This thesis sets out to critically examine the field of higher education development, as one which is focused on socio-economic inequality and welfare, and determines educational purpose in poorer, or ‘developing’, countries accordingly. My question is whether mainstream development approaches to higher education are really contributing to the provision of more equal education services, or whether they risk reintroducing inequality by treating the priorities of poorer countries differently. To investigate whether there are educational values or purposes common to universities globally irrespective of socio-economic imperatives, I begin the study with a historiographical look at their growth in terms of both ideas of its purpose, and how purpose is realised in actuality. I then trace the emergence of the discourse of international development, and the role that higher education has come to play within it, showing how the field of international higher education development has simplified the notion of university purpose for its own devices. The thesis then looks at underlying assumptions about human nature, defined as the problem of humanism, common to both transcendent ideas of university purpose as well as the development discourse. To avoid the limitations of these assumptions, I argue that a theoretical approach is required that can engage with questions of hybridity and multiplicity in both the history and future of universities, without reducing those questions to abstract ideas. The approach I propose draws upon the dialogism of Mikhail Bakhtin, whose multi-layered understanding of language prevents any one understanding of another person, or of human nature more generally, being considered final. The educational implications for such an approach are finally explored in the concept of academic freedom, which is traditionally conceived of as a right, but is here reconceptualised also as a responsibility.

This study explores the concepts of vulnerability, agency, and actors with relation to the capability development and deprivation of women with physical disabilities in Lusaka, Zambia. Based in the human development paradigm and Sen and Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach, it seeks to critically explore what impact being born, raised, and living as a woman with a physical disability in a developing country has on the development of capabilities. It also seeks to identify and analyze the involved processes, actors, and environmental factors. A main finding is that capability deprivation for women with physical disabilities is not simply caused by disability, or by gender, but by a multitude of factors. These include: the environment, social contexts, and relative poverty in which the women live; the particular cultural repertoires that surround them; and the actors with whom they interact. However, disability can, and often does, exacerbate the complex life situations in which the women find themselves.

Les fondements philosophiques de la théorie du choix social sont l’objet de cette thèse. La théorie du choix social est un champ de l’économie normative qui traite de l’agrégation des préférences individuelles. L’objectif de ce travail est d’analyser les postulations philosophiques de la théorie du choix social afin de comprendre dans quelle mesure celle-ci pourrait contribuer à une théorie de la justice sociale basée sur les capabilités d’Amartya Sen. Ce travail est par conséquent élaboré à partir de l’idée d’une « approche comparative » de la justice sociale, défendue par Amartya Sen, et que ce dernier oppose à l’ « approche transcendantale » de John Rawls. Nous tentons d’y préciser l’interprétation de la théorie du choix social requise pour spécifier l’approche par les capabilités, et en particulier l’évaluation et la construction d’un indice de capabilités et de fonctionnements. Ce travail de thèse défend l’hypothèse selon laquelle la tension apparente entre l’agrégation des préférences et l’approche par les capabilités est due à une interprétation étroite du cadre conceptuel de la théorie du choix social. En effet, l’approche par les capabilités est généralement comprise comme incompatible avec le préférentialisme de la théorie du choix social. Cela est dû à ce que l’approche par les capabilités s’est construite en partie comme une réponse au problème des préférences adaptatives. Cette thèse consiste donc à élargir le champ des interprétations de la théorie du choix social et de son cadre conceptuel, principalement de sa base d’information.La première partie de ce travail de recherche traite la