Reconciling the capability approach and the ICF

The literature on applications of the so-called “Capability Approach” of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum is extensive, but it is only recently that some have argued that its application to the analysis of disability would be a great advantage over existing analyses, and in particular preferable to t...

Disgrifiad llawn

Wedi'i Gadw mewn:
Manylion Llyfryddiaeth
Cyhoeddwyd yn:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/alterjdr,
Prif Awdur: Bickenbach, Jerome
Fformat: Article ou chapitre numérique
Iaith:Anglais
Cyhoeddwyd: Alter 2026
Pynciau:
Mynediad Ar-lein:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Disgrifiad
Crynodeb:The literature on applications of the so-called “Capability Approach” of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum is extensive, but it is only recently that some have argued that its application to the analysis of disability would be a great advantage over existing analyses, and in particular preferable to the model of functioning and disability found in the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). I argue here that care must be taken in this head-to-head comparison between the Capability Approach and ICF since the former is essentially a political-theoretical account of equalitarian justice, whereas the latter is a model of a classification system for describing disability that is explicitly neutral between any theory of distributive justice. Nonetheless, this paper argues that a careful comparison of the two approaches to the conceptualisation of disability reveals salient aspects of convergence that, arguably, point to a potential synergy between the Capability Approach as applied to disability and the ICF.