In this study, a qualitative text analysis will identify and present common arguments that are used in the discussion regarding euthanasia. The arguments will then be discussed, following Professor Jürgen Habermas's discourse ethics, to try to reach a mutual compromise and introduce a proposal on which prerequisites for euthanasia could be introduced in society. The study will conclude with an analysis of the pre-debated prerequisites against Professor Martha Nussbaum's capability approach and in so doing make a theoretical validity claim in Habermas's opinion.   What is then revealed in the result is that the proposed list of prerequisites made, is not perfect and the question arises if it is even possible. The theoretical claim of validity can be interpreted from different points of view and thus come up with conflicting answers. The consensus of this study shows that if euthanasia is to be implemented in a society, the prerequisites to be followed should be well-defined and clear.

Educating girls is advantageous for future livelihood security and socio economic development. Menstruating schoolgirls especially need to experience improved menstrual hygiene management (MHM) within schools in order to obtain quality education towards securing future as well as present wellbeing. This paper explores how menstruating schoolgirls’ opportunities are affected by insufficient water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities in schools within Sub-Saharan Africa. The required information has been gathered through a qualitative research method using scientifically based material on the situation of MHM in Sub-Saharan African schools as well as semi-structured questionnaires alongside my personal recollection of MHM. Focus has been given to the capabilities of menstruating schoolgirls under existing WASH facilities in schools analysed through the Capability Approach. Effects of poor MHM in schools are known to cause discomfort and poor constructive participation during lessons as well as decreased school attendance. A gender-based approach has also been examined which presents most schools as non-conducive towards girl’s education promotion. / Utbildning är gynnsam för deras framtida försörjningsmöjligheter samt för socioekonomisk utveckling. Menstruerande skolflickor är mest utsatta under de otillräckliga sanitetsförhållanden som råder i flera skolor söder om Sahara. Den här rapporten utforskar skolflickors förmåga att sköta deras menshygien under skolvistelsen samt hur bristande sanitetsresurser påverkar flickornas framtida utsikter och akademiska kapacitet. Undersökningen är baserad på en kombination av kvalitativa metoder och material som vetenskapliga studier, en semistrukturerade enkätundersökning samt min egen erfarenhet av menshygien i skolor söder om Sahara. Fokus har tillägnats menstruerande skolflickors möjligheter att hantera deras mens i ohygieniska förhållanden genom att koppla detta till ”The Capability Approach”. Avsaknaden av fungerande sanitetsstrukturer försämrar skolflickors välmående vilket leder till nedsatt deltagande under lektioner samt minskad skolgång vid mens. En könsbaserad utgångspunkt har det också påvisat att skolorna är mindre anpassande för flickor.

This thesis examines the wellbeing of India and China’s rural-dwellers in Bihar and Gansu administrative units. It focuses on the food and shelter situation within these regions, from the standpoint of the existing status quo and ongoing trends. Moreover, it gives particular consideration to India and China’s governments’ role in the relevant wellbeing outcomes. Accordingly, this thesis argues for the importance of state capacity, and interest alignment, in driving forward development and preventing avoidable death or suffering. This provides a new angle on the dominant, Amartya Sen-inspired development models that emphasize free choice and democracy as the most immediate and preeminent development concerns. Thus, as this thesis proceeds to show, such Senian priorities increasingly lose value in contexts where weak state capacity or non-interest cannot deliver core well-being essentials. For example, populations that continue to either perish or persist with severe impairments from starvation, malnutrition and occupancy of uninhabitable dwellings are unable to exercise substantive freedoms in a manner envisioned by Sen. However, this does not mean this thesis undervalues democracy and freedom, but rather contends, alongside the most recent development sequencing literature, that strong state capacity is a prerequisite for the implementation of stable, lasting and functional democracy. Indeed, state capacity can give people the essential well-being basics to value, comprehend and utilize their freedoms in a full and non-exploited manner. Consequently, this thesis draws on a two-year fieldwork study in Bihar and Gansu’s villages and relies on 230 (215 valid) semi open-ended questionnaires, 29 stakeholder interviews, three focus group discussions and other relevant sources to bolster its argument and analysis.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2016-08-29T12:56:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcelo Amado Sette Mosaner.pdf: 5521946 bytes, checksum: 7408d58f678678e26969639b01d28bb6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-29T12:56:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcelo Amado Sette Mosaner.pdf: 5521946 bytes, checksum: 7408d58f678678e26969639b01d28bb6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-08 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The Capability Approach (CA) is a normative framework initially developed by Amartya Sen in the seventies, featuring human development as the process of expansion of the range of opportunities available to and valued by individuals. Although the CA has undeniable contributions to welfare assessment - as the creation of the HDI, MPI and other indicators published by UNDP - its critics point out to the huge gap between its key concepts and the real possibilities to use this normative framework in empirical applications, primarily for evaluation issues as quality of life, poverty and inequality. Meanwhile, the field of direct multidimensional poverty measurement is one of the most prominent fields of CA operationalization. In this sense, five central challenges to CA operationalization were first identified and then related to the multidimensional poverty measurement methodology developed by Alkire and Foster (2007, 2011a), focusing on understanding - in general – which are the conditions for empirical applications based on AC framework and - in particular - to what extent the AF methodology responds to these difficulties. The challenges identified relates to the conversion of the intrinsic complexity of measuring human well-being into synthetic indicators : (1) the choice of dimensions, indicators and relative weights, (2) the contrafactual character of the problem of measurement of individual liberties, or capabilities, (3) the question of individual methodological focus or collective, (4) access to data and (5) data aggregation in multiple dimensions. It is concluded that the AF methodology is able to generate multidimensional poverty measures that are consistent with the CA framework, provided that some operational conditions described in the literature are respected. Furthermore, AF has important innovations to public policy as the measure (M0) of multidimensional poverty incidence adjusted to intensity, the adjusted multidimensional poverty gap (M1) and its squared gap (M2) that can be further disaggregated by family, individual or subgroup, making possible to identify simultaneous deprivations suffered by the same unit of analysis / A Capability Approach ou Abordagem das Capacidades (AC), marco normativo desenvolvido inicialmente por Amartya Sen nos anos setenta, caracteriza o desenvolvimento humano como o processo de expansão do leque de oportunidades acessíveis aos indivíduos e por estes valorizadas. Embora as contribuições oriundas da AC para a avaliação do bem-estar sejam inegáveis – como a criação do IDH, IPM e demais indicadores publicados pelo PNUD - seus críticos apontam para a grande lacuna entre seus conceitos essenciais e as possibilidades de operacionalização deste marco normativo em aplicações empíricas. Paralelamente, o campo da mensuração direta da pobreza é uma das áreas de maior possibilidade de operacionalização deste marco normativo. Neste sentido, foi possível identificar na literatura cinco dificuldades centrais à operacionalização da AC, relacionando-as com a metodologia de mensuração de pobreza multidimensional desenvolvida por Alkire e Foster (2007, 2011a). Os objetivos desta análise foram - em geral - compreender quais os condicionantes para plena operacionalização dos conceitos centrais da AC e - em particular – em que medida a metodologia AF responde a tais condicionantes. Os desafios identificados são relacionados ao problema da conversão da complexidade intrínseca da medição do bem-estar humano em indicadores sintéticos, tais como (1) a escolha de dimensões, indicadores e pesos relativos, (2) o problema do caráter contra factual da medição das liberdades individuais, ou capabilities, (3) a questão do foco metodológico: individual ou coletivo, (4) o acesso a dados e (5) a agregação de dados em múltiplas dimensões. Conclui-se que a metodologia AF é capaz de gerar medidas condizentes com o marco normativo em que está inserida, desde que observadas algumas condições de operacionalização previstas na literatura, sistematizadas nesta dissertação. Ademais, AF apresenta inovações importantes para políticas públicas como a medida de incidência da pobreza multidimensional ajustada à intensidade (M0), o hiato de pobreza multidimensional (M1) e seu quadrado (M2) com possibilidade de desagregação no nível do indivíduo, permitindo identificar privações simultâneas por indivíduos, domicílios e dimensão

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.’

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.