question suivante : les préférences sont-elles déterminées par une source individuelle pouvant être pensée indépendamment de sa position sociale et économique ? Afin de montrer que ce n’est pas nécessairement le cas sur le plan logique, nous y analysons trois types de base informationnelle : les utilités cardinales, les préférences ordinales et les capabilités.L’objectif de la seconde partie est de déterminer ce que les préférences décrivent. Nous y analysons d’une part la nature de la préférence elle-même dans ce contexte. S’agit-il d’une décision déterminant une action, d’un désir, d’un état mental ou encore d’un jugement de valeur ? D’autre part, les différents critères éthiques de préférence sont étudiés, à savoir le plaisir hédoniste, la satisfaction des désirs et un critère de bien-être objectif. Cette exploration nous amène à défendre la conclusion suivante : la conception des préférences la plus en phase avec la structure formelle de la théorie du choix social est une conception comparative requérant d’excellentes conditions cognitives pour que les préférences puissent être considérées à proprement parler comme les véritables préférences de l’agent.La troisième partie revient à l’approche des capabilités. L’argumentation s’appuie sur les conclusions des deux parties précédentes afin de jeter les bases d’une théorie de la justice démocratique et non-idéale basée sur les capabilités d’Amartya Sen. Dans cette partie, nous montrons qu’une évaluation des capabilités indépendante des préférences tend à nier l’importance de la liberté et de la qualité d’agent dans l’approche par les capabilités. Nous défendons donc l’hypothèse selon laquelle les capabilités et les fonctionnements comme objets de préférence permettent de filtrer celles-ci afin de parer au problème des préférences adaptatives. / This dissertation examines the philosophical foundations of social choice theory. Social choice theory is the area of normative economics which is concerned with the aggregation of individual preferences. The aim of this work is to investigate the philosophical assumptions of social choice theory in order to understand to what extent it can contribute to a theory of justice based on capabilities. Therefore, the dissertation is build up on Amartya Sen’s idea of a “comparative approach” of justice, as opposed to the Rawlsian “transcendental approach”. It is an attempt to precise which understanding of social choice theory is required to specify the capability approach, especially the evaluation and the indexing of capabilities. In this dissertation, we argue that the apparent tension between preference aggregation and capability approach is due to a narrow interpretation of social choice theory’s conceptual framework. Capability approach is generally conceived as non-compatible with the preferentalism of social choice theory: after all, capabilities are seen as a response to the recurring problem of adaptive preferences. This dissertation thus consists in widening the scope of interpretations of social choice theory framework. This research deals mainly with the informational basis of social choice theory.This dissertation is in three parts. The first part tackles the following problem: are preferences determined by an individual source that can be thought independently of its social and economic position? To answer these questions, three kinds of informational basis in social choice theory and normative economics are investigated: cardinal utilities, ordinal preferences and capabilities.The second part aims at defining what preferences do describe in this context. Firstly, the nature of preference itself is examined: can it be assimilated to choice? Or is it a mere evaluation? A desire? A mental state? This analysis points out the comparative structure of preferences. Secondly, the various ethical criteria of preference are investigated: hedonistic pleasure, desire satisfaction and objective well-being. We argue that preferences are better conceived as comparative evaluation and require actually excellent cognitive conditions to be truly the agent’s own real preferences.The third part goes back to capability approach. The argument relies on the previous results to build up a first account of a democratic non-ideal theory of justice based on capabilities. In this part, we show that a preference-independent capability evaluation turns out to dismiss the importance of freedom and agency in capability approach. Then we argue that capabilities and functionings as an object for preferences do provide a first filter against adaptive preferences.

