Using the capability approach to analyze contemporary environmental governance challenges in coastal Brazil
Open accessAbstract
Conservation and development are often framed as a dichotomy, requiring trade-offs. But trade-offs can be due to the particular political situation and to relationships of domination, and are not necessarily the inevitable result of intractable situations. Amartya Sen’s capability approach, which centers on human development, has enjoyed increasing applications in the environment area, but little in the commons literature. This article applies the capability approach framework to analyze human development in Trindade, Brazil, by answering key questions that are central to this approach (1) What kind of lives are people able to live? Are they able to be or do what they have reason to value? and (2) What is the quality of economic, social and political relations in Trindade? Three main 'shocks' emerge: (a) Conflict with external commercial developers, (b) Paving of access road into community, and (c) Enforcement of protected area regulations on historical community land and sea space. Capability priorities were established for women, men, older adults, and people with disabilities. The impacts of development and conservation policies are different for the four groups, as are the priorities for capabilities. The case demonstrates that space for public participation is not sufficient to ensure that the people who are trying to improve their wellbeing, and be the author of their own lives, can influence the outcome. It also shows that regular contact through public participation does not necessarily create empathy, as Sen assumed in The Idea of Justice.
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The growing movement by Indigenous women to assert their rights and move to self-determination in sustainable environmental and spiritual practices and development creates a positive discourse that advances Indigenous women's position in crossing obstacles onto institutional places of privilege.
“The growing movement by Indigenous women to assert their rights, and to move to self-determination in sustainable environmental and spiritual practices and development, creates a positive discourse that advances Indigenous women's position in crossing the obstacles onto”
From Sacred Sites Protection and Indigenous Women’s Activism: Empowering Grassroots Social Movements to Influence Public Policy. A Look into the “Women of Standing Rock” and “Idle No More” Indigenous Movements (2020) · cites this paper as Bockstael and Berkes 2017
A passage labeled Acknowledgments (page unavailable) says Indigenous and rural communities advocate for resource rights and cultural ways of life, and notes a move toward more participatory conservation. It does not specifically describe a movement by Indigenous women, spiritual practices, or a positive discourse enabling women to cross barriers into institutional privilege. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe Women of Standing Rock and Idle No More movements highlighted that there are many situations where Indigenous Peoples have significantly reduced capabilities and opportunities to live in accordance with their traditional and spiritual values because of resource appropriation, inadequate resource protection, or resource exploitation.
“On the one hand, The Women of Standing Rock and the Idle No More movements highlighted how there are many situations where Indigenous Peoples have significantly reduced capabilities, and opportunities, to live in accordance with their traditional and spiritual values because of resource appropriation, inadequate resource protection, or resource exploitation (Bockstael and Berkes 2017).”
From Sacred Sites Protection and Indigenous Women’s Activism: Empowering Grassroots Social Movements to Influence Public Policy. A Look into the “Women of Standing Rock” and “Idle No More” Indigenous Movements (2020) · cites this paper as Bockstael and Berkes 2017
The passage labeled Acknowledgments (page unavailable) says that Indigenous and rural communities advocate for resource rights and cultural ways of life that are threatened. It does not identify the Women of Standing Rock or Idle No More, or establish that the listed forms of resource appropriation, inadequate protection, and exploitation reduced their capabilities. Searches for both movements and those mechanisms found no supporting passage. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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Cites
Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach
Nussbaum, M. C. (2000) · Cambridge University Press · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511841286 · Cited by 6,103 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Bockstael, E., & Berkes, F.
- Affiliations
- University of Manitoba (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Bockstael, Erika
- ORCID
- Berkes, Fikret
- Venue
- International Journal of the Commons
- Publisher
- Ubiquity Press, Ltd.
- Published
- 2017-09
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 799-822
- ISSN
- 1875-0281 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2765994308
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 1.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of the Commons (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Coastal and Marine Management
- Social Sciences › Education › Community and Sustainable Development
- Keywords
- capability approach, environmental governance, coastal communities, conservation-development trade-offs, protected areas, commons, citizen participation, people with disabilities, older adults, road access, human development, Amartya Sen
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