Multidimensional Well-Being, Deprivation and Inequality

This volume explores several aspects of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum's framework for thinking about individual well-being. Called thefunctioning and capability approach (FCA), this framework radically departs fromtheconventional approach totheconcept ofindividual well-being in welfare economics insofar as it identifies an individual's well-being as thevalue attached totheindividual's achievements along certain dimensions oflife and her freedom tochoose a vector ofsuch achievements rather than as theindividual's happiness or desire fulfillment. Thevolume consists oftwo main parts. Part I outlines and studies thebasic conceptual and analytical framework and its major features in detail. Part II ofthebook is devoted toapplication oftheanalytical structure oftheFCA topractical problems ofmeasuring well-being, deprivation, and inequality in a society. Thebook concludes witha discussion ofthemain conclusions ofearlier chapters and therole ofsocial scientists and philosophers in theFCA. This volume will be ofinterest tostudents, researchers, and practitioners studying multidimensional well-being, deprivation and inequality.