Loading...
Publication
Capabilities as causal powers
Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The author argues that Sen's capability approach is primarily a philosophical under-labouring exercise aimed at elaborating certain central economic categories, and that the philosophical and methodological underpinnings of Sen's approach are radically different from those of contemporary welfare economics and mainstream economic practice. Sen's notion of ‘capabilities’ as the potential functionings to achieve well-being is interpreted here as a specification of the ontological category of ‘causal power’, presupposing an open system conception of reality that contrasts with much of contemporary economic practice.
Description
Copyright © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved.
Keywords
Capabilities Powers Structures Ontology
Citation
Martins, N. (2005). "Capabilities as causal powers", «Cambridge Journal of Economics», 30(5), 671-685. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cje/bel012.
Publisher
Oxford University Press