Au Cameroun, l'enchaînement des reformes en matière de santé a renforcé le flottement idéologique entre deux courants opposés : un socio-universel qui promeut l'équité, et l'autre néolibéral, qui milite pour une plus grande efficacité économique des systèmes en place. Articulant deux préoccupations que sont l'aggravation des inégalités de santé comme conséquence des choix politiques portés sur l'efficacité des services sans prise en compte des facteurs qui soutiennent la demande, et les formes d'organisation de la santé qui découlent d'une traduction imparfaite des grands principes internationaux, cette thèse a pour objectif de contribuer à une réflexion critique sur le processus de fabrication, la mise en œuvre et les résultats produits par ces politiques de santé. Pour cerner la spécificité camerounaise, nous les inscrivons dans un triple champ théorique. Le courant économique néo-institutionnaliste pour saisir l'importance de l'histoire économique du pays et son influence sur l'évolution du système de santé, ce qui permet de comprendre les conditions de changement politique. Le modèle de référentiel de politique publique pour appréhender les fondements de la nouvelle politique publique, notamment la façon dont les idées et les intérêts sont formatés par les institutions. Un essai de décodage du jeu d'acteurs est entrepris en s'appuyant sur la médiation, mettant à l'épreuve les hypothèses de « l'ajustement par le haut ». Enfin, les théories de la justice sont sollicitées pour argumenter en faveur de l'existence d'un déséquilibre entre l'offre et la demande qui agit sur les résultats sanitaires et qui renforce le conflit efficacité versus équité. En effet, notre travail ambitionne d'apporter des éléments de réponses à trois questions principales : (i) Pourquoi (déclencheurs) et comment (dynamique) les politiques publiques de santé sont-elles transformées dans leur construction et leur mise en œuvre par les politiques économiques ? (ii) Quels sont les effets du changement induit par le référentiel global sur le référentiel sectoriel qui exige une distribution de l'accès aux services de santé plus équitable ? (iii) Quels enseignements peut-on tirer de la connaissance des interrelations entre la dynamique de réduction de la pauvreté et l'inaccessibilité persistante dans l'accès aux soins de santé pour une amélioration de l'évaluation des politiques publiques ? A partir d'un nombre d'indicateurs quantitatifs et qualitatifs, la robustesse de la nouvelle politique est questionnée suivant les perspectives de distribution et d'accessibilité. Dès lors, nous soulignons la difficulté à atteindre des résultats satisfaisants que ce soit en termes d'efficacité ou d'équité à cause du système institutionnel et organisationnel dans lequel elle se conçoit et se met en œuvre. Trois communautés épistémiques plus ou moins forts qui agissent de façon peu structurée sont repérées et analysées à travers un matériau qualitatif riche qui permet d'appréhender l'existence d'un conflit paradigmatique né de la façon dont les groupes se positionnent et arrivent à mettre en cohérence le référentiel sectoriel de la santé avec le référentiel global de marché qui revêt plutôt un caractère spontané et impératif. Un travail statistique et économétrique permettant de mesurer plus finement les inégalités et les déterminants d'accès et de recours aux soins par les populations soutient l'idée d'un creusement des inégalités de santé par ces politiques soutenues par des mécanismes de financement fortement régressifs. L'analyse des déterminants de survenue des dépenses catastrophiques vient également confirmer ce positionnement. Nous apprécions par la suite l'efficacité allocative et l'efficience des dépenses publiques de santé ainsi que leur impact sur l'utilisation des services et les bénéfices révélés de leur utilisation. / In Cameroon, the sequence of reforms in the health sector has reinforced an ideological wavering between two opposing currents: a socio-universal that promotes equity, and a neoliberal, which militates for greater economic efficiency of existing systems. Articulating two concerns which are, the worsening of health inequalities as consequence of policy choices made on the efficacy of services without taking into account factors that support the demand, and the form of organization of the health system arising from an imperfect translation of major international principles, this thesis aims to contributing to a critical reflection on the process, the implementation and the results produced by these health policies. To determine Cameroonian specificity, we inscribe them in a triple theoretical field. The neo-institutionalist approach, mobilize to grasp the importance of the economic history and its influence on the evolution of the health system, which allows understanding the conditions for policy change. The “referentials” approach to policy analysis in order to apprehend the foundations of the new public policy, including the understanding of how interests and ideas are formatted by institutions. An effort to illuminate the policy game is undertaken to appraise the mediation of political entrepreneurs, thereby testing empirically the “top-down hypothesis”. Finally, the theories of justice help to argue for the existence of an imbalance between health supply and demand which undermines health outcomes, and reinforces the conflict efficacy versus equity. Indeed, our work aims to provide some answers to three main questions: (i) Why (triggers) and how (dynamic) health public policies are influenced in their construction and implementation by economic policies? (ii) What are the outcomes of induced changes by the global referential (macroeconomic framework) on sectoral referential that requires a more equitable distribution and access to health services? (iii) What lessons can we learn from the knowledge of the interrelationships between the dynamics of poverty reduction and the persistence of inaccessibility to health care in order to improve the evaluation of public policies? From a number of quantitative and qualitative indicators, the robustness of the new policy is questioned following prospects regarding health distribution and accessibility. Therefore, we emphasize the difficulty of the public policy to achieve satisfactory results both in terms of efficacy or equity due to the institutional and organizational system in which it is designed and implemented. Three epistemic communities acting on a nonstructural basis are identified and analyzed through a robust qualitative material that enables us to grasp the existence of a paradigmatic conflict emerged from how different groups are positioning themselves and interpret reality in order to put in coherence the sectorial referential and the global market-based one which appears to be rather spontaneous and mandatory. Statistical and econometric works to measure more precisely the inequalities and determinants of access and use of health services by the population supports the idea of a widening of inequalities by the health policies maintained by strong regressive mechanisms. The analysis of the determinants of occurrence of catastrophic health expenditures also confirms this. We mobilize thereafter an additional material to assess the allocative efficiency and efficacy of public spending on health as well as their impact on the use of services and benefits revealed from their use.

