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Conditions of Life, Functionings and Capability: Similarities, Differences and Complementary Features

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 10; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/19452820902941271

1945-2837

Ortrud Leßmann,

Income, Poverty, and Inequality

Abstract Abstract The German conditions of life approach to the measurement of well‐being bears some resemblance to the capability approach (CA) and can be said to anticipate some of its features. In particular, both approaches view well‐being as inherently multidimensional and suggest that freedom of choice is an important aspect of well‐being. Conditions of life are viewed as elements that together build an opportunity set from which the person can choose only one element. The paper gives a brief, chronological introduction to the conditions of life approach and considers the differences between the versions proposed by the main authors. Parallels are then drawn between the individual versions of the conditions of life approach and the CA. There are several similarities with the CA, but the conditions of life approach takes up some issues that CA more or less neglects. This thus gives rise to the question of how these issues fit into the CA. Key words: Conditions of lifeCapabilityMeasurement of well‐beingOpportunity sets Acknowledgements This paper summarizes part of my PhD thesis (Lessmann, 2007a Lessmann, O. 2007a. "'Konzeption und Erfassung von Armut — Vergleich des Lebenslage‐Ansatzes mit Sens Capability‐Ansatz'". In Volkswirtschaftliche Schriften Heft 552, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. [Google Scholar]), written as an external student at the University of Oldenburg. The work was therefore conducted in a domestic situation. I would like to thank my mentors Udo Ebert and Wolfgang Voges for helpful comments on and discussions of my thesis. In addition, I would like to thank Thomas Uebel, Volker Peckhaus, Olaf Jürgens, and three anonymous referees for their valuable suggestions and support. Ian Priestnall did a wonderful job correcting my English. Notes 1 'German' refers to the language of publication only. Otto Neurath was Austrian. 2 Most contributions to the conditions of life approach are not translated into English. An important exception to this rule is the work of Otto Neurath. Many of his writings have now been translated into English — Neurath and Cohen (1973 Neurath, M. and Cohen, R., eds. 1973. Empiricism and Sociology, Dordrecht, , Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and Uebel and Cohen (2004 Uebel, T. and Cohen, R., eds. 2004. Otto Neurath: Economic Writings, Dordrecht: Kluwer. [Google Scholar]) are the most important collections. 3 There are two translations of the German 'Lebenslage', which I use interchangeably throughout the paper: conditions of life, and life‐situation. 4 'Total socialization' means the transition of society into a socialist one. It is also the title of Neurath ([1920 Neurath, O. [1920] 2004. "'Ein System der Sozialisierung'". In Archiv fuer Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik Edited by: Uebel, T. and Cohen, R. Vol. 48(1), 44–73. (2004) Otto Neurath: Economic Writings, Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp. 345–370 [Google Scholar]] 2004). 5 Otto Neurath (1882–1945) studied mathematics, philosophy, history and economics in Vienna and Berlin. He was one of the leading members of and the organizer of the 'Vienna Circle'. This group of philosophers, mathematicians and scientists met regularly from the mid‐1920s to the mid‐1930s and discussed epistemological problems. Along with the Berlin Society for Scientific Philosophy, this group pioneered the movement of logical empiricism. Neurath had other interests as well: he founded and headed several museums in the course of his life and developed methods of visual education, which he called ISOTYPE. 6 The original reads: "Eine direkte Abschaetzung der Abstaende scheint nicht recht durchfuehrbar zu sein. Wir haben zwar gesehen, wie man zwei L miteinander vergleichen kann, aber nicht wie zwei Lustabstaende verglichen werden" (Neurath, 1911 Neurath, O. 1911. "'Nationaloekonomie und Wertlehre, eine systematische Untersuchung'". In Zeitschrift fuer Volkswirtschaftslehre, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung Edited by: Haller, R. and Hoefer, U. Vol. 20, 52–114. (1998) Gesammelte oekonomische, soziologische und sozialpolitische Schriften, vol. 4 [Google Scholar], p. 96). 7 Two interests of Neurath are combined in his suggestion of using silhouettes: his long‐standing interest in the education of the masses, and his interests in measurement problems. His search for methods of education that allow even illiterate people to understand complex problems has lead him to develop a system of symbols (ISOTYPE). See on this Neurath (1945 Neurath, O. 1945. "'Visual education. Humanisation versus popularisation'". In Encyclopedia and Utopia, Edited by: Nemeth, E. and Stadler, F. