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The neglect of marginalized stakeholders is a colossal problem in both stakeholder and entrepreneurship streams of literature. To address this problem, we offer a theory of marginalized stakeholder-centric entrepreneurship. We conceptualize how firms can utilize marginalized stakeholder input actualization through which firms should process a variety of ideas, resources, and interactions with marginalized stakeholders and then filter, internalize, and, finally, realize important elements that improve a variety of related socioeconomic, ethical, racial, contextual, political, and identity issues. This input actualization process enables firms to innovate with marginalized stakeholders and develop marginalized stakeholder capabilities. To this end, firms fulfill both their moral and entrepreneurial claims to marginalized stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the experiences of academics with disabilities regarding access to higher education spaces is vast, but not much has been done to assess if such research goes beyond analysing physical spaces. This paper follows the capabilities approach to contribute knowledge in this regard, drawing from research conducted in one South African University. Ten academics with disabilities were interviewed, and data were analysed thematically. Findings suggest that it is not enough for academics with disabilities to be employed at the University. Denial of social and physical access to various spaces has epistemic and professional advancement implications. The possibilities for alternative spaces and freedom of choice to function optimally for academic identity advancement can still be enhanced. The paper makes recommendations that can be explored for policy and practice to advance human development of academics with disabilities. Points of interest: We draw attention to how ableism relates to capabilities and freedoms to develop academic identities in multidimensional spaces of higher education. Marginalising spatial configurations go beyond just inability to attend academic gatherings, but also to participate in knowledge production for academic identity development. Academics with invisible disabilities can receive even more limited support, causing them to take longer to develop academically. Academics have agency and responsibilities towards developing their identities, but these are often limited by the nature of spaces. Advanced technology provides alternative ways of thinking about self-ability versus disability in an academic workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: The rapid growth of basic income programs in U.S. cities raises questions about the contributions of no-strings-attached cash payments to common equity planning goals. Drawing on a database of more than 100 basic income trials and interviews with 75 program designers and administrators, we evaluated basic income's potential uses in planning. First, we analyzed evaluations of completed basic income trials, linking the policy's effects to common equity planning goals. Second, we identified pathways from basic income trials to permanent policy and program reform. We found that large-scale, public basic income trials are likely to lead to reform in state-level social policy and that private and hybrid programs have multiple pathways for renewal, expansion, and replication. Takeaways for practice: Planners can maximize the contributions of basic income programs to equity planning goals by distinguishing among the different capacities and scale-up options for public, private and hybrid programs. Practitioners focused on policy change and securing additional state resources for low-income households should prioritize publicly financed basic income trials and seek to translate basic income demonstrations into state-level policy change. Practitioners focused on "wicked" problems within narrowly defined subcommunities should focus on hybrid and private programs, which expand the capacities of community organizations and secure funding renewal from foundations. Important though these distinctions between programs are, all types of basic income programs contribute directly household resources, stability and capabilities, and all three types have led to either expanded basic income programs or the addition of no-strings-attached cash to other programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its importance for the social sciences, human agency remains an ambiguous and underoperationalized construct. After engaging prior research to articulate clear criteria for defining agency and synthesize a multidimensional conceptual framework for human agency, this study develops and validates preliminary General Human Agency Indicators (GHAIs) to measure subconstructs within that framework. Utilizing the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) dataset, we aggregated a list of 30 survey items previously used in agency research and conducted an iterative process of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and item elimination to reduce that list to a set of 9–13 items with a strong, consistent factorial structure. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), we identified two bifactor models that demonstrated good fit: a nine-item General Personal Agency scale (GPAS) and a nine-item GHAIs tool combining six items from the GPAS with three measuring agency achievement. Initial evidence for the construct validity of the tools was produced through tests of internal consistency and correlational analysis, indicating that the proposed GPAS and GHAIs effectively measure personal agency, intrinsic agency, instrumental agency, and agency achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students who spent time in state care as children, usually due to neglect or maltreatment, are a growing community within higher education in many countries. However, their participation rates generally remain below average and they are more likely to withdraw early, while their experiences have not yet been well-theorised. In this article, we synthesise and reconsider data from three national studies from the United Kingdom that collectively explored the lives of 461 care-experienced students using different methodologies. We use the lens of the capabilities approach – a normative social justice framework that seeks to identify 'capabilities' allowing people to live lives that they value, with