Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T11:35:14.872Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

26 - Capability Approach to Children’s Well-Being and Well-Becoming

from Part III - Issues in Public Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2020

By
Mario Biggeri
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
Get access

Summary

Children’s well-being and well-becoming should be at the centre of policy-makers’ concerns. The deprivation of basic rights and capabilities during childhood not only reduces the well-being of those suffering from such deprivation, but may also have larger implications for achieving justice and prosperity in our societies. A major contribution of the capability approach is that it provides a framework in which children are considered not just as subjects of interventions, but also as active citizens whose priorities, values and aspirations are worthy of recognition.

This chapter, in the first two sections, introduces the debate and the main concepts related to the capability approach towards children’s well-being. The third section presents some of the issues related to children’s agency and participation. The fourth section presents the notion of evolving capabilities, a concept that is especially relevant for children’s capabilities. The fifth section illustrates the synergies existing between children’s rights and the capability approach. The sixth section spells out the main policy implications and the seventh section concludes.

Keywords

childrencapability approachwell-beingagencyparticipationevolving capabilities
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Capability Approach , pp. 523 - 543
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addabbo, T., Di Tommaso, M. L. and Maccagnan, A. 2014. ‘Gender Differences in Italian Children’s Capabilities’. Feminist Economics 20/2: 90–121.Google Scholar
Ballet, J., Biggeri, M. and Comim, F. 2011. ‘Children’s Agency and the Capability Approach: A Conceptual Framework’, in Biggeri, M, Ballet, J and Comim, F (eds.). Children and the Capability Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 22–45.Google Scholar
Ballet, J., Dumbi, C. and Lallau, B. 2014. ‘Children’s Autonomy in Conflict-Affected Countries’, in Hart, C. S., Biggeri, M and Babic, B (eds.). Agency and Participation in Childhood and Youth: International Applications of the Capability Approach in Schools and Beyond. London: Bloomsbury: 225–242.Google Scholar
Bellanca, N., Biggeri, M. and Marchetta, F. (2011), “An extension of the capability approach: Towards a theory of Dis-capability”, ALTER. European Journal of Disability Research 5/3: 158–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biggeri, M. 2004. ‘Capability Approach and Child Well-Being’. Studi e discussioni 141. Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Università degli Studi di Firenze.Google Scholar
Biggeri, M. and Anich, R. 2009. ‘The Deprivation of Street Children in Kampala: Can the Capability Approach and Participatory Methods Unlock a New Perspective in Research and Decision Making?’ Mondes en développement 2: 73–93.Google Scholar
Biggeri, M. and Karkara, R. 2014. ‘Transforming Children’s Rights into Real Freedom: A Dialogue between Children’s Rights and the Capability Approach from a Life Cycle Perspective’, in Stoecklin, D and Bonvin, J.-M. (eds.). Children’s Rights and the Capability Approach: Challenges and Prospects. Dordrecht: Springer: 19–41.Google Scholar
Biggeri, M. and Libanora, R. 2011. ‘From Evaluating to Valuing: Tools and Procedures to Operationalize the Capability Approach’, in Biggeri, M, Ballet, J and Comim, F (eds.). Children and the Capability Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 79–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biggeri, M. and Santi, M. 2012. ‘Missing Dimensions of Children’s Well-Being and Well-Becoming in Education Systems: Capabilities and Philosophy for Children’. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 13/3: 373–395.Google Scholar
Biggeri, M., Arciprete, C. and Karkara, R. 2019. ‘Children and Youth Participation in Decision Making and Research Processes’, in Clark, D. A., Biggeri, M and Frediani, A. A. (eds.). The Capability Approach, Empowerment and Participation: Concepts, Methods and Applications. London: Palgrave Macmillan: 193–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biggeri, M., Ballet, J. and Bhukuth, A. 2011. ‘Re-Examining Children’s Economic and Non-Economic Activities Using the Capability Approach’, in Biggeri, M, Ballet, J and Comim, F (eds.). Children and the Capability Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 286–303.Google Scholar
Biggeri, M., Ballet, J. and Comim, F. 2010. ‘The Capability Approach and Research on Children: Capability Approach and Children’s Issues’, in Andresen, S, Diehm, I, Sander, U and Ziegleret, H (eds.). Children and the Good Life: New Challenges for Research on Children. Dordrecht: Springer: 75–89.Google Scholar
