various dimensions of work–life balance in Europe. I examine the extent to which institutional factors, working conditions and individual resources influence individuals’ capabilities to have a family and engage in family life. The theoretical framework is inspired by Amartya Sen’s capability framework, a multi-dimensional approach that provides a deeper understanding of the relationship between institutional contexts and individual capabilities. Four studies have been conducted. The first study focuses on women’s short-term childbearing intentions in ten European countries and finds that the association between such intentions and economic uncertainties varies by the policy support for work-family reconciliation in the country as well as individual factors, such as her educational level, and her number of children. The second study addresses the impact of family-friendly working conditions on young adult women’s childbearing behaviour in Sweden, showing the importance of family-friendly working condition for the transition to motherhood of less educated childless women with low income, and for second births of low educated mothers. The third study analyses gender differences in perceived work–home conflict in ten European countries, and the importance of work-family policies and gender norms. I find that gender differences are more pronounced in countries with weaker support for work-family reconciliation and more traditional gender norms. The fourth study focuses on tensions between work and family demands that parents in Hungary and Sweden experience, and on their capabilities to make claims for work–life balance. We find greater agency inequalities for Hungarian parents for claims making for and achievement of work-life balance, in contrast to a strong sense of entitlement to exercise rights to care among Swedish parents, which reflect country variations in policy supports for work−life balance, working time regimes and social norms regarding work and care. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Submitted. Paper 2: Submitted. Paper 3: Submitted.</p>