the goal of alleviating 'unfreedoms' that prevent them from doing so. We argue that many care-experienced students have a precarious engagement with higher education for reasons directly or indirectly related to their early lives, concluding that the capabilities approach provides a useful praxis-based heuristic to review how policymakers, managers and practitioners can support care-experienced students to thrive. We use our data to propose amendments to the theoretical framework and suggest that its usefulness extends to other marginalised groups within higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reality-design gap in the conceptualization and practice of digital agriculture has been systematically reported in the literature. This condition is favored by the lack of understanding and inclusion of local worldviews around digital technologies. Informed by Amartya Sen's capabilities approach, this study looks to bring stories of local appropriation to the spotlight. Based on a qualitative approach that included data collected through interviews with 73 households, the authors explored the way in which two selected communities of Colombian coffee growers are engaged in the use of digital technologies in material and symbolic ways. Three emergent themes—a relational way of farming, (dis)connected machines, and nurtured families and communities – articulate multiple interactions between farmers, farms, institutional programs, and technologies, that originate local forms of digitalization (and non-digitalization). This study points out the relevant role of situated ideas of development in positioning technologies in or out of the farm, and broader digitalization agendas in or out of farmers' life projects. At the same time, it presents a critique of notions of universality that drive unquestioned quests for technification. In contrast, building on a relational perspective, this study calls for embracing a perspective of multiplicity within notions of development and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual relationships are central to many people’s satisfaction and well-being in life. However, Capacity to Sexual Consent (CTSC) policies can abridge the right to intimate relationships among people labeled with intellectual disability (ID). Assuming the inalienability of human rights and with particular focus on ID-labeled women, this conceptual analysis offers a three-part critique of CTSC policy and associated standards of practice. First, CTSC requirements are unattainable for many due to systemic deficiencies. Inequities in both assessment practices and the broader conditions of ID-labeled women’s lives pose numerous impediments to meeting CTSC stipulations. Second, policies of sexual prohibition are often ineffectual in forestalling sexual violation and can paradoxically exacerbate women’s sexual vulnerability. Third, the requirements of CTSC are unjust because they pose a discriminatory double-standard for ID-labeled women. Moreover, the standards compound the injustices women already experience by responding to sexist and ableist conditions with rights abridgment. To uphold sexual rights, I propose a replacement CTSC policy guided by tenets of Nussbaum’s (2011) Capability Approach. I argue that such a policy can counteract the substantial sexual vulnerability women experience while simultaneously upholding their right to direct their sexual lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops a conception of the good life within a digitalized society. Martha Nussbaum’s capability theory offers an adequate normative framework for that purpose as it systematically integrates the analysis of flourishing human lives with a normative theory of justice. The paper argues that a theory of good digital lives should focus on everyday life, on the impact digitalization has on ordinary actions, routines and corresponding practical knowledge. Based on Nussbaum’s work, the paper develops a concept of digital capabilities. Digital capabilities are combined capabilities: To possess a digital capability, an individual must acquire certain skills and abilities (internal capabilities) and needs access to devices and external infrastructures like internet connections. If societies as a whole and everyday environments are digitalized to a certain degree, the possession of specific digital capabilities is a crucial precondition for a flourishing life. The paper likewise analyzes challenges that are connected to digital capabilities. Digital structures are constantly changing. In consequence, digital capabilities are never acquired once and for all, but always precarious and in danger of being lost—with serious consequences for individual everyday lives in digitalized environments. As digital capabilities are crucial for leading a good life, people are entitled to develop and maintain them. They describe demands of justice. Using the examples of filling in an online form and digital education, the paper finally illustrates the size of institutional changes that are necessary to meet these demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smallholder farmers are widely touted as essential to sustainable agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. But what exactly is meant by sustainable development, and how are smallholder farmers expected to contribute to it? In this perspective, we describe and assess two competing visions of sustainable development, namely Capital Theory and the Capabilities approach, paying special attention to the major yet divergent repercussions each approach implies for the future of smallholder farmers and the activities of their representative organizations. We present the core concepts, tools and practices stemming from each sustainable development perspective, and from a critique of these motivate the superiority of a capabilities approach as more conducive to smallholder farmers wellbeing now and in the future. In doing so, we bring to the fore the pivotal role smallholder farmer organizations and rural social movements, as collective vehicles for smallholder political agency, play in strategically advocating for the conditions that support sustainable and just smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the developmental impacts of sport have been extensively researched, with significant attention given to sport-based interventional projects common in sport for development and peace (SDP), fewer studies have