Thu, 28 October 2021 - 09:30 – 11:00

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This seminar aims to bring together Glasgow researchers who are or may be interested in using Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach to understand and address inequalities. This 90 minute event will provide a theoretical overview of the capabilities approach, three practical examples of how it has been used in social and health research in Glasgow, and a discussion of potential future applications.

Our talks and speakers include:

1. 'Introduction to the Capabilities Approach' by Dr Richard Brunner

This talk explores questions such as what is the Capabilities Approach? What concepts does it use? What makes it useful for addressing social and health inequalities?

2. 'Children's Neighbourhoods Scotland and the Capabilities Approach' by Dr Maureen McBride

Children’s Neighbourhoods Scotland (CNS) uses the capabilities approach in its work with children and young people in high poverty neighbourhoods. The right for children and young people to participate in decisions about their lives has been enshrined in Article 12 of the United Nations Rights of the Child (UNCRC), and in March 2021 the Scottish Parliament voted to incorporate the UNCRC into Scottish Law. However it is imperative that participation is both meaningful and inclusive. For young people living in poverty, voice and participation is even more important. Poverty has a profound effect on young people’s life chances, and being able to articulate their concerns is a vital first step towards addressing inequalities. This presentation describes how using the capabilities approach in our participatory research has enabled children and young people to create frameworks of wellbeing goals, which have then provided direction to CNS Local Coordinators and other partners in responding to these areas of action.

3. 'Capabilities and mental health' by Dr Richard Brunner

Macro level data indicate that people with mental distress experience poor health, social and economic outcomes. The sociology of mental health has competing explanations of the mechanisms at personal, social and structural levels that generate these poor outcomes. Using the capabilities approach, findings from an in-depth qualitative study exploring the lived experiences of twenty-two people with recent inpatient experience of psychiatric units in Scotland are presented. The capabilities approach is used to reconceptualise how poor outcomes happen for this group, bringing four added features: a focus on actual lived outcomes; the role of capabilities as well as functionings; being normative; and incorporating agency. The findings have implications for mental health systems and practices and suggest that the capabilities approach offers a fertile basis for normative studies in wider aspects of health and wellbeing

4. 'How can the Capabilities Approach help in disability research?' by Professor Nicholas Watson

Within sociology there are two key paradigms in research on disability. Focus can either be placed on the individual experience of illness and impairment, as found in much medical sociology, or on the barriers and exclusions disabled people face as they go about their day to day lives, as found in disability studies. Both of these approaches only provide partial answers. The aim of this talk is to explore the potential of the Capabilities Approach in disability research and how it may help to provide a more complete and potentially useful approach.

First published: 28 October 2021

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