Call for Papers – SASE mini-conference
23.-25. June 2011
The Capability Approach: A New Perspective on Labor Market and Welfare Policies?
Current transformations of capitalism, affecting different levels of political and economic organization as well as social structure and dynamics, raise the question from which perspective this comprehensive change is to be observed and judged. The choice of the point of reference crucially impacts on how we think about the current transformation. In the debate about measuring societal progress, the Capability Approach (CA), as brought forward by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, has become prominent as a new evaluative framework. Instead of staying on an aggregate level, it takes the perspective of the individual, and instead of confining itself to monetary aspects, it takes a multi-dimensional stance. Beyond this, the CA is most concerned with people’s freedom as a constituent of a good life – both the freedom to choose between ways of life and the freedom to influence processes of change. Moreover, the CA addresses the question of justice in terms of enhancing each person’s freedom, understood as broadening her (multi-dimensional) opportunities. With regard to people’s working lives, the mini-conference aims at exploring whether the CA does indeed provide an adequate perspective for judging the transformation of contemporary capitalism and whether it can provide guidance for politics. We invite theoretical and empirical papers on how the CA can be applied to the fields of labor market, labor relations, and the welfare state. Scholars adopting different perspectives towards the usefulness of the CA in this context are invited to share their views on this increasingly influential paradigm.
Organizers: Peter Bartelheimer (University of Goettingen), Ortrud Lessmann and Wenzel Matiaske (Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg)
SASE mini-conferences invite submissions of extended abstracts (approximately 1000 words). Deadline for submissions: 15. January 2011. Submit via www.sase.org. Acceptance will be notified in March. Full papers are due June 1st.