approached this focus by investigating ordinary sporting opportunities such as physical education and school sports (PESS). Grounded on an 18-month ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a border region of Southwestern China, this qualitative study targets a multi-ethnic college setting to examine the developmental impacts of regular sporting provisions on campus. Underpinned by relativist ontology and constructionist epistemology, qualitative data were collected from multiple sources through participant observation, online survey and in-depth focus group interviews. Drawing on ‘tiyu (体育)’ and the Capabilities Approach (CA) as conceptual and theoretical references, data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis whereby four themes with sub-themes were contextually and reflexively constructed. These themes include: (1) fundamental means and ends: tiyu is an essential functioning of health and education; (2) individual agency enables extra gains: tiyu for interpersonal affiliation, emotions and control over one’s environment; (3) from instrumental to elemental: tiyu is an indispensable capability of play; (4) developmental prospects are conditional: counter-stories of tiyu. By contextualizing tiyu’s impacts on capabilities and human development, we lastly discussed the malleable nature of tiyu (sport) and the prospects of improving ordinary sporting opportunities with explicit development concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gendered relations of power coupled with socio-cultural structures such as class, continue to limit opportunities for women who aspire to political leadership in the Caribbean. This article argues that the enduring influences of patriarchy and classism substantively impinge upon the freedom of women to fully participate in political leadership, thereby creating a capability failure. The author suggests that the Capabilities Approach (CA) is a critical missing link in efforts designed to address the question of women's limited political engagement in the Caribbean. Specifically, integrating CA into current strategies can help us to understand the possibilities for and limits on individual women's agency in the political sphere. As such, the author suggests a co-constitutive framework that uses CA in conjunction with established strategies such as quotas, for addressing the issue. This proposed method aims to redirect policy foci to the quality of women's political participation and not just the quantity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth unemployment has become one of the most popular educational research areas, at global, national and local levels. In the international development agenda, lifelong learning (LLL) and vocational education and training (VET) have been linked to youth employment and labour market policies, making education a potential universal solution to socioeconomic challenges. The European Youth Guarantee (YG) scheme, a labour market policy aimed at tackling youth unemployment, is an example of this trend in policy discourse. It offers insights into the European LLL agenda and heated debates over youth employment policies. This article critically analyses the role of liberal capitalist and human capital theories in shaping the YG scheme, formally launched in 2014, and to what extent it addresses issues of youth unemployment, by conducting a systematic review of academic literature, policy documents and official reports in the field. The article also focuses on ideology and power asymmetries between development agendas and various actors in YG policy formation, followed by an analysis of youth unemployment solutions which stem from them. An alternative values-based human capabilities approach is highlighted which could support the YG in achieving social well-being and comprehensive human development to tackle youth unemployment across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the fundamental theses of the capabilities approach and differentiates it from notions of development that are more focused on the generation of wealth and growth. The paper emphasizes the importance of action in the development of life projects and describes the importance of emancipation in exercising freedoms. It then describes the education challenges from the perspective of the capabilities approach. It situates the importance of this approach in the Latin American context, where freedom is closely linked to the pursuit of social justice. Finally, it describes the different areas of application of the capabilities approach in education and points out the limitations of formal education in the contemporary world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social housing policies in neoliberal contexts have become residualized. The notions of housing vulnerability and vulnerable populations emerged as a new organizing principle for the housing policy agenda and interventions in many countries. However, there is no cohesive and shared understanding of the characteristics and types of vulnerable households and housing situations, nor the drivers and consequences of different forms of vulnerability. This leads to questions about how to apply the concept to address people's right to housing. This special issue presents research into what housing vulnerability means in different world regions, what structures and systems may be driving it, and the variety of experiences of housing vulnerability. These studies use different theoretical frameworks, methodologies, and empirical contexts to examine factors and initiatives that drive or counter housing vulnerability, fostering a dialogue towards critical housing research and policy agendas that meet our expectations of housing as a human right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Young people in Colombia present high rates of mental health problems, to which the country’s history of armed internal conflict contributes in complex ways. Mental health services in Colombia are fragmented, inadequate, and difficult to access for many. Young people’s help-seeking is often hindered by mental health stigma and/or poor experiences with services. This paper presents a thematic analysis of qualitative data from a mixed-methods study aimed at developing and testing a mental health intervention for Colombian youths. We draw upon theoretical lenses from scholarly work on stigma and Sen’s ‘capabilities approach’ to inform our analysis of interviews and group discussions with staff and young people involved in the state-funded human capital building programme ‘Jovenes en Acción’ (JeA). By illustrating how study participants talked about stigma, vulnerability, mental health services organisation, and the challenges of discussing mental health topics in a learning environment, we illuminate aspects of mental health support and anti-stigma interventions that might need enhancing. In particular, we suggest that more emphasis on ‘community competencies’ as complementary to and interrelated with individual competencies would strengthen young people’s individual and collective resources for mental wellbeing while being in line with the sociocritical principles of existing human capital-enhancing programmes.