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. [Google Scholar], 1991 Neurath, O. 1991. Gesammelte bildtheoretische Schriften Edited by: Haller, R., Kinross, R., Hoelder, Pichler, Tempski and Wien. [Google Scholar]) and Nemeth (2003 Nemeth, E. 2003. "'Gesellschaftliche Tatbestaende sichtbar machen. Otto Neurath ueber den Gegenstand der Wirtschaftswissenschaft und seine Visualisierung'". In Philosophie an der Schwelle des 21. Jahrhunderts, Edited by: Czerwinska‐Schupp, E. Wien: Peter Lang. [Google Scholar]). 8 Kurt Grelling (1886–1942) studied mathematics, physics and philosophy in Goettingen, and thereafter economics in Munich. He was a student and collaborator of the philosopher Leonard Nelson, who stood in the tradition of Immanuel Kant and Jakob Friedrich Fries. Grelling joined a students association (IJB) which was founded by Nelson. His short texts on the conditions of life approach were written as contributions to the informal newsletter of the IJB. Later, Grelling turned his back on the epistemic base of Nelson's philosophy and joined the Berlin Society for Scientific Philosophy, which formed along with the 'Vienna Circle' a second group in the movement of logical empiricism. Grelling's main areas of interest consisted in symbolic logic, semantics and set‐theory. Further, he translated several writings of Bertrand Russell into German. 9 This is my own translation of Kurt Grelling: "Die Gesamtheit der von einem Menschen in einer bestimmten Periode seines Lebens faktisch befriedigten Interessen, wobei jedes einzelne mit dem Grade zu versehen ist, bis zu welchem es befriedigt wird, will ich die Lebenshaltung dieses Menschen waehrend dieser Periode seines Lebens nennen. Die Gesamtheit der moeglichen Lebenshaltungen, zwischen denen er am Anfang der Periode (etwa bei Aufstellung eines Haushaltsplanes) waehlen kann, nenne ich seine Lebenslage" (Grelling, 1921 Grelling, K. 1921. "'Zum Prinzip der Gueterverteilung'". In Neunter wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher Rundbrief, Frankfurt am Main: Archiv fuer Hessische Schulgeschichte, Nelson‐Nachlass. Akte VIII, Nr. 203a,b [Google Scholar], p. 1f). 10 Since there is only the one short paper of Grelling where he outlines his conditions of life approach, we can only guess why he introduced freedom of choice in his approach. His mentor Leonard Nelson (1936 Nelson, L. 1936. Die Theorie des wahren Interesses, Berlin: Oeffenliches Leben. [Google Scholar]) always pointed out that a 'true interest' demands active choice (on this, see Lessmann, 2007a Lessmann, O. 2007a. "'Konzeption und Erfassung von Armut — Vergleich des Lebenslage‐Ansatzes mit Sens Capability‐Ansatz'". In Volkswirtschaftliche Schriften Heft 552, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. [Google Scholar]). Furthermore, Grelling had a strong interest in set theory. 11 Originally: "Interessen sind nicht addierbar und folglich auch nicht zahlenmaessig messbar". 12 Gerhard Weisser (1898–1989) studied economics and philosophy in Goettingen and Munich. Like Grelling he was a student of Leonard Nelson and joined the students association IJB founded by Nelson. His first writings on the conditions of life approach can be found in the same informal newsletter of the IJB as Grelling's. After the Second World War, Weisser held a chair on social policy at the University of Cologne. The notion of 'life‐situations' formed the starting point of his concept of social policy. At the same time he was engaged in the German social democratic party and in the protestant church of Germany. Subsequently, he made the notion 'life‐situation' known among German politicians. 13 This is very difficult to translate. The original reads as follows: "Als Lebenslage gilt der Spielraum, den die aeusssseren Umstaende dem Menschen fuer die Erfuellung der Grundanliegen bieten, die ihn bei der Gestaltung seines Lebens leiten oder bei moeglichst freier und tiefer Selbstbesinnung und zu konsequentem Verhalten hinreichender Willensstaerke leiten wuerden". 14 Originally: "Die Lebenslage formen sich in einem Prozess, den die Gesellschaft bewirkt und fuer den ihre Mitglieder daher eine originaere Verantwortung tragen" (Weisser, 1956 Weisser, G. 1956. "'Soziale Sicherheit'". In Beitraege zur Gesellschaftspolitik, Edited by: Weisser, G. Goettingen: Otto Schwarz & Co. 1978 [Google Scholar], p. 302). 