Learning from Intellectual History: Reflection on Sen’s Capabilities Approach and Human Development

Abstract

The end of the Second World War, and the subsequent creation of independent states from colonies, marked the beginning of serious interest among scholars and policy makers in the field of development economics. Though there is agreement among scholars that the ultimate goal of development is to increase the wellbeing of individuals, there is disagreement on the fundamental question of whether economic growth automatically leads to human wellbeing. The mainstream approaches to economic development often equated development with economic growth. However, policies based on this approach failed to solve the problem of poverty and inequality in developing countries. Instead, there were negative social consequences such as the widening of inequality and the weakening of the social fabric in many developing states. As a result of growing inequality and poverty, scholars began to question development policies that focused narrowly on economic growth as an indicator of development. Consequently, there was a gradual shift from growth-oriented economic development approaches to the alternative human development agenda. During the 1980s, important contributions to development theory improved scholars’ understanding of the concept of poverty and its measurement. The emergence of Sen’s capability approach, which later provided the theoretical foundation for the human development paradigm in economics, was among these conceptual advancements that shed a new light on conceptualizing poverty, inequality, and development. This chapter draws on Amartya Sen’s capability approach and recent developments in capability literature, to provide a critical evaluation of the development processes.