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3 - Beyond capabilities?

Sen’s social choice approach and the generalizability assumption

from Part I - Social Choice and Capabilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2024

Flavio Comim
Affiliation:
Universitat Ramon Llull
P. B. Anand
Affiliation:
University of Bradford
Shailaja Fennell
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

The main objective of this chapter is to show how informational pluralism can be used within Sen’s social choice framework (SSC). In order to tackle this issue, two steps are necessary. First, it is important to spell out the ‘generalizability’ assumption behind Sen’s principle of working with broad informational spaces. Second, we need to work out a method to make sense of the need to conciliate different informational spaces. By doing so, several features and issues of the capability approach can be seen as part of a systematic story. Thus, this chapter is divided into four parts. The first part explores the generalizability issue behind the capability approach. The second provides a brief characterization of Sen’s social choice approach. The third part demonstrates how it can be used through what can be named ‘generalizability tables’. Finally, the chapter briefly concludes with some suggestions for future work.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

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