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Understanding feedback relationships between resources, functionings and well-being: A case study of seaweed farming and artisanal processing in Indonesia

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Abstract

Sen’s Capability Approach is one of the most significant theoretical contributions to welfare analysis across a range of disciplines. A part of the literature argues that its conceptual linear flow—from resources to ‘functionings’, which result in well-being—potentially ignores more complex relations with the feedback loops where a single item could be viewed as having a different role by different people, in different contexts. We explore perceptions of existing feedback relationships in interviews with 74 women from nine seaweed farming villages in Indonesia, engaged in two distinct activities: seaweed farming and artisanal seaweed processing. We find that capability sets required for farming and for processing are distinct and in both cases we observe feedback loops. Several factors, notably social networks and transportation (motorbikes), were mentioned in almost all contexts indicating that not all resources are of equal ‘value’ and might yield different levels of well-being.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), The University of Sunshine Coast (Australia), Hasanuddin University (UNHAS, Indonesia) and the University of Tasmania (Australia) for their institutional support. Our special thanks go to our enumerator team led by Dr. Mardiana Fachri and Mr. Dalvi Mustafa and to Mr. Nur Syamsul for creating map in Fig. 1. This research would not be possible without leaders and members of the women’s groups generously donating their time to assist with our enquiries. We thank all three reviewers for their constructive comments which helped us improve this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) Project No. FIS/2015/038: “Improving seaweed production and processing opportunities in Indonesia”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science, Technology & Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Building H1, Sippy Downs, Maroochydore, QLD, Australia

    Silva Larson, Michael A. Rimmer & Nicholas A. Paul

  2. College of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania, Centenary Building, Hobart, Australia

    Natalie Stoeckl

Authors
  1. Silva Larson
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  2. Natalie Stoeckl
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  3. Michael A. Rimmer
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  4. Nicholas A. Paul
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Contributions

SL: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation and Writing-Original draft preparation. NS: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation and Writing-Original draft preparation. MAR: Supervision and Writing-Review and editing. NAP: Supervision, Writing-Review and editing and Project administration.

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Correspondence to Silva Larson.

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The University of Sunshine Coast Human Ethics Committee Approval Number A/17/997.

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Larson, S., Stoeckl, N., Rimmer, M.A. et al. Understanding feedback relationships between resources, functionings and well-being: A case study of seaweed farming and artisanal processing in Indonesia. Ambio 51, 914–925 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01581-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01581-3

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