15 In 'A Similar Line of Thought in Neurath and Sen: Interpersonal Comparability' (Lessmann, 2008 Lessmann, O. 2008. "'A similar line of thought in Neurath and Sen: interpersonal comparability'". In Neurath's Economics in Context Edited by: Nemeth, E., Schmitz, S. and Uebel, T. 115–130. Springer, Berlin Vienna Circle Yearbook 13 [Google Scholar]), I have worked out these ideas in more detail. In 'Utility and the Measurement of Well‐being: A Similar Line of Thought and a Fundamental Dissent in Neurath and Sen' (Lessmann, forthcoming Lessmann, O. forthcoming. "'Incomparability, incommensurability and incompleteness in Neurath and Sen'". In Basic Income and Sustainability. The Other Austrian Economics and the Ecological Left, Edited by: Nemeth, E., Stagl, S. and Uebel, T. Chicago: Open Court. [Google Scholar]), I focus on Neurath's and Sen's attitude towards commensurability. 16 At least Sen and Nussbaum agree on the importance of providing people with the opportunity to choose the life they value. Apart from that, the question of paternalism in Nussbaum and Sen deserves a more thorough analysis and discussion. 17 Alkire (2002 Alkire, S. 2002. Valuing Freedoms: Amartya Sen's Capabilities Approach and Poverty Reduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 40) criticizes the multiplicity of methods Nussbaum uses and asks why the different methods should all support the same list. More recently, Jaggar (2006 Jaggar, A. 2006. 'Reasoning about well‐being: Nussbaum's methods of justifying the capabilities'. Journal of Political Philosophy, 14(3): 301–322. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) criticized "Nussbaum's methods of justifying the capabilities". 18 This example also shows that Neurath takes the whole situation into consideration and is opposed to calculate utility by means of adding up utility sums. In particular, he does not believe in additive separability (Lessmann, forthcoming Lessmann, O. forthcoming. "'Incomparability, incommensurability and incompleteness in Neurath and Sen'". In Basic Income and Sustainability. The Other Austrian Economics and the Ecological Left, Edited by: Nemeth, E., Stagl, S. and Uebel, T. Chicago: Open Court. [Google Scholar]). This is why he demands to draw silhouettes of conditions of life and assess them as a whole. 19 A translation of Neurath (1931 Neurath, O. [1931] 1973. "'Empirische soziologie'". In Schriften zur wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung, Edited by: Frank, P. and Schlick, M. 358–421. Wien: Springer. Translation in Neurath, M. and Cohen, R. (Eds) (1973) Empiricism and Sociology, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland [Google Scholar]) can be found in Neurath and Cohen (1973 Neurath, M. and Cohen, R., eds. 1973. Empiricism and Sociology, Dordrecht, , Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). However, I have changed the translation of this passage (Neurath [1931 Neurath, O. [1931] 1973. "'Empirische soziologie'". In Schriften zur wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung, Edited by: Frank, P. and Schlick, M. 358–421. Wien: Springer. Translation in Neurath, M. and Cohen, R. (Eds) (1973) Empiricism and Sociology, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland [Google Scholar]] 1973, p. 396) in several ways: I replace "living standards" with 'life‐situation' and "terrain of life" with 'basis of life', in line with Uebel and Cohen (2004 Uebel, T. and Cohen, R., eds. 2004. Otto Neurath: Economic Writings, Dordrecht: Kluwer. [Google Scholar]). I have also changed the second sentence in order to grasp its meaning better. The German original is the following: "Sowie man in der Berufspruefung einem jungen Mann allerlei Hebel, Schrauben usw. vorlegt und ihm die Aufgabe stellt, eine Konstellation zu finden, die Hubleistungen ermoeglicht, so kann man bei gegebenem Lebensboden die Frage stellen, welche Lebenslagenleistung eine Lebensordnung erzeugen kann. Die jeweils erzeugte Lebenslage wird selbst zu einem Stueck Lebensboden, mit dem weiterhin gerechnet werden muss" (Neurath, [1931 Neurath, O. [1931] 1973. "'Empirische soziologie'". In Schriften zur wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung, Edited by: Frank, P. and Schlick, M. 358–421. Wien: Springer. Translation in Neurath, M. and Cohen, R. (Eds) (1973) Empiricism and Sociology, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland [Google Scholar]] 1973, p. 119). 20 Sen also refers to freedom of choice as the process aspect of his approach. But Sen does link this process to the time it takes. 21 Namely, Anton Amann (1983 Amann, A. 1983. "'Lebenslagen und Sozialarbeit'". In Sozialwissenschaftliche Schriften Heft, Vol. 7, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. [Google Scholar]) and Rainer Wendt (1984 Wendt, W.R. 1984. 'Lebenslagen und Not'. Blaetter der Wohlfahrtspflege, 131(5): 107–110. [Google Scholar], 1988 Wendt, W.R. 1988. 'Das Konzept der Lebenslage'. Blaetter der Wohlfahrtspflege, 135(4): 79–83. [Google Scholar]) have interpreted the conditions of life approach in that way. See also Voges (2002 Voges, W. . 