The thesis finds that the majority of women affected by HIV and AIDS in South Africa still live in conditions of poor access to health services, inadequate access to housing, limited access to property and live amidst gender-based violence. Nevertheless, there exist legal protections and jurisprudential developments in the country that are significant for the realisation of women’s rights in the context of HIV and AIDS. The thesis concludes that the law is not the ultimate site for change to improve women’s lives, but that applied with other efforts, can be transformative.

This study explores the concepts of vulnerability, agency, and actors with relation to the capability development and deprivation of women with physical disabilities in Lusaka, Zambia. Based in the human development paradigm and Sen and Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach, it seeks to critically explore what impact being born, raised, and living as a woman with a physical disability in a developing country has on the development of capabilities. It also seeks to identify and analyze the involved processes, actors, and environmental factors. A main finding is that capability deprivation for women with physical disabilities is not simply caused by disability, or by gender, but by a multitude of factors. These include: the environment, social contexts, and relative poverty in which the women live; the particular cultural repertoires that surround them; and the actors with whom they interact. However, disability can, and often does, exacerbate the complex life situations in which the women find themselves.

This essay aims to examine Martha Nussbaum's proposal for a classical defense of reform in liberal education and her critique of utility thinking in higher education. I want to explore how Nussbaum uses history to create an ethical alternative that cultivates both moral and intellectual virtues, which she considers to be crucial for the survival of democracy. In examining Nussbaum's use of Aristotle, I focus on her work as a proposal for institutional implementation of an Aristotelian epistemology and the cultivation of the individual as an ethical political subject. This study highlights the epistemological, educational and political ideas that form the basis of Nussbaum's ideals. I intend, however, to go beyond a contextualizing reading and thus establish a dialogue with a radical intersubjectivity to respond to Nussbaum's ambitions to recognize human vulnerabilities as assets for reason. From this perspective, I problematise Nussbaum's aspirations for reform and argue that she maintains a loyalty to an ideal that stands in contrast to the possibilities for epistemological and thus ethical political change.

This thesis analyzes the right to reconcile work and family responsibilities which is recognized as crucial in women&amp / #8223 / s participation in the labor market. When women can not fully enjoy their right to work due to the burden of unequal gender division of labor, they become more vulnerable to poverty and male violence which impede them from developing their basic human capabilities. States should acknowledge that this is a human rights problem which is deriving from women&amp / #8223 / s overburden as primary caregivers. In order to overcome this problem and transform the patriarchal structure of the market and the family / state intervention in the private sphere is required. Two alternative reconciliation models are examined. The first is the equality driven model that encompasses parental leave and childcare facilities, which necessitate positive intervention of the state and more likely to trigger structural change. The other is the flexibility or market driven model which is based on part-time work and homeworking strategies. They target women&amp / #8223 / s participation in the labor market without necessarily leading to any change in the gender divisionof labor. The effectiveness of these strategies is analyzed within a feminist jurisprudence method. While the focus is on the international framework, including the EU Member States, the specific case of Turkey is also considered. Given Turkey&amp / #8223 / s socio-economic particularities, childcare largely depends on kinship relations and social policies regulating women&amp / #8223 / s labor market participation are market driven. The data shows that women in Turkey do not equally enjoy their economic and social rights. Therefore, by examining the international framework for right to reconcile work and family responsibilities, it is hoped that a case can be made to call on Turkey to abide by its international obligations to grant this right.

The thesis finds that the majority of women affected by HIV and AIDS in South Africa still live in conditions of poor access to health services, inadequate access to housing, limited access to property and live amidst gender-based violence. Nevertheless, there exist legal protections and jurisprudential developments in the country that are significant for the realisation of women’s rights in the context of HIV and AIDS. The thesis concludes that the law is not the ultimate site for change to improve women’s lives, but that applied with other efforts, can be transformative.

The purpose of this study is to seek to an answer to the question of what constitutes a tenable model for global ethics. This is done in part by a critical engagement with four different models of global ethics; two proposals from political philosophy and two contributions from theological ethics. The models analyzed in the study are: (1) the capabilities approach as developed by Martha Nussbaum, (2) Seyla Benhabib’s discourse ethics and model of cosmopolitan federalism, (3) David Hollenbach’s model of the common good and human rights, and (4) the model for responsibility ethics and theological humanism as developed by William Schweiker. These models contain different understandings of global justice, human rights, and sustainable development. The study works with six primary problems: (1) Which are the main moral problems associated with different processes of globalization? (2) What should be the response to these problems, in the form of a normative ethical model? (3) What is the relation between global ethics and universalism? (4) What kind of institutional vision for the international arena does a tenable global ethic promote? (5) Given the human diversity and global pluralism, what would be a reasonable view of the human being included in a global ethic? (6) What kind of ethical theory is sustainable for global ethical reflection? These questions also form the basis for the analysis of the models. The study uses a set of criteria in order to assess the answers that the models offer for these questions. These criteria also constitute the framework within which the author’s contribution to the discussion of global ethics is phrased. The criteria are founded on an idea of what characterizes global ethical reflection. The contention is that a tenable global ethic should be relevant, and it should also be related to a reasonable view of human beings and a plausible ethical theory. Together these support the criterion of communicability, which argues that a global ethic should above all be communicable, i.e. capable of enabling cross-cultural communication. A central argument which this study makes is that a kind of ethical contextualism is more reasonable than an epistemological universalism.