Operationalizing the Capability Approach – First Expert Workshop

Researchers from several disciplines such as housing, urban planning, energy and biotechnology, nowadays work with the Capability Approach (CA) – a normative framework initiated by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. While this approach provides strong principles for evaluating inequalities and injustices by looking at people’s capabilities, researchers are often puzzled by the question of how to exactly integrate the approach within their disciplines. 

Last July, a group of international scholars from different disciplines came together at TU Delft for an intensive 2-day workshop. The central questions were:  

• Which common challenges do we face when we want to operationalize the CA?  

• Does it make a difference if we work with the CA in design-oriented fields compared to purely evaluative fields?  

• What would we advise our peers and students who start working with the approach? 

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The workshop was initiated by Boram Kimhur and Céline Janssen from the faculty of Architecture and organized together with Lotte Asveld and Susan van der Veen from the faculties of Biotechnology and Technology, Policy and Management. The workshop is part of one of the Delft Design for Values Institute’s seed projects. More information on the seed project can be found here.  

A second, larger workshop will be organized at the beginning of 2025. Stay tuned to hear more!  

A great thanks to all the participants Alexandre Apsan Frediani, Annica Brummel, Claudia Basta, Udo Pesch, Margot Gonzalez Woge, Ilse Oosterlaken, Paola Velasco Herrejon, Zoe Robaey and to the support of student-assistant Anne Erven!