'The standard of living approach as conceptual frame for a reporting on poverty and wealth'. paper presented at the International Centre for Comparative Research in the Social Sciences. April12, Vienna. [Google Scholar]), who draws a parallel to the sociological theory of Coleman (1990 Coleman, J.S. 1990. Foundation of Social Theory, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar]). 22 This view is expressed by Schulz‐Nieswandt (1995 Schulz‐Nieswandt, F. 1995. "'Theo Thiemeyer ueber "Public Choice" — Rueckblick und Fortentwicklungsbedarf'". In Sozialpolitik und oeffentliche Wirtschaft, Edited by: Neumann, L. and Schulz‐Nieswandt, F. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. [Google Scholar], p. 59) (but I cannot translate it): "Sozialphilosophisch gesprochen geht es um die Konstitution personaler Identitaet im dialektischen Wechselspiel von Entwurf und Faktizitaet. Philosophisch gesehen ist die Lebenslage daher als 'In‐der‐Welt‐Sein' immer beides: Entwurf (Sartre) und Geworfensein (Heidegger)". 23 Within the CA the importance of time and processes is acknowledged. See especially the contributions to the 3rd Conference on the Capability Approach in 2003 [http://cfs.unipv.it/sen/third.html]. See also Grasso (2002 Grasso, M. 2002. 'A dynamic operationalization of Sen's capability approach', Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale, Università degli Studi di Milano Biocacca. Working Paper 59 [Google Scholar]), Comim (2004 Comim, F. . 'Time and adaptation in the capability approach'. paper presented at the 4th International Conference on the Capability Approach. September5–7, Pavia, Italy. [Google Scholar]), Clark and Hulme (2005 Clark, D. and Hulme, D. 2005. "'Towards a unified framework for understanding the depth, breadth and duration of poverty'". In GPRG‐WPS‐020, Oxford: Global Poverty Research Group. [Google Scholar]) and Teschl and Comim (2005 Teschl, M. and Comim, F. 2005. 'Adaptive preferences and capabilities: some preliminary conceptual explorations'. Review of Social Economy, 62(2): 230–247. [Google Scholar]). 24 Again I have replaced 'standard of living' by 'conditions of life' or 'life‐situation' and 'profile' by 'silhouette' in the translation. The original reads as follows: "Man kann nun darangehen, die Lebenslagen verschiedener Menschen auf Grund objektiv angebbarer Merkmale miteinander zu vergleichen. Man kann also in jedem Zeitabschnitt ein Lebenslagenrelief aufstellen, das sich aendert. Zunaechst ist das Lebenslagenrelief derart, dass jedes Individuum besonders behandelt wird. Man kann aber auch verwandte Gruppen zusammenfassen und eine Art Durchschnitt herstellen; etwa Bevoelkerungsklassen auf ihre Lebenslage hin untersuchen" (Neurath, [1931 Neurath, O. [1931] 1973. "'Empirische soziologie'". In Schriften zur wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung, Edited by: Frank, P. and Schlick, M. 358–421. Wien: Springer. Translation in Neurath, M. and Cohen, R. (Eds) (1973) Empiricism and Sociology, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland [Google Scholar]] 1973, pp. 125–126). 25 That is my own translation. Originally: "Mitglieder einer Gesellschaft, deren Spielraum bei der Befriedigung einer Mehrzahl bestimmter lebenswichtiger Interessen annaehernd der gleiche ist, moegen dadurch gekennzeichnet worden, dass sie dem gleichen 'Lebenslage‐Typus' angehoeren. Man kann den Versuch machen, den Inhalt des Begriffs 'Bevoelkerungsschicht' vom begriff des Lebenslage‐Typus aus zu bestimmen …" (Weisser, 1951 Weisser, G. 1951. "'Hauptmerkmale des Begriffs 'Lebenslage' (Erlaeuterung zum Ersten Teil meiner Vorlesung ueber Sozialpolitik)'". In Archiv der sozialen Demokratie Akte 842, Bonn: Nachlass Gerhard Weisser. [Google Scholar], pp. 2–3). 26 Incidentally, a first paper on that subject was presented by Roche (2006 Roche, J.M. . 'Capability and life chances: an assessment of two analytical traditions'. paper presented at the HDCA Conference,. Groningen. [http://www.capabilityapproach.com/pubs/1_2_Roche.pdf] [Google Scholar]) in the same session of the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA) conference in Groningen at which I presented this paper. Apart from that, Grusky and Kanbur (2006 Grusky, D. and Kanbur, R., eds. 2006. Poverty and Inequality, Stanford: Stanford University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) edited a volume on 'Poverty and Inequality' that brings together writings on the capability approach, the measurement of multi‐dimensional poverty and social stratification. 27 Some differences in the conception of capability are present within the CA as well (Lessmann, 2007b Lessmann, O. 2007b. "'Effective freedom and external capabilities: two different conceptions of capability'". In Beitraege zur Wirtschaftsforschung Nr. 152, University of Hamburg. Sozialoekonomisches Seminar (Institute of SocioEconomics) [Google Scholar]).