The place of technology in the Capability Approach

Abstract Increasing scholarly attention has focussed on how to integrate technology within the Capability Approach (CA), yet without a consistent solution. Some describe technology as a special kind of capability input, but others consider the concept of technology to be fundamentally different from that of an ordinary input. We aim to contribute to the theoretical development of the CA by offering a consistent justification for the explicit inclusion of technology in this framework. We propose that technical objects have a ‘generative’ and a ‘transformative’ dimension through which they enable capabilities directly and affect other inputs in the attainment of valued capabilities. The objects acquire the transformative dimension from the broader technological context, which we propose as a new class of conversion factors. Using the example of mobile phones and their role in healthcare access, we demonstrate that our proposal helps to frame the analysis of the development impact of technology.

[1]  I. Oosterlaken,et al.  Inserting Technology in the Relational Ontology of Sen's Capability Approach , 2011 .

[2]  E. T. Oosterlaken,et al.  Taking a Capability Approach to Technology and Its Design : A Philosophical Exploration , 2013 .

[3]  R. Stirrat.  Money and the morality of exchange: Money, men and women , 1989 .

[4]  Jeroen van den Hoven,et al.  The Capability Approach, Technology and Design , 2012 .

[5]  A. Gell.  The social life of things: Newcomers to the world of goods: consumption among the Muria Gonds , 1986 .

[6]  Yingqin Zheng,et al.  Different spaces for e-development: What can we learn from the capability approachq , 2009 .

[7]  Ilse Oosterlaken.  Technology and Human Development , 2015 .

[8]  Åke Grönlund,et al.  Development as freedom – how the Capability Approach can be used in ICT4D research and practice , 2012, Inf. Technol. Dev..

[9]  Richard Heeks,et al.  Impact Assessment of ICT-for-Development Projects: A Compendium of Approaches , 2009 .

[10]  P. Dasgupta.  Nutritional status, the capacity for work, and poverty traps , 1997 .

[11]  Leopoldina Fortunati.  The mobile phone as technological artefact , 2005 .

[12]  Marco J. Haenssgen.  Exploring the mismatch between mobile phone adoption and use through survey data from rural India and China , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS).

[13]  William F. Birdsall,et al.  Human capabilities and information and communication technology: the communicative connection , 2011, Ethics and Information Technology.

[14]  Helena Grunfeld,et al.  The contribution of information and communicationtechnologies for development (ICT4D) projects tocapabilities, empowerment and sustainability :a case study of iREACH in Cambodia , 2011 .

[15]  B. Stahl,et al.  Technology, capabilities and critical perspectives: what can critical theory contribute to Sen’s capability approach? , 2011, Ethics and Information Technology.

[16]  J. Parry,et al.  Money and the Morality of the Exchange , 1989 .

[17]  G. Walsham.  ICTs for the Broader Development of India: An Analysis of the Literature , 2010, Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Dev. Ctries..

[18]  P. Lemonnier.  The study of material culture today: toward an anthropology of technical systems , 1986 .

[19]  A. Panagariya.  NATIONAL COUNCIL OF APPLIED ECONOMIC RESEARCH , 2014 .

[20]  Jeroen van den Hoven,et al.  Human Capabilities and Technology , 2012 .

[21]  L. Hooper,et al.  The effects of oral iron supplementation on cognition in older children and adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis , 2010, Nutrition journal.

[22]  Richard Ling,et al.  Taken for Grantedness: The Embedding of Mobile Communication into Society , 2012 .

[23]  B. Pfaffenberger.  Social Anthropology of Technology , 1992 .

[24]  Mathias Hatakka,et al.  What are we doing? : theories used in ICT4D research , 2013 .

[25]  Edith Ofwona Adera,et al.  Political economy of ICTs and their effect on poverty , 2014 .

[26]  Assa Doron,et al.  The Great Indian Phone Book: How the Cheap Cell Phone Changes Business, Politics, and Daily Life , 2013 .

