Agency and the Process Aspect of Capability Development: Individual Capabilities, Collective Capabilities, and Collective Intentions

Abstract

This paper addresses the process aspect of capability development in connection with the debate in the capability approach over the relationship between individual and collective capabilities by combining Sen’s ‘privateness’ interpretation of different aspects of the self and Granovetter’s social embeddedness framework. It interprets Sen’s commitment aspect of the self in collective intentionality terms, uses this to explain his view of ‘identification with’ social groups, and then uses social identity theory’s distinction between relational and categorical social group identities to explain a general relationship between individual and collective capabilities. The paper applies this analysis to three broad domains of social embeddedness – market activity, public deliberation, and community participation – in order to explain the process aspect of capability development in terms of how each domain balances individual and collective capabilities.

Keywords: Sen, process aspect, Granovetter, collective capabilities, self, collective intentions, social identity

JEL Classification: B41, D01, D70