Stimulating the endogenous motivation of the impoverished individual is crucial to prevent the reoccurrence of widespread poverty, consolidate efforts of poverty eradication, and achieve rural revitalization. Considering whether villages receive tourism-targeted assistance as a quasi-natural experiment, using the Double Machine Learning (DML) method and six periods of balanced panel data from 392 impoverished households, the research analyzes the impact of tourism-targeted assistance on endogenous motivation. Findings indicate that, through promoting rural industry development and facilitating local employment, tourism-targeted assistance stimulate the endogenous motivation of the impoverished individuals efficiently. This effect is more pronounced in impoverished households with affluent labor force, high level of education and those engaged in tourism. Consequently, future efforts for rural revitalization should refine the strategy of targeted assistance based on the resource and demand of the rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a common view that artificial systems could play an important role in dealing with the shortage of caregivers due to demographic change. One argument to show that this is also in the interest of care-dependent persons is that artificial systems might significantly enhance user autonomy since they might stay longer in their homes. This argument presupposes that the artificial systems in question do not require permanent supervision and control by human caregivers. For this reason, they need the capacity for some degree of moral decision-making and agency to cope with morally relevant situations (artificial morality). Machine ethics provides the theoretical and ethical framework for artificial morality. This article scrutinizes the question how artificial moral agents that enhance user autonomy could look like. It discusses, in particular, the suggestion that they should be designed as moral avatars of their users to enhance user autonomy in a substantial sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to confront some challenges raised by intergenerational justice from the perspective of Martha Nussbaum's capabilities approach. After having sketched her account, the essay deals with some objections to it from an environmental perspective, arguing that, contrary to some critics, it can be a valuable basis for reflecting on our duties towards future generations. More precisely, I focus on how the CA provides promising insights to address two central problems of intergenerational ethics: 1) the so-called 'circumstances of justice;' 2) the problem of the asymmetry between present and future generations. In both cases, I argue that the philosophical anthropology underlying the CA is better suited than the contractualist one to include future generations into the realm of justice and ground our motivation to care for them. After underlining the potential of the CA, in the concluding remarks I will underline a potential flaw of this theory, i.e. the lack of guidance when it comes to the trade-offs between our rights and well-being and those of the unborn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on cloudworking in developing countries and the implications of this type of work on development. The analysis draws on two eminent development theories—the capabilities approach and dependency theory. Using these framework, opportunities and risks of cloudwork to developing countries are presented and analyzed, and policy implications discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of housing in the achievement of prosperity from a capabilities perspective. Prosperity, according to Jackson (Prosperity without growth: economics for a finite planet, Earthscan, Oxford, 2009), is built on Amartya Sen's notion of capabilities for flourishing. Then, in the pursuit of understanding the role of housing as an enabler of capabilities for the achievement of prosperity, this paper investigates the gaps in the views/concepts of housing through comparisons of the ten central capabilities, the right to adequate housing, and meanings of home. Data from a recent qualitative study in rural and urban Kenya is used for empirical analysis as a way to develop a localised application of the discussion. Looking through the lens of the Capabilities Approach brought a useful framework that made it possible to capture human and social housing values that are many times neglected. In that sense, the paper explores housing both as the physical conditions of the house and as the social and psychological dynamics that construct the meanings of home. The research demonstrated that the extent to which housing enables the enjoyment of capabilities for flourishing increases or diminishes insofar housing acknowledges and incorporates both material and non-material functions. Hopefully, this exercise can serve to inform and enrich future localised housing design, research and policy, where a more comprehensive understanding and conceptualisation of housing seems imperative: Housing, as House + Home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In February 2021, severe winter weather conditions associated with Winter Storm Uri triggered an energy infrastructure failure in Texas. Most Texans lost electricity, some lost potable water, natural gas, and suffered other infrastructure-related service disruptions that had profound household consequences. Although several studies have documented the disparities in terms of the types and extent of disruptions Texans experienced during Uri, there is little information about the impact of these disruptions in terms of their burdens on households. Guided by the