The (European) welfare state as well as the political space of “the social” is currently being reorganised in a fundamental way. This has major implications for any attempt to contribute to a more just or even emancipatory way of shaping “the social”. The authors discuss what the Capabilities Approach may contribute to this attempt. Rather than assessing the philosophical foundation of this approach, “Shaping the Social” critically discusses the potentials and pitfalls of analysing social and labour-market policy and in particular social services from a capabilities perspective.
The Capability Approach founded by Armatya Sen and Martha Nussbaum offers a justicebased analytical framework for human development. The contributions to the present volume show how the Capability Approach can be applied productively in empirical analyses of the life situations of young people and the educationalinstitutions they attend in different parts of the world including Serbia, Kosovo, Kenya, India, Greece, and Germany. Moreover, the volume helps to extend the Capability Approach by relating it to different theoretical and methodological approaches such as the capability concept of Paul Ricoeur, critical materialism, critical discourse analysis, and biographical research. Thus, the volume delivers comprehensive insights into the social (in) justices to be found not only on the level of individual life paths but also in institutions and in educational policy while showing innovative ways of applying the Capability Approach in the social sciences.
The volume suggests a capability perspective for evaluating welfare and educational policies. Capabilities are conceptualized as people’s freedom to choose and conduct a life they have reason to value. The contributions of this volume analyze what social institutions – in particular in the field of education and welfare – may provide in order to enhance capabilities in particular for most vulnerable people.
Capabilities Approach The authors assess the potentials and pitfalls of the Capabilities Approach to issues of education and welfare. Renowned philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, economists and educational scientists explore the conceptual and practical implications of this approach for delivering socially just policies. The volume analyses the potentials and pitfalls of the Capabilities Approach (CA) which was initially developed by the Indian economist Amartya Sen and the American philosopher Martha Nussbaum. CA is considered as a philosophical approach to social justice, a scientific approach to research welfare production and eventually as a potentially new practically adoptable fundament for educational and social service delivery. CA is one of the currently most influential attempts to reconcile the competing demands which are associated with the fundamental conceptions of equality, recognition and liberty and advocates an egalitarian, political conception of social justice which is concerned with the cultivation, maximization and just distribution of the (real) freedom of individuals. Renowned philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, economists and educational scientists investigate the complex relation of education and welfare against the background of major economic, political and cultural transformations within and across European societies.
The quest to create an evidence-based Social Work practice is emerging strongly in different fields of Social Work and social policy. In this volume internationally renowned proponents and opponents of this approach deliver profound analyses of the meaning and implications of an evidence based perspective which clearly challenges the nature of the knowledge base of the established Social Work practice and apparently reevaluates and reshapes the character of welfare professionalism. Aus dem Inhalt: What Knowledge? Evidence-based Practice, Profession and Users Organising, Measuring and Implementing Evidence Towards an Evidence-based Professionalism
Mit diesem international besetzen Sammelband wird das Thema des 'Capability Approach' erstmals für die deutschsprachige Erziehungswissenschaft zusammengefasst. In der Bestimmung und Definition von 'Handlungsbefähigung' wird der Versuch unternommen, sowohl pädagogisch als auch sozialanalytisch zu einem neuen Gerechtigkeitsbegriff zu kommen, der die Zukunft der Erziehungswissenschaft maßgeblich beeinflussen kann.
Welche Bedeutung haben technische Ausstattung und soziale Zugangsorte für die Teilhabe im virtuellen Raum? Welchen Einfluss haben soziale Rahmenbedingungen auf Nutzungsdifferenzen und welche Ausprägungen finden sich in dieser Hinsicht bei Jugendlichen? In der Beantwortung dieser neuen Fragestellungen führt der Band international herausragende ExpertInnen aus verschiedenen Disziplinen zusammen. Zentrale Fragen der Bildungsteilhabe in der Informations- und Wissensgesellschaft gerade für die nachwachsende Generation, die häufig als DIE Mediengeneration schlechthin gilt, werden im Zusammenhang mit der Problematik der digitalen Spaltung thematisiert und systematisiert. Die erstmalige Zusammenfassung dieser unterschiedlichen Blickwinkel führt zu neuen Erkenntnissen über die Bildungsherausforderungen des Internet.
