What is it about?
The article is about the relevance of the capabilities approach to one of sociology's core categories, namely agency. I argue that sociology's normative rigor can be enriched if agency is configured along the research program of the Capabilities Approach.
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Why is it important?
It is original and important because it provides an opportunity to rethink sociologically a normative program that stems primarily from economics and political philosophy.
Perspectives
I have become fascinated by the scope and normative appeal of the CA since 2006 when I first read Sen's 'Development as Freedom'. Since then I explored the potential of a sociological approach to the CA via common themes like the project of a value-laden economics and the problem of values, the opportunity to salvage alienation from semantic confusion reconstructing it as capability deprivation and to search for synergies with the CA that enable us to rethink better the concept of agency in sociology.
Dr Spiros Gangas
DEREE THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF GREECE
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This page is a summary of: From agency to capabilities: Sen and sociological theory, Current Sociology, September 2015, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0011392115602521.
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