Biggeri, M., Ballet, J. and Comim, F.(eds.). 2011. Children and the Capability Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biggeri, M., Comim, F. and Ballet, J. 2011. ‘Final Remarks and Conclusions: The Promotion of Children’s Active Participation’, in M. Biggeri, J. Ballet and F. Comim (eds.). Children and the Capability Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 340–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biggeri, M., Libanora, R., Mariani, S. and Menchini, L. 2006. ‘Children Conceptualizing their Capabilities: Results of the Survey During the First Children’s World Congress on Child Labour’. Journal of Human Development 7/1: 59–83.Google Scholar
Bonvin, J.-M. and Galster, D. 2010. ‘Making them Employable or Capable: Social Integration Policy at the Crossroads’, in Otto, H. U. and Ziegler, H (eds.). Education, Welfare and the Capabilities Approach. Opladen: Barbara Budrich: 71–84.Google Scholar
Brighouse, H. 2000. School Choice and Social Justice. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brighouse, H. and Unterhalter, E. 2010. ‘Education for Primary Goods or for Capabilities?’ in Brighouse, H and Robeyns, I (eds.). Measuring Justice: Primary Goods and Capabilities. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press: 193–214.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (ed.). 2005. Making Human Beings Human: Bioecological Perspectives on Human Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. and Morris, P. 1998. ‘The Ecology of Developmental Processes’, in R. M. Lerner (ed.). Handbook of Child Psychology, vol. 1: Theoretical Models of Human Development. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley: 993–1028.Google Scholar
Burchardt, T. and Vizard, P. 2011. ‘“Operationalizing” the Capability Approach as a Basis for Equality and Human Rights Monitoring in Twenty‐First‐Century Britain’. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 12/1: 91–119.Google Scholar
BvLF. 2004. Early Childhood Matters. Review No. 103. The Hague: Bernard van Leer Foundation.Google Scholar
Camfield, L. and Tafere, Y. 2011. ‘“Good for Children”? Local Understandings Versus Universal Prescriptions: Evidence from Three Ethiopian Communities’, in Biggeri, M, Ballet, J and Comim, F (eds.). Children and the Capability Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 200–221.Google Scholar
Clark, D. A., Biggeri, M. and Frediani, A. A. 2019. ‘Participation, Empowerment and Capabilities: Key Lessons and Future Challenges’, in Clark, D. A., Biggeri, M and Frediani, A. A. (eds.). The Capability Approach, Empowerment and Participation: Concepts, Methods and Applications. New York: Palgrave MacMillan: 385–402.Google Scholar
Comim, F. 2011. ‘Parenting Style’, in Biggeri, M, Ballet, J and Comim, F (eds.). Children and the Capability Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 331–339.Google Scholar
Conti, G. and Heckman, J. J. 2012. ‘The Economics of Child Well-Being’. IZA Discussion Papers 6930. Institute of Labor Economics.Google Scholar
Crocker, D. A. 2007. ‘Deliberative Participation in Local Development’. Journal of Human Development 8/3: 431–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deci, E. L. and Ryan, R. M. 2012. ‘Motivation, Personality, and Development within Embedded Social Contexts: An Overview of Self-Determination Theory’, in Ryan, R. M. (ed.). Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation. Oxford University Press: 85–107.Google Scholar
Di Tommaso, M. L. 2007. ‘Children Capabilities: A Structural Equation Model for India’. Journal of Socio-Economics 36/3: 436–450.Google Scholar
Dixon, R. and Nussbaum, M. C. 2012. ‘Children’s Rights and a Capabilities Approach: The Question of Special Priority’. Public Law and Legal Theory working paper series. University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Dubois, J. L. and Trabelsi, M. 2007. ‘Education in Pre-and Post-Conflict Contexts: Relating Capability and Life-Skills Approaches’. International Journal of Social Economics 34/1–2: 53–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, P. 2002. ‘Collective Capabilities, Culture, and Amartya Sen’s Development as Freedom’. Studies in Comparative International Development 37/2: 54–60.Google Scholar
Feeny, T. and Boyden, J. 2004. ‘Acting in Adversity: Rethinking the Causes, Experiences and Effects of Child Poverty in Contemporary Literature’. Working paper series 116. Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Freire, P. 1985. The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey.Google Scholar
Gasper, D. 2002. ‘Is Sen’s Capability Approach an Adequate Basis for Considering Human Developing?’ Review of Political Economy 14/4: 435–461.Google Scholar
Gasper, D. 2007. ‘What Is the Capability Approach? Its Core, Rationale, Partners and Dangers’. Journal of Socio-Economics 36: 335–359.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 1981. The Theory of Communicative Action, vol. I: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Hallett, C. and Prout, A. (eds.). 2003. Hearing the Voices of Children: Social Policy for a New Century. London: Routledge Farmer.Google Scholar
Hart, C. S. 2012. Aspirations, Education and Social Justice: Applying Sen and Bourdieu. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Hart, C. S., Biggeri, M. and Babic, B. (eds.). 2014. Agency and Participation in Childhood and Youth: International Applications of the Capability Approach in Schools and Beyond. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Hart, R. 1997. Children’s Participation: The Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in Community Development and Environmental Care. New York: UNICEF and London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Heckman, J. J., Pinto, R. and Savelyev, P. A. 2012. ‘Understanding the Mechanisms through which an Influential Early Childhood Program Boosted Adult Outcomes’. IZA Discussion Paper 7040. Institute of Labor Economics.Google Scholar
Horna Padrón, M. and Ballet, J. 2011. ‘Child Agency and Identity: The Case of Peruvian Children in a Transition Situation’, in Biggeri, M, Ballet, J and Comim, F (eds.). Children and the Capability Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 162–174.Google Scholar
Iervese, V. and Rossi, E. 2009. ‘Conflict Management’, in Baraldi, C (ed.). Dialogue in Intercultural Communities: From an Educational Point of View. Amsterdam: John Benjamins: 29–74.Google Scholar
James, A., Jenks, A. and Prout, A. 1998. Theorizing Childhood. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Klasen, S. 2001. ‘Social Exclusion, Children and Education: Implications of a Rights-Based Approach’. European Societies 3/4: 413–445.Google Scholar
Klasen, S. 2007. ‘Gender-Related Indicators of Well-Being’, in McGillivray, M (ed.). Human Well-Being: Concept and Measurement. London: Palgrave Macmillan: 167–192.Google Scholar
Lansdown, G. 2001. Promoting Children’s Participation in Democratic Decision-Making. Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre.Google Scholar
Lansdown, G. 2005. The Evolving Capacities of the Child. Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre/Save the Children.Google Scholar
Leßmann, O., Otto, H.-U. and Ziegler, H. (eds.). 2011. Closing the Capability Gap: Renegotiating Social Justice for the Young. Leverkusen: Barbara Budrich.Google Scholar
Levison, D. 2000. ‘Children as Economic Agents’. Feminist Economics 6/1: 125–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liebel, M. 2014. ‘From Evolving Capacities to Evolving Capabilities: Contextualizing Children’s Rights’, in Stoecklin, D and Bonvin, J.-M. (eds.). Children’s Rights and the Capability Approach: Challenges and Prospects. Dordrecht: Springer: 67–84.Google Scholar
Lipman, M. 2003. Thinking in Education, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Luhmann, N. 1984. Social Systems. Stanford University PressGoogle Scholar
Marmot, M. 2010. Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England Post-2010. The Marmot Review: Fair Society, Healthy Lives. University College London.Google Scholar
Matthews, H. 2003. ‘Children and Regeneration: Setting and Agenda for Community Participation and Integration’. Children & Society 17: 264–276.Google Scholar
Mehrotra, S. and Biggeri, M. 2002. ‘The Subterranean Child Labour Force: Subcontracted Home Based Manufacturing in Asia’. Innocenti Working Paper 96. Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre.Google Scholar
Murray, C. and Hallett, C. 2000. ‘Young People’s Participation in Decisions Affecting their Welfare’. Childhood 7/1: 11–12. 11–25Google Scholar
Nimeh, Z. and Bauchmüller, R. 2014. ‘School Enrolment and Child Labour’, in Hart, C, Biggeri, M and Babic, B (eds.). Agency and Participation in Childhood and Youth: International Applications of the Capability Approach in Schools and Beyond. London: Bloomsbury: 204–224.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. C. 2000. Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. C. 2006a. ‘Education and Democratic Citizenship: Capabilities and Quality Education’. Journal of Human Development 7/3: 385–398.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. C. 2006b. Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. C. 2010. Not for Profit. Why Democracy Needs the Humanities. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. C. 2011. Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Otto, H.-U. and Ziegler, H. 2006. ‘Capabilities and Education’. Social Work and Society International Online Journal 4/2.Google Scholar
Peleg, N. 2013. ‘Reconceptualising the Child’s Right to Development: Children and the Capability Approach’. International Journal of Children’s Rights 21: 523–542.Google Scholar
Prout, A. 2000. ‘Children’s Participation: Control and Self-Realisation in British Late Modernity’. Children & Society 14: 304–315.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1980. ‘Kantian Constructivism in Moral Theory’. Journal of Philosophy 77/9: 515–572.Google Scholar
Robeyns, I. 2003. ‘Sen’s Capability Approach and Gender Inequality’. Feminist Economics 9/2–3: 61–92.Google Scholar
Roche, J. 2013. ‘Monitoring Progress in Child Poverty Reduction: Methodological Insights and Illustration to the Case Study of Bangladesh’. Social Indicators Research 112/2: 363–390.Google Scholar
Roelen, K., Gassmann, F. and de Neubourg, C. 2009. ‘The Importance of Choice and Definition for the Measurement of Child Poverty: The Case of Vietnam’. Child Indicators Research 2: 245–263.Google Scholar
