IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jhudca/v19y2018i1p70-88.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Moving Towards a Capability for Meaningful Labor

Author

Listed:
  • Timothy Weidel

Abstract

Martha Nussbaum argues that the capability approach to human development is grounded in an intuitive conception of what a life worthy of human dignity entails. This image is coupled with a conception of truly human functionings as a measure for development. It is not enough to establish what goods people require, but rather to consider what they can actually do or become with those goods. Nussbaum acknowledges that the philosophical grounding for her list of central human capabilities is influenced by Aristotle through the early Marx. Despite admitting this influence, I argue that Nussbaum's incorporation omits a central facet of Marx's image of truly dignified humans: the importance of meaningful labor. This omission seriously undercuts the possibility of the capabilities approach providing persons with a life worthy of human dignity. In this paper, I develop and defend an argument for including a capability for meaningful labor in Nussbaum's list of central human capabilities. After an explication of Marx's understanding of a fully human life, I will discuss the limits of Nussbaum's capabilities list with respect to the topic of meaningful labor. I also consider how Nussbaum's discussion of a capability to hold property elucidates both the necessity and feasibility of a capability for meaningful labor. Lastly, I consider some potential political implications of this proposed capability.

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy Weidel, 2018. "Moving Towards a Capability for Meaningful Labor," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 70-88, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jhudca:v:19:y:2018:i:1:p:70-88
    DOI: 10.1080/19452829.2017.1408575
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/19452829.2017.1408575
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/19452829.2017.1408575?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew Sayer, 2012. "Capabilities, Contributive Injustice and Unequal Divisions of Labour," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 580-596, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nicolas BUENO, 2021. "Freedom at, through and from work: Rethinking labour rights," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(2), pages 311-329, June.
    2. Stephens, Thomas C., 2023. "The quality of work (QoW): towards a capability theory," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119832, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Stephens, Thomas C., 2023. "Change, stagnation, and polarisation in UK job quality, 2012-2021: evidence from a new Quality of Work index," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120050, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gasper, D.R., 2020. "Amartya Sen, social theorizing and contemporary India," ISS Working Papers - General Series 126789, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    2. Ulriksen, Marianne S. & Plagerson, Sophie, 2014. "Social Protection: Rethinking Rights and Duties," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 755-765.
    3. Jackson, William A., 2015. "Distributive Justice With and Without Culture," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 8(6), pages 673-688.
    4. Bouzarovski, Stefan & Simcock, Neil, 2017. "Spatializing energy justice," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 640-648.
    5. Balihar Sanghera, 2018. "Contributive Injustice and Unequal Division of Labour in the Voluntary Sector," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 23(2), pages 308-327, June.
    6. Jackson, William A., 2014. "External Capabilities and the Limits to Social Policy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 125-142.
    7. McGrath, Simon & Powell, Lesley, 2016. "Skills for sustainable development: Transforming vocational education and training beyond 2015," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 12-19.
    8. Patrick Bottazzi, 2019. "Work and Social-Ecological Transitions: A Critical Review of Five Contrasting Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-19, July.
    9. McGrath, Simon & Alla-Mensah, Joyceline & Langthaler, Margarita, 2018. "Skills for decent work, life and sustainable development: Vocational education and the sustainable development goals," Briefing Papers 18, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    10. Cristian Timmermann & Georges Félix, 2015. "Agroecology as a vehicle for contributive justice," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(3), pages 523-538, September.
    11. Kashour, Mohammad, 2023. "A step towards a just transition in the EU: Conclusions of a regression-based energy inequality decomposition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jhudca:v:19:y:2018:i:1:p:70-88. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CJHD20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.