Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

The Creation of the Human Development Approach pp 123–140Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Happiness in Human Development: Lessons from the Capability Approach

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 440 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter addresses the necessity and possibility of including subjective information within the human development framework. To make the approach truly human-centred, it seems inevitable to reflect people’s evaluations of their own well-being instead of marginalising them due to their whimsical nature. This chapter first reviews the direct influence of the capability approach initiated by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum on the human development approach, then examines their views on happiness so as to understand its value in their work, and finally explores some possibilities for the future direction of the human development approach. Among the remaining issues the approach has confronted, this exercise would be the most challenging yet must be tackled urgently to overcome the gap between concept and practice.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alkire, S. (2002). Valuing freedoms: Sen’s capability approach and poverty reduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brülde, B. (2007a). Happiness and the good life: Introduction and conceptual framework. Journal of Happiness Studies, 8, 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brülde, B. (2007b). Happiness theories of the good life. Journal of Happiness Studies, 8, 15–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruni, L., & Porta, P. L. (2005). Introduction. In L. Bruni & P. L. Porta (Eds.), Economics and happiness: Framing the analysis (pp. 1–28). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Comim, F. (2008). Capabilities and happiness: Overcoming the informational apartheid in the assessment of human well-being. In L. Bruni, F. Comim, & M. Pugno (Eds.), Capabilities and happiness (pp. 140–159). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Comim, F., & Amaral, P. V. (2013). The human values index: Conceptual foundations and evidence from Brazil. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 37(6), 1221–1241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drèze, J., & Sen, A. K. (1995). India: Economic development and social opportunity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gasper, D. (1996). Needs and basic needs. In G. Kohler (Ed.), Questioning development: Essays on the theory, policies and practice of development interventions (pp. 71–101). Marburg: Metropolis Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gasper, D. (2004). The ethics of development: From economism to human development. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gasper, D. (2007). What is the capability approach? Its core, rationale, partners and dangers. Journal of Socio-Economics, 36, 335–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gasper, D. (2008a). Denis Goulet and the project of development ethics: Choices in methodology, focus and organization. Journal of Human Development, 9, 453–474.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haq, M. U. (1995a). A new framework for development cooperation. In M. U. Haq, R. Jolly, P. Streeten, & K. Haq (Eds.), The UN and the Bretton Woods Institutions: New challenges for the twenty-first century (pp. 239–245). Basingstoke: Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hirai, T. & Ikemoto, Y. (2017). Sen’s economics in the idea of justice: Induction vs deduction. Review of Political Economy.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirai, T., Comim, F. & Ikemoto, Y. (2016). Happiness and human development: A capability perspective. Journal of International Development, 28(7), 1155–1169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jolly, R. (2014). UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund): Global governance that works. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kroll, C. (2015). Global development and happiness: How can data on subjective well-being inform development theory and practice? Oxford Development Studies, 43(3), 281–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nettle, D. (2005). Happiness: The science behind your smile. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (1988). Nature, function, and capability: Aristotle on political distribution. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Supplementary, 145–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (1990a). Aristotelian social democracy. In R. B. Douglass, G. M. Mara, & H. S. Richardson (Eds.), Liberalism and the good (pp. 203–252). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (1990b). Love’s knowledge: Essays on philosophy and literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (1994). Therapy of desire: Theory and practice in Hellenistic ethics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (1995). Poetic Justice: The literary imagination and public life. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (1997). Cultivating humanity: A classical defence of reform in liberal education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (1999). Sex and social justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (2000). Women and human development: The capabilities approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (2001). Upheavals of thought: The intelligence of emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (2003). Aristotelian social democracy: Defending universal values in a pluralistic world. Internationale Zeitschrift für Philosophie, 2003(1), 115–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (2006). Frontiers of justice: Disability, nationality, species membership. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (2008). Who is the happy warrior? Philosophy poses questions to psychology. Journal of Legal Studies, 37(S2), S81–S113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (2010). Not for profit: Why democracy needs the humanities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (2013). Political Emotions: Why love matters for justice. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robeyns, I. (2005). The capability approach: A theoretical survey. Journal of Human Development, 6(1), 93–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. K. (1979a). Equality of what? The Tanner Lecture on human values, delivered at Stanford University. . Retrieved April 30, 2016, from http://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to-z/s/sen80.pdf

  • Sen, A. K. (1979b). Utilitarianism and welfarism. Journal of Philosophy, 76(9), 463–489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. K. (1984). Resources, values and development. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. K. (1985). Well-being, agency and freedom: The Dewey Lectures 1984. Journal of Philosophy, 82(4), 169–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. K. (1992). Inequality reexamined. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. K. (2008). The economics of happiness and capability. In L. Bruni, F. Comim, & M. Pugno (Eds.), Capabilities and happiness (pp. 16–27). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. K. (2009). The idea of justice. London: Allen Lane.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Tadashi Hirai

Authors
  1. Tadashi Hirai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Hirai, T. (2017). Happiness in Human Development: Lessons from the Capability Approach. In: The Creation of the Human Development Approach. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51568-7_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation