The relationship between the neighborhood environment and well-being is attracting increasingly attention from researchers and policymakers,as the goal of development has shift from economy to well-being.However,exist...The relationship between the neighborhood environment and well-being is attracting increasingly attention from researchers and policymakers,as the goal of development has shift from economy to well-being.However,existing literature predominantly adopts the utilitarian approach,understanding well-being as people’s feelings about their lives and viewing the neighborhood environment as resources that benefit well-being.The Capability Approach,a novel approach that conceptualize well-being as the freedoms to do or to be and regard environment as conversion factors that influence well-being,can offer new lens by incorporating human development in-to these topics.This paper proposes an alternative theoretical framework:well-being is conceptualized and measured by capability;neighborhood environment affects well-being by providing spatial services,functioning as environmental conversion factors,and serving as social conversion factors.We conducted a case study of Changshu City located in eastern China,utilizing multiple resource data,applying explainable artificial intelligence(XAI),namely eXtreme Gradient Boosting(XGBoost)and SHapley Additive exPlana-tions(SHAP).Our findings highlight the significance of viewing the neighborhood environment as a set of conversion factors,as it provides more explanatory power than providing spatial services.Compared to conventional research based on linear relationship as-sumption,our results demonstrate that the effects of neighborhood environment on well-being are non-linear,characterized by threshold effects and interaction effects.These insights are crucial for informing urban planning and public policy.This research enriches our un-derstanding of well-being,neighborhood environment,and their relationship as well as provides empirical evidence for the core concept of conversion factors in the capability approach.展开更多
This paper explores how empirical capability approach studies assess well-being for young and old generations in affluent countries, defined as high-income OECD countries. After a brief overview on the theoretical cap...This paper explores how empirical capability approach studies assess well-being for young and old generations in affluent countries, defined as high-income OECD countries. After a brief overview on the theoretical capability background and empirical core decisons, the authors discuss empirical capability studies on the well-being of children, adolescents and the elderly. The authors find that the issues of child and youth well-being have been increasing interested by capability researchers while despite of the importance of demographic change, few researchers deal with old-age issues. The authors conclude that for young as well as old generations, capability approach studies confirm that income assessment is not sufficient to capture well-being for the young and the old but has to be enriched by a more comprehensive perspective on capabilities and functionings. Moreover, it is recommendable and issues that have already entered the agenda of studies on for research on elderly to adopt research methods, questions capabilities of children and young adults. As capability sets for both, young and old generations are in general characterized by changes, i.e., expansions in the case of children, declines in the case of older people, both may benefit from a more dynamic perspective on life cycles on their way to potential dynamic capability theories and empirics.展开更多
Poverty remains one of the most pressing global challenges of this era,affecting millions of people across both developing and developed countries.The poverty alleviation resettlement(PAR)is a policy with Chinese char...Poverty remains one of the most pressing global challenges of this era,affecting millions of people across both developing and developed countries.The poverty alleviation resettlement(PAR)is a policy with Chinese characteristics for eradicating poverty.By integrating the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach,this study developed a theoretical framework to analyze the factors influencing the well-being of poverty alleviation migrants(PAMs).A telephone survey conducted between July and August 2022 in Hubei Province,Guizhou Province,Shaanxi Province,and Chongqing Municipality of China yielded 259 valid questionnaires.Using the partial least squares-structural equation modeling(PLS-SEM),this study revealed that financial accessibility,health level,living conditions,and social networks significantly enhanced the well-being of PAMs,with living conditions having the strongest impact on the well-being of PAMs.Furthermore,the factors affecting well-being varied across age groups.Social networks played a more significant role in the elderly group,whereas health level had a greater impact on the young and middle-aged group.These findings deepen the understanding of the PAR and its effects on the well-being of PAMs,offering valuable insights for policy-makers and practitioners to refine poverty alleviation strategies and enhance social welfare.展开更多
Existing food insecurity instruments are focused largely on the financial constraints associated with acquiring sufficient amounts of food.This narrow focus has resulted in underestimating the true prevalence of food ...Existing food insecurity instruments are focused largely on the financial constraints associated with acquiring sufficient amounts of food.This narrow focus has resulted in underestimating the true prevalence of food poverty,particularly in high-income countries.Food poverty needs to be defined as capability deprivation,extending from the nutritional to the temporal,spatial,qualitative and affective aspects of eating.In this article,the Alkire-Foster counting approach is evaluated and an alternative method for measuring such multidimensional food poverty is proposed.The method is demonstrated by using evidence from interviews with 53 single mothers,the most highrisk social group in Japan.On the basis of an operational definition of food deprivation and poverty cut-offs,16 mothers(30%)were identified as living in food poverty,followed by a qualitative analysis of their deprivation profiles.The results show that the economically-poor were highly likely to fall into food poverty,but that food poverty also occurred without economic deprivation,notably among the mental or physical illness carriers and long-hour workers.This multidimensional and decomposable measurement tool is effective for identifying foodpoor populations not reflected in traditional food insecurity measurement instruments.展开更多
While the capability approach is increasingly being adopted for evaluating well-being and social justice in the field of human development,this approach in disaster research has remained scarce.This research thus seek...While the capability approach is increasingly being adopted for evaluating well-being and social justice in the field of human development,this approach in disaster research has remained scarce.This research thus seeks to address the disaster risk that humans face through a lens of capabilities,with a focus on the lives of people with disabilities.A multi-case study approach was adopted and two rural communes in Vietnam were selected as study con texts.Data were collected using focus group discussions and interviews that involved people with disabilities,parents/caregivers of people with intellectual/psychosocial disabilities,and representatives from related organizations.It was found that people with disabilities are affected by disasters due to the lack of capabilities that they value in coping with disasters.A range of capabilities that people with disabilities value was revealed in the study sites,with many being valued not only in times of disasters but also in daily life.The findings also highlight that,to actualize their valued capabilities,people with disabilities need access not only to resources but also to the factors that enable them to convert the resources to their valued capabilities.In most cases,the limitations to the achievement of capabilities are related to the external environment.展开更多
This paper explores the relationship between girls’schooling and empowerment in western China in the first decade of the 21st century.This paper adopted a capability-empowerment framework based on Sen’s capability a...This paper explores the relationship between girls’schooling and empowerment in western China in the first decade of the 21st century.This paper adopted a capability-empowerment framework based on Sen’s capability approach into which were integrated concepts by Bourdieu,Appadurai,Nussbaum,Kabeer,and Unterhalter,to help to understand the tenacity with which village girls pursued schooling.In interviews with a group of 23 girls and young women,several valued functionings of intrinsic capability sets in the freedom dimensions of well-being and agency and their association with rising levels of school attainment were found.The girls were found to be gaining empowering capabilities through schooling,but that these were not equally distributed,neatly slicing the group into two sharply defined groups with different life paths.One set dropped out in the middle school years with a smaller set of empowerment capabilities to work in low-skilