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11 - Individualism and the Capability Approach

The Role of Collectivities in Expanding Human Capabilities

from Part I - Historical Antecedents and Philosophical Debates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2020

By
Solava Ibrahim
Edited by
Enrica Chiappero-Martinetti ,
Siddiqur Osmani  and
Mozaffar Qizilbash
Enrica Chiappero-Martinetti
Affiliation:
University of Pavia
Siddiqur Osmani
Affiliation:
Ulster University
Mozaffar Qizilbash
Affiliation:
University of York
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Summary

This chapter critically reviews the debate on individualism and the capability approach, arguing for the need to account for those capabilities that result from social interaction and collective action and are unachievable by single individuals. The first section explains how the capability approach adopts ethical individualism with its emphasis on the individual as the only unit of moral concern. Drawing on Sen’s and Nussbaum’s works, the second section explains how the approach accounts for the instrumental role of social structures in affecting individual freedoms, agency, identities and affiliations. The third section presents different concepts, such as irreducibly social goods, structures of living together, group capabilities and collective capabilities that aim to emphasize the intrinsic importance of collectivities and societal structures. The last section presents Sen’s responses to these critiques and highlights the need to account for a new type of capabilities that are generated at the collective level without necessarily sacrificing the primary focus on individual capabilities.

Keywords

individualismcapability approachcollective capabilitiesgroup capabilitiessocial responsibilities
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Capability Approach , pp. 206 - 226
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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