Rogoff, B. 1990. Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive Development in Social Context. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Saito, M. 2003. ‘Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach to Education: A Critical Exploration’. Journal of Philosophy of Education 37/1: 17–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schischka, J. 2014. ‘Evaluating Children’s Capabilities Enhancement in Schools’, in Hart, C, Biggeri, M and Babic, B (eds.). Agency and Participation in Childhood and Youth: International Applications of the Capability Approach in Schools and Beyond. London: Bloomsbury: 163–180.Google Scholar
Schweiger, G. and Graf, G. 2015. A Philosophical Examination of Social Justice and Child Poverty. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1985. ‘Well-Being, Agency and Freedom: The Dewey Lectures 1984’. Journal of Philosophy 82/4: 169–221.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1987. ‘The Standard of Living’, in Sen, A. The Standard of Living (ed. Hawthorn, G). Cambridge University Press: 1–38.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1992. Inequality Re-Examined. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1998. ‘Mortality as an Indicator of Economic Success and Failure’. Economic Journal 108/446: 1–25.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1999a. Development as Freedom. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1999b. ‘Investing in Early Childhood: Its Role in Development’. Conference on Breaking the Poverty Cycle. Investing in Early Childhood. Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 2005. ‘Human Rights and Capabilities’. Journal of Human Development 6/2: 151–166.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 2007. ‘Children and Human Rights’. Indian Journal of Human Development 1/2: 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. K. 2009. The Idea of Justice. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Stoecklin, D. and Bonvin, M. 2014. ‘The Capability Approach and Children Rights’, in Hart, C, Biggeri, M and Babic, B (eds.). Agency and Participation in Childhood and Youth: International Applications of the Capability Approach in Schools and Beyond. London: Bloomsbury: 63–82.Google Scholar
Trani, J.-F., Bakhshi, P. and Biggeri, M. 2011. ‘Re-Thinking Children’s Disabilities through the Capability Lens: A Framework for Analysis and Policy Implications’, in Biggeri, M, Ballet, J and Comim, F (eds.). Children and the Capability Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 245–270.Google Scholar
Trani, J.-F., Biggeri, M. and Mauro, V. 2013. ‘The Multidimensionality of Child Poverty: Evidence from Afghanistan’. Social Indicators Research 112/2: 391–416.Google Scholar
UNHCR. 2016. Statistical Yearbook 2016. Geneva: UNHCR.Google Scholar
UNICEF. 2002. A World Fit for Children. A/S-27/19/Rev.1, 12 July. Geneva: UNICEF.Google Scholar
UNICEF. 2015. The State of the World’s Children. Geneva: UNICEF.Google Scholar
Unterhalter, E. and Brighouse, H. 2003. ‘Distribution of What? How Will We Know if We Have Achieved Education for All by 2015?’ Paper presented at Third Conference on the Capabilities Approach, 7–9 September. University of Pavia.Google Scholar
Van den Berge, M. P. 2006. ‘Working Children: Their Agency and Self-Organization’. Ethics and Economics 4/1.Google Scholar
Vizard, P. 2007. ‘Specifying and Justifying a Basic Capability Set: Should the International Human Rights Framework be Given a More Direct Role?’ Oxford Development Studies 35: 225–250.Google Scholar
Walker, M. and Unterhalter, E. 2007. ‘The Capability Approach and its Potential for Work in Education’, in Walker, M and Unterhalter, E (eds.). Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach and Social Justice in Education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan: 1–18.Google Scholar
White, S. C. 2002. ‘Being, Becoming and Relationship: Conceptual Challenges of a Child Rights Approach in Development’. Journal of International Development 14/8: 1095–1104.Google Scholar
Woodhead, M., Feathersone, I., Bolton, L. and Robertson, P. 2014. Early Childhood Development: Delivering Intersectoral Policies, Programmes and Services in Low Resource Settings. Oxford: Health & Education Advice & Resource Team (HEART).Google Scholar
Wüst, K. and Volkert, J. 2012. ‘Childhood and Capability Deprivation in Germany: A Quantitative Analysis Using German Socio-Economic Panel Data’. Social Indicators Research 106/3: 439–469.Google Scholar
Yaqub, S. 2002. ‘Poor Children Grow into Poor Adults: Harmful Mechanisms or Overdeterministic Theory?’ Journal of International Development 14: 1081–1093.Google Scholar
Young, M. 2009. ‘Capability as an Approach to Evaluation of Learning Outcome from Local Perspectives’, in Chiappero-Martinetti, E (ed.). Debating Global Society: Reach and Limits of the Capability Approach. Milan: Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli: 267–299.Google Scholar
Yousefzadeh, S., Biggeri, M., Arciprete, C. and Haisma, H. 2018. ‘A Capability Approach to Child Growth’. Child Indicators Research 12(2): 711–731.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×