Abstract
This chapter provides the background for the book tracing the history of the capabilities approach in Sen and Nussbaum’s work. It provides an introductory overall framework both to the capability and human security approaches. It argues that both Sen and Nussbaum should take on the topic of sustainability as it entails fundamental shifts in the way we understand the capability approach, not least in relation to future generations. The chapter also outlines the book as a whole.
I would like to thank Des Gasper for his insightful and thoughtful comments and suggestions.
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Notes
- 1.
It is to be lamented that the rights of non-human animals, which Nussbaum has written extensively about (e.g. Nussbaum 2006) are not included in this book.
- 2.
A further problem arises in that originally Sen used the singular “capability” rather than the plural “capabilities”, whereas Nussbaum speaks of her “capabilities approach”. The singular version referred also to “a capability set” which is a set of potential functionings. The plural and singular forms now tend to be used without much differentiation between the two (see Robeyns (2005) or Gasper (2002, section 4) for further discussion).
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Crabtree, A. (2020). Capabilities, Human Security and the Centrality of Sustainability. In: Crabtree, A. (eds) Sustainability, Capabilities and Human Security. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38905-5_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38905-5_1
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