Capabilities Approach framework, a survey of Texan households was conducted to identify the outage characteristics and capability losses for different household types, as well as the burdens that those disruptions posed to households using both objective and subjective measures. Our results indicate that households that endured longer and constant electricity outages suffered more severe impacts across all measures, including more disrupted household capabilities, increased time, and financial costs to cope during the outages, as well as greater declines in reported life satisfaction. We found that low-income households, households with children, and households with disability challenges suffered more severe objective burdens during the storm, although subjective results for these households were mixed. Households with members over the age of 65 fared better in terms of objective measures, yet suffered more in terms of subjective well-being. Moreover, households that had prior experience with a prolonged outage reported significantly smaller reductions in well-being during the storm than other households, despite not showing any difference in objective measures. Ultimately, our results offer context-specific, post-event information about the impacts and needs of different types of households during Uri that are important for informing emergency management and community resilience planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smallholder farmers are widely touted as essential to sustainable agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. But what exactly is meant by sustainable development, and how are smallholder farmers expected to contribute to it? In this perspective, we describe and assess two competing visions of sustainable development, namely Capital Theory and the Capabilities approach, paying special attention to the major yet divergent repercussions each approach implies for the future of smallholder farmers and the activities of their representative organizations. We present the core concepts, tools and practices stemming from each sustainable development perspective, and from a critique of these motivate the superiority of a capabilities approach as more conducive to smallholder farmers wellbeing now and in the future. In doing so, we bring to the fore the pivotal role smallholder farmer organizations and rural social movements, as collective vehicles for smallholder political agency, play in strategically advocating for the conditions that support sustainable and just smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.

Urban waste management, including that of sanitary landfills, is an urgent matter worldwide. Scavengers at sanitary landfill sites face safety and health issues. Their human rights are often violated through social oppression, dehumanization, and exploitation. Numerous landfills have been closed by governments to address these issues. Although these closures may have brought safer, cleaner, and more equitable living environments, in some cases, the low incomes and living standards of former scavengers who continue to reside at these sites have been exacerbated. That is, there may exist different perspectives of justices for respective stakeholders (e.g., government officials and scavengers). Based on the foundation of urban social justice and the capabilities approach as a theoretical framework, and using observations and interviews, this case study examines and addresses the socioeconomic complications faced by the local residents in the post-landfill situation of Payatas in the Philippines in an attempt to work toward establishing a just city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Tropical forest frontier areas support the well‐being of local populations in myriad ways. Not only do they provide the material basis for people's livelihoods, they also sustain socio‐cultural foundations through relational values. They host some of the most biodiverse ecosystems and largest carbon stocks on the planet, and are thus a focus of global conservation efforts. They are also a prime location for the production of many global agricultural commodities. These dynamics—often intertwined—may trap local populations between powerful interests, with the potential to affect their well‐being. We conducted 100 structured interviews in four biodiversity‐rich landscapes of north‐eastern Madagascar to investigate how multi‐dimensional human well‐being is affected by the recent establishment of protected areas and surge in cash crop prices. We asked households about their satisfaction—and changes in satisfaction—with locally relevant well‐being components, mapping their answers through Nussbaum's Central Capabilities approach. We also investigated the cultural significance of key natural resources beyond the material benefits they provide. All issues were explored along four variables: site, main source of rice, gender and household land use portfolio. Our findings are as follows: first, human capabilities are interconnected and mutually interdependent, with relational values linking many of them. Second, subjective accounts of well‐being are influenced by cognitive biases, such as treadmill effects, adaptive preferences and recency bias. Third, while households perceived a positive influence of protected areas, those most reliant on forest land and products held a more negative view of conservation interventions. And fourth, while households more engaged in commercial agriculture may be benefitting economically from the recent increase in cash crop prices, these very dynamics might be leading to trade‐offs between capabilities. This is most notably so for the Bodily Health capability (e.g. greater spending on housing) and Affiliation and Bodily Integrity (i.e. worsening social relations and security). These insights highlight the importance of addressing the multiple dimensions of well‐being when assessing the impacts of conservation and economic dynamics in forest frontier populations. Particular attention should be paid to the relational values ascribed to the natural resources the communities rely on. