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Cited by 279

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 57 of the 57 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Sen's capability approach and the many spaces of human well-being

Clark, David A.·2005·Journal of Development Studies

Abstract

Following Amartya Sen, this paper contends that the capability approach provides a better framework for thinking about human well-being and development than more traditional approaches which typically focus on utility or resources. This is illustrated by drawing on the results of a survey which investigated how ordinary people in South Africa view human well-being (a ‘good’ form of life). However, the results of this exercise indicate that the capability approach overlaps with both utility (happiness, pleasure, etc) and resource-based concepts of well-being. The distinctions between commodities (and their characteristics), human functioning and utility is less robust than Sen implies. In particular, the capability approach needs to make more space for the role of utility (defined broadly to include all valuable mental states) and say more about the material basis of well-being.

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Metadata

Authors
Clark, D. A.
Venue
Journal of Development Studies
Published
2005-11
Volume
41
Issue
8
Pages
1339-1368
ISSN
  • 0022-0388 (ISSN-L)
  • 1743-9140
OpenAlex
W2014568439
Cited by
279
References
57
FWCI
18.16
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Sen's capability approach and the many spaces of human well-being. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1080/00220380500186853
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Clark, D. A. (2005). Sen's capability approach and the many spaces of human well-being. Journal of Development Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220380500186853

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

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