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This paper aims to explore how the principles of participatory action research (PAR) articulate with questions of climate justice. Drawing on three qualitative case studies in Brazil, Fiji and Kenya, the paper explores university institutional capabilities, asking how the principles of mobilising PAR to support transformative outcomes can further climate justice. The paper argues that for participatory action research to become a pathway to build universities' capabilities, key considerations are needed. PAR needs to: (a) move beyond change in individual behaviour to respond to climate change and affect institutional norms, procedures and practices; (b) recognise and partner with marginalised groups whose voice and experiences are at the periphery of climate debate, enabling reciprocal flows of impact and knowledge between universities and wider societies; and (c) foster "relationships of equivalence" with actors within as well as outside university to influence university governance and wider climate-related policy-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, people with disabilities face a heightened risk of poverty. Drivers of poverty include exclusion from work and other livelihood activities (indirect costs) and disability-related direct costs – such as for rehabilitation, personal assistance and assistive devices – that are required for participation and functioning. This research explores sources of direct and indirect costs, their impact and mitigation strategies using 42 in-depth interviews with working-aged people with disabilities in Nairobi, Kenya and Dhaka, Bangladesh. This research finds that people with disabilities and their households face high direct costs, such as for healthcare, assistive devices, transportation and accommodations at school and work, and indirect costs, such as un- and underemployment and lower salaries when working. Many direct costs were unmet, or covered through out-of-pocket spending, although social protection in Kenya was also an important strategy. Unmet direct costs frequently led to higher future indirect costs. Direct and indirect costs could cause financial strain, decreased participation, health and wellbeing, particularly when unaddressed. Challenges mitigating costs included not just insufficient income, but also lack of decision-making power within the household and insufficient information on and poor availability of needed goods, services and opportunities – factors which should be considered in the design of interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers how the capability approach has been linked with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and poses the question derived from a number of critical commentaries as to whether the approach has provided a robust enough critique of the exploitative relations associated with global corporate capitalism. It focuses on the first three MDGs concerned with poverty, education and gender, and shows how writers working within the human development and capability approach literature adopt a range of views with regard to the MDGs. Some oppose the framework, some welcome it, and some write as critical friends. Many comment explicitly on the problems of capitalism and global inequality. Ideas of trade-off and comparative evaluation associated with the approach are examined in relation to thinking about global obligation and justice under conditions of inequality. The argument for ‘more justice’ associated with the approach is seen to be in need of clearer specification, and Robyen's deployment of the capability approach to elucidate principles of gender justice is seen to provide a particularly nuanced way of thinking about problems associated with gender inequality, poverty and education. Empirical data collected from discussions in Kenya and South Africa with teachers responsible for implementing the education, poverty and gender components of the MDGs show how these can be interpreted in terms of a trade-off or used to invite more open reflective discussion on forms of gender justice and capabilities, suggesting new ways for thinking about a post-2015 successor framework to the MDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the role of capability innovations, defined as the carrying out of new combinations of capabilities, in human development. Drawing on a recognized social innovation in sanitation—the ikotoilets of Kenya's Ecotact—the article makes a threefold argument. Firstly, indirect conversion factors are an important element in the success or failure of an innovation. In our sanitation case study, these factors help to explain why the public toilets in urban centres are a success story and those in the slums a story of difficulty. Secondly, not to take into account direct and indirect conversion factors is to commit explanatory commodity fetishism. Goods are taken as given. However, they are the product of human design, including options for capability impact, and this accordingly needs to be taken into account. Thirdly, applying the capabilities approach to innovation suggests that it is fruitful to distinguish analytically two different scaling strategies regarding the replication of capability innovations, which the article calls ‘the lab’ and ‘the family’ strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]