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Social sustainability's implementation in urban development is a complex endeavour that demands alternative forms of governance. This article draws on the capabilities approach as an evaluative framework to better understand this implementation process. Through an in-depth case comparison of two Dutch urban development projects, the study analyses how collaborative governance situations (i.e. actors, activities and phases) relate to the expansions of resident capabilities in the urban areas. The findings present three principles for a 'capability-centred governance' of social sustainability in urban development: (1) integrate human logic into urban governance situations (2) balance strong goal commitment with experimentalist approaches and (3) institutionalise social sustainability implementation. The article concludes that social sustainability's implementation requires a conceptualisation in which improvements in people's lives are not seen as the self-evident consequences of a set of place-based policy interventions, but instead as a guiding principle that should continuously be reflected upon and learned from during the different phases of urban development processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of loss and damage has generated contentious debates in international policymaking and climate negotiations. Up until now, political agreements have been possible because of the use of ambiguous language in defining loss and damage. However, with the agreement of creating a specific fund for loss and damage reached in the last COP27, the need to define loss and damage becomes more pressing. This definition will not only determine to whom the funds will flow, but also what kind of measures will be funded. This paper contributes to clarifying these two issues. First, it proposes what should count, minimally, as loss and damage by specifying a minimal account of loss and damage based on the capabilities approach. This minimal account develops and justifies an ex-post perspective on loss and damage that is coherent with the UNFCCC discourse. Moreover, it proposes to differentiate between economic damage, non-economic losses, and non-economic damage. Second, it proposes a variety of reparative measures (material and symbolic) that should be implemented in response to different forms of loss and damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a Polanyian capabilitarian framework to understand and justify the universal basic income. I combine Amartya Sen's capabilities approach with Karl Polanyi's substantive view of economy to mount a normative case for basic income. Using this approach, I also ground the basic income debate in a relational ontology, the idea that the self and society are mutually constituted. By doing so, I problematise hegemonic assumptions underlying much of the basic income discourse and call for ontological and epistemic diversity. The paper both provides a critique of individualist ontology and offers an affirmative modification centred on relationality and interdependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the authors' wide reading in the field, this article suggests the notion of the narrative as a fitting and meaningful way of conceptualising and mapping the field of comparative education. Four prominent narratives can be identified in not only the field of comparative education (and the scholarly discourse on education) but also the public discourse on education. These are the narratives of the capability theory, neoliberal economics, the creed of human rights, and the call for social justice. These narratives are contrasted, and guidelines are offered for further research on reconstructing and reflecting on the current state of comparative education and its future trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories such as effective altruism contend that people are morally obligated to give to charitable organizations that will efficiently do the most net good. The assumption is that aiding people who are most in need will create the most good; yet, it may be more inefficient to reach those most in need. In response, I outline my Inefficiency Principle in which efficiency has less moral weight when aiding those lacking in basic capabilities, and efficiency has more moral weight when aiding those who are lacking in more complex capabilities. This principle acknowledges the obstacles in assisting those most in need while sustaining the moral importance of efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite social justice as an ethical imperative, racism is an ongoing problem in social work. Using critical race theory, this paper outlines the capabilities approach (CA) as one conceptual orientation toward social justice, promoting it as a useful anti-racist tool in social work. Employing CA to analyze the disproportionality in social services for racialized individuals in child welfare and health services in the United States and Canada, the article underscores the value of CA to investigate what should constitute social justice in social work. Indigenous Peoples/Native Americans and those of African descent will be the focus of attention. The article delineates how social work might utilize the commitments of CA for themselves as individuals, as well as in social work theory, education, practice, and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aimed to analyze the vulnerabilities that permeate the development of dairy activity in Rio Grande do Sul. The theoretical framework used was based on Amartya Sen's understanding of entitlements and on a systemic perspective of understanding vulnerability. Thirty-six (36) vulnerability indicators were established. A total of 110 farmers were interviewed, distributed in 29 municipalities. For the analysis of the quantitative data collected, descriptive statistics, Spearman's correlation and the chi-square test were used. As a result, it is noted that the workforce is presented as a fundamental entitlement. Thus, the availability of workers for the development of the activity, the existence of a successor in the farm and the availability of time for leisure activities are indicators of vulnerability frequently cited by producers. The availability of land for production stands out as an important entitlement for addressing vulnerabilities. The price received for the product, the variations in the price received and the recurrent droughts are sources of vulnerability recognized by at least 84% of the milk producers interviewed in this study. Finally, competition for the area held by soybean production, which has increased land costs, is attributed as a vulnerability by more than half of ranchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]