The author examines how Amartya Sen's capability approach can be coherently—and practically—put to work in participatory poverty reduction activities so that the voices and values of the poor matter. Sen argues that economic development should expand ‘valuable’ capabilities; the author probes how what is valuable can be identified. Sen deliberately left the capability approach ‘incomplete’ in order to ensure its relevance to persons and cultures with different understandings of the good. The book has an introductory chapter, followed by 2 parts, and a brief appendix that looks at some of Sen's ... More

The author examines how Amartya Sen's capability approach can be coherently—and practically—put to work in participatory poverty reduction activities so that the voices and values of the poor matter. Sen argues that economic development should expand ‘valuable’ capabilities; the author probes how what is valuable can be identified. Sen deliberately left the capability approach ‘incomplete’ in order to ensure its relevance to persons and cultures with different understandings of the good. The book has an introductory chapter, followed by 2 parts, and a brief appendix that looks at some of Sen's formalized relationships and proposes various amendments to these. Part I (4 chapters) proposes a framework for identifying valuable capabilities that retains this ‘fundamental’ incompleteness and space for individual and cultural diversity. It draws Sen's work into discussion with a number of authors and critics, especially John Finnis, in order to suggest a possible way in which the value issues may be addressed coherently, and the methodological implications worked out in a participatory manner. The author addresses foundational issues regarding the identification and pursuit of valuable dimensions of human development based in practical reason, then observes that much of the criticism of development arises from negative impacts on social or cultural/religious dimensions that are also deeply valued by the poor. Part I closes with a four‐part ‘operational definition’ of basic capability that bridges ‘basic needs’, participation, and informed consent. Part II (2 chapters) critically discusses one narrow set of methodologies (those of micro‐project evaluation) and suggests a tool for improving the evaluation of participatory projects that are consistent with the tenets of reason advanced in Part I—an alternative participatory method for systematically identifying valued changes in participants’ capability sets. Three case studies of women's income generation activities in Pakistan—goat‐rearing, adult literacy, and rose cultivation—contrast economic cost‐benefit analysis of each activity with capability analysis.