[27]  I. Robeyns.  The Capability Approach in Practice , 2006 .

[28]  Dorothea Kleine,et al.  The capability approach and the ‘medium of choice’: steps towards conceptualising information and communication technologies for development , 2011, Ethics and Information Technology.

[29]  E. Rogers.  Diffusion of Innovations , 1962 .

[30]  H. Singer,et al.  Book Review: Poverty and Famines-An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation , 1982, Journal of Xidian University.

[31]  N. Martins.  Ethics, Ontology and Capabilities , 2007 .

[32]  Justine Johnstone.  Capabilities and technology , 2012 .

[33]  A. Kellerman,et al.  The Constitution of Society : Outline of the Theory of Structuration , 2015 .

[34]  A. Sen,et al.  The Mobile and the World , 2010 .

[35]  Satinder P. Singh,et al.  Introduction , 2002, British Journal of Ophthalmology.

[36]  G. Ranis,et al.  Technology and Human Development , 2013 .

[37]  F. Stewart,et al.  Amartya Sen’s contribution to development thinking , 2002 .

[38]  Simon Forge,et al.  Thumb Culture: The Meaning of Mobile Phones for Society , 2007 .

[39]  C. Lawson,et al.  Technology and the Extension of Human Capabilities , 2010 .

[40]  J. Lansing,et al.  Balinese “Water Temples” and the Management of Irrigation , 1987 .

[41]  S. Revi Sterling,et al.  Minding the gaps: cultural, technical and gender-based barriers to mobile use in oral-language Berber communities in Morocco , 2013, ICTD.

[42]  I. Oosterlaken,et al.  Design for Development: A Capability Approach , 2009, Design Issues.

[43]  T M Waema.  Introduction: The ICT/poverty nexus in Africa , 2014 .

[44]  Björn-Sören Gigler.  Informational Capabilities - The Missing Link for the Impact of ICT on Development , 2011 .

[45]  Séverine Deneulin,et al.  An introduction to the human development and capability approach : freedom and agency , 2009 .

[46]  Ilse Oosterlaken,et al.  Editorial: ICT and the capability approach , 2011, Ethics and Information Technology.

[47]  Yingqin Zheng,et al.  Different spaces for e-development: What can we learn from the capability approach? , 2009, Inf. Technol. Dev..

[48]  Justine Johnstone,et al.  Technology as empowerment: a capability approach to computer ethics , 2007, Ethics and Information Technology.

[49]  L. eng,et al.  Sustainable livelihoods guidance sheets , 1999 .

[50]  Dorothea Kleine,et al.  POLICY ARENA ICT4WHAT?— USING THE CHOICE FRAMEWORK TO OPERATIONALISE THE CAPABILITY APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT , 2010 .

[51]  L. Dye,et al.  A systematic review of the effect of breakfast on the cognitive performance of children and adolescents , 2009, Nutrition Research Reviews.

[52]  Dorothea Kleine,et al.  Technologies of Choice? ICTs, Development and the Capabilities Approach , 2014 .

[53]  Mark Coeckelbergh,et al.  Human development or human enhancement? A methodological reflection on capabilities and the evaluation of information technologies , 2011, Ethics and Information Technology.

[54]  J. Foster.  External Capabilities , 2008 .

[55]  Masatake Yamamichi,et al.  Mobile applications for the health sector , 2012 .

[56]  R. Alsop,et al.  Measuring Empowerment in Practice: Structuring Analysis and Framing Indicators , 2005 .

[57]  A. Bebbington.  Capitals and Capabilities: A Framework for Analyzing Peasant Viability, Rural Livelihoods and Poverty , 1999 .

[58]  Björn-Sören Gigler,et al.  Including the Excluded - Can ICTs Empower Poor Communities? Towards an Alternative Evaluation Framework Based on the Capability Approach , 2004 .

[59]  I. Robeyns.  Please Scroll down for Article Journal of Human Development the Capability Approach: a Theoretical Survey the Capability Approach: a Theoretical Survey , 2022 .