Capabilities-Based Social Justice in Human Development
Summary
The capabilities‐based approach to social justice in human development shifts the focus from the distribution of resources or commodities to the expansion of real freedoms that individuals possess to live lives they value. Grounded in the work of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, it emphasises both well‐being and agency, recognising that justice requires not only adequate means but also the genuine opportunity to convert those means into valued states of being and doing. Central to this perspective is the distinction between functionings (the various things a person may value doing or being) and capabilities (the substantive opportunities to achieve those functionings). Social justice, in this view, entails equitable provision of conversion factors—personal, social and environmental conditions that shape how individuals can transform resources into capabilities. This framework has informed policy debates in education, health, employment and regional development, offering a multidimensional metric that captures structural inequalities and the diversity of human needs. By foregrounding agency and participatory rights, it advances a participatory governance model in which marginalised groups co‐design interventions. Globally, the capabilities approach has been applied to measure poverty, inform universal social protection schemes and redesign institutional metrics to align with theoretical ideals of equity. Practical applications include evaluation of educational curricula, design of targeted welfare programmes and the refinement of regional policy instruments to ensure inclusive development.
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Capabilities-Based Social Justice in Human Development publication trend
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Technical terms
Capability: The substantive opportunity or freedom an individual has to achieve various lifestyles or states of being that they value.
Functioning: A realised achievement such as being healthy, educated or socially integrated, representing the “doings and beings” of a person.
Agency: The ability of an individual to pursue goals they have reason to value, reflecting autonomy and participation.
Conversion factors: Personal, social and environmental conditions that influence how resources are transformed into capabilities.
Distributive justice (capabilities-based): A normative principle that assesses equity in terms of fair distribution of capabilities rather than mere resources or outcomes.
References
- Institution level awarding gap metrics for identifying educational inequity: useful tools or reductive distractions?. Higher Education (2024).
- A capability-approach perspective on regional development. Regional Studies (2023).
- A Human Capability Perspective on the Progression of Low-SES Students to Higher Education in Ireland and the UK. Education Sciences (2023).
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