This volume addresses the conditions allowing the transformation of specific children’s rights into capabilities in settings as different as children’s parliaments, organized leisure activities, contexts of vulnerability, children in care. It addresses theoretical questions linked to children’s agency and reflexivity, education, the life cycle perspective, child participation, evolving capabilities and citizenship. The volume highlights important issues that have to be taken into account for the implementation of human rights and the development of peoples’ capabilities. The focus on children’s capabilities along a rights-based approach is an inspiring perspective that researchers and practitioners in the field of human rights would like to deepen.

This compelling book introduces Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's capability approach and explores its significance for theory, policy and practice in education. The book looks particularly at questions concerning the education of children, gender equality, and higher education. Contributors hail from the UK, USA, Australia, Italy and Mexico.

Capabilities Approach The authors assess the potentials and pitfalls of the Capabilities Approach to issues of education and welfare. Renowned philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, economists and educational scientists explore the conceptual and practical implications of this approach for delivering socially just policies. The volume analyses the potentials and pitfalls of the Capabilities Approach (CA) which was initially developed by the Indian economist Amartya Sen and the American philosopher Martha Nussbaum. CA is considered as a philosophical approach to social justice, a scientific approach to research welfare production and eventually as a potentially new practically adoptable fundament for educational and social service delivery. CA is one of the currently most influential attempts to reconcile the competing demands which are associated with the fundamental conceptions of equality, recognition and liberty and advocates an egalitarian, political conception of social justice which is concerned with the cultivation, maximization and just distribution of the (real) freedom of individuals. Renowned philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, economists and educational scientists investigate the complex relation of education and welfare against the background of major economic, political and cultural transformations within and across European societies.

Western societies face many challenges. The growing inequality and the diminishing role of the welfare state and the rapid accumulation of the resources of a finite planet at the top 1% have made the world an inhospitable place to many families. Parents are left alone to deal with the big societal problems and reverse their impact on their children's educational achievement and life chances. The 'average' working family is sliding down the social ladder with a significant impact on children's learning and wellbeing. We now know that parental involvement with children's learning (although important in its own right) is not the primary mechanism through which poverty translates to underachievement and reduced social mobility. Far more relevant to children's learning and emotional wellbeing is their parents' income and educational qualifications. The mantra of 'what parents do matters' is hypocritical considering the strong influence that poverty has on parents and children. We can no longer argue that we live in a classless society, especially as it becomes clear that most governmental reforms are class based and affect poor families disproportionately. In this book, Dimitra Hartas explores parenting and its influence on children's learning and wellbeing while examining the impact of social class amidst policy initiatives to eradicate child poverty in 21st Century Britain.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book presents insights into the lived realities of children with disabilities in primary schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It examines specific cultural and societal characteristics of Ethiopia that influence the education of children with disabilities. The book presents findings drawn from interviews with, and participant observation of the schoolchildren, family members, teachers and other “experts”, and places these findings in a cultural-historical context. The multidimensional approach taken allows for, on the one hand, the provision of a historical grounding of the book, explaining the main historical junctures and their implications for education, and the discussion of the role of culture and society as barriers and facilitators of education. On the other hand, it gives the book a more personal angle, allowing the reader to gain insight into what it means to feel like a family, develop a sense of belonging, and tr ying to move toward educational equity.

If a country’s Gross Domestic Product increases each year, but so does the percentage of its people deprived of basic education, health care, and other opportunities, is that country really making progress? If we rely on conventional economic indicators, can we ever grasp how the world’s billions of individuals are really managing? In this powerful critique, Martha Nussbaum argues that our dominant theories of development have given us policies that ignore our most basic human needs for dignity and self-respect. For the past twenty-five years, Nussbaum has been working on an alternate model to assess human development: the Capabilities Approach. She and her colleagues begin with the simplest of questions: What is each person actually able to do and to be? What real opportunities are available to them? The Capabilities Approach to human progress has until now been expounded only in specialized works. Creating Capabilities, however, affords anyone interested in issues of human development a wonderfully lucid account of the structure and practical implications of an alternate model. It demonstrates a path to justice for both humans and nonhumans, weighs its relevance against other philosophical stances, and reveals the value of its universal guidelines even as it acknowledges cultural difference. In our era of unjustifiable inequity, Nussbaum shows how—by attending to the narratives of individuals and grasping the daily impact of policy—we can enable people everywhere to live full and creative lives.

Agency and Participation in Childhood and Youth presents new critical engagement in conceptualising the roles of youth agency and participation in education, development and the pursuit of social justice. Theoretically, the book is framed within the paradigm of the capability approach, initially developed by Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen, and further differentiated by others, including philosopher, Martha Nussbaum. The book unravels the complex relationships between the nature of youth agency and participation, in education, but also in wider political, economic and social arenas, and the potential of young people to expand their freedoms to lead lives they have reason to value. It is thus argued that ethical, sustainable development is contingent on the nature of youth agency and participation in schooling and further afield. Bringing together leading international experts researching children's capabilities, Agency and Participation in Childhood and Youth offers a unique exploration of links between exciting new areas of development in theory, research and practical applications of Sen and Nussbaum's ideas. The book addresses a significant gap in the literature drawing on empirical data from the UK, the USA, Jordan, Palestine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Switzerland, New Zealand and beyond, with perspectives presented from both within and outside schools and other formal educational settings. Agency and Participation in Childhood and Youth is of particular interest to academics, teaching professionals, undergraduate and postgraduate students of education studies, social policy, youth and development studies.