Capability Approach and Social Movements

Is the Capability Approach a Useful Tool for Social Movements? 2 issues : What are the tensions in the current social movements? Is the Capability Approach a way to help to solve this tensions?

Social Movements first challenge : Two Orientations (Geoffrey Pleyers on Alterglobalization) The way of subjectivity : commitment of individuals into real transformations at the local level. Self-transformation as a condition of world change. The way of expertise : cognitive productions, propositions at different levels of power. Is the Capability Approach is a component of an expertise complementary to (rather than contradictory with) subjectivity participative processes?

2d Challenge of Social Movements : New political Culture New Social Movements : ecological concerns/feminism/gay movements 1) New social movements : individualization of desire against institutionalized definitions of roles (like in the Welfare State). Against a unilateral definition of justice. Danger : neo-liberalism. 2) New social movements : pluralism of spheres of life is valuable (decentering from work and employment). Plural subjectivities. Multiple unequalities. 3) New social movements : focus on participation and innovation. Social and Solidary Economy. Democratic concerns in “Occupy Wall Street” and “Indignados”. Local deliberation and participation rather than representation and State politics. Collective self-organization instead of passive entitlements. Danger : pure deliberation (weak public space in Frazer’s terms)

Sen’s theory is a theory of justice and democracy A theory of justice must meet new insights of justice in late modernity : individualization and pluralization A theory of democracy must meet the question of distribution of power (it means the question of structures of institutionalized power) in social choice processes. A theory must articulate both aspects.

1. Individuals in CA : Is the CA committed to methodological individualism ? Yes and no. Yes, on the normative level : individualist ethics: how to live the life we want to live? Ethical individualism (Ingrid Robeyns) No, on the epistemological level : can introduce entities and agencies not reducible to an aggregation of individual actors or predicates. Analysis of domination Structures is compatible with the Capability Approach.

Individualization beyond Subjective Preferences Subjective measures of preferences are criticised by Sen because of the problem of adaptive preferences. It means that the objective context must be taken into account. Subjective measures of preferences or happiness or desire- fulfillment don’t take into account that « valuing a life is a reflective activity in a way that « being happy » or « desiring » need not be » (Schoenaerts). It means deliberation. Objective measures are criticised too : measures of achievements are not of spaces of opportunities and conversion factors, only « proxies » of such spaces. It means exploration of possibilities instead of realities.

CA objectivity construction Public deliberation Subjective measures Objective measures

2. Pluralisation : the focus of the « new » Capability Welfare State 1. Plurality of capabilities = plurality of engagements (theory of multiple self) 2. The quality of life as an normative concern. The issue of the quality of work is included in this frame but not only of work : family, association… 3. The different scales of inequality. Capabilities as an heuristic tool in order to discover « new inequalities » (ex : meritocracy in Sennett’s sense; gender differences in the use of « transitional rights » like the right to parental leave).

TLM/CA convergence point : the focus on individual agency and choices Ca : Normative foundation of social rights : positive freedom instead of negative freedom; individual freedom as a goal, collective rights as a tool. Implementation of rights matters : the use of rights. TLM : Normative foundation of social rights : individual agency (Dworkin) and « equipped » responsibilities; « ex-ante risk sharing instead of only compensating ex post the losers of market dynamics »

2d TLM/CA convergence point : a plural definition of self-realisation CA : Realisation of capabilities = realisation of many capabilities, flourishing of individuals TLM : decentering of labour and « making transition pay » Social rights are rights to a plurality of life styles, not only rights to and for a labour- and consumption - centered life. This is thus compatible with anti-productivist and anti- consumerist policies.

3. Democracy : the capability for voice Freedom of choice needs capability for deliberation; deliberation needs capability for voice. Capability for voice is an element of the process in a decision procedure where a selection of opportunities must be made. In this case, opportunities are substantive options. Capability for voice can itself be splitted into two different aspects : opportunities to voice and freedom of process. In this case, opportunities are occasions, institutions fora… Freedom of process means on interference of powers in the discursive process.

Capability for Voice : Bargaining and Deliberation (Elster) Preferences, interests fixed reflexive Informational basis Space of given informations Discovery procedure agenda closed open

The necessary mixture of bargaining and deliberation : collective settings of discussion Deliberation without bargaining: a lot of talk, without exchange of costs (see: new deliberative/participatory experiments, etc.) Bargaining without deliberation: exchange of costs without access to the norms organizing the exchange