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Creating Capabilities

The Human Development Approach
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Creating Capabilities by Martha C. Nussbaum challenges conventional economic measures of progress by focusing on what individuals are genuinely able to do and be. Nussbaum presents the Capabilities Approach, a model assessing human development through real opportunities and dignity rather than GDP growth alone. This work offers a clear, practical guide to advancing justice and human flourishing by prioritising basic human needs across cultures.
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Ideal for readers interested in philosophy, human rights, development studies, and public policy, Creating Capabilities appeals to those seeking a deeper understanding of what true progress means beyond economics.

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This is a primer on the Capabilities Approach, Martha Nussbaum’s innovative model for assessing human progress. She argues that much humanitarian policy today violates basic human values; instead, she offers a unique means of redirecting government and development policy toward helping each of us lead a full and creative life.

A remarkably lucid and scintillating account of the the human development approach seen from the perspective of one of its major architects. -- Amartya Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics Nussbaum, who has done more than anyone to develop the authoritative and ground-breaking capabilities approach, offers a major restatement that will be required reading for all those interested in economic development that truly enhances how people live. -- Henry Richardson, Georgetown University A marvelous achievement: beautifully written and accessible. With Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum is one of the founders of the 'capability approach' to justice; the most innovative and influential development in political philosophy since the work of John Rawls. This book, for the first time, puts in one place all the central elements of Nussbaum's systematic account of the approach, together with its sources and implications. -- Jonathan Wolff, University College London The very best way to be introduced to the capability approach to international development. It is also a wonderfully lucid account of the origins, justification, structure, and practical implications of her version of this powerful approach to ethically-based change in poor and rich countries. -- David Alan Crocker, The University of Maryland School of Public Policy

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

If a country's Gross Domestic Product increases each year, but so does the percentage of its people deprived of basic education, health care, and other opportunities, is that country really making progress? If we rely on conventional economic indicators, can we ever grasp how the world's billions of individuals are really managing?

In this powerful critique, Martha Nussbaum argues that our dominant theories of development have given us policies that ignore our most basic human needs for dignity and self-respect. For the past twenty-five years, Nussbaum has been working on an alternate model to assess human development: the Capabilities Approach. She and her colleagues begin with the simplest of questions: What is each person actually able to do and to be? What real opportunities are available to them?

The Capabilities Approach to human progress has until now been expounded only in specialised works. Creating Capabilities, however, affords anyone interested in issues of human development a wonderfully lucid account of the structure and practical implications of an alternate model. It demonstrates a path to justice for both humans and nonhumans, weighs its relevance against other philosophical stances, and reveals the value of its universal guidelines even as it acknowledges cultural difference.

In our era of unjustifiable inequity, Nussbaum shows howβ€”by attending to the narratives of individuals and grasping the daily impact of policyβ€”we can enable people everywhere to live full and creative lives.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780674072350

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 13 May 2013

Country: United States

Imprint: The Belknap Press

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 18.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 210.0mm

Weight: 249g

Pages: 256

About the Author

Martha C. Nussbaum is the author of The Fragility of Goodness, The Monarchy of Fear, and Citadels of Pride, among other works. She is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, where she is in the Law School and Philosophy Department. She has received three of the world’s most significant awards for humanities and social science: the Kyoto Prize, the Berggruen Prize, and the 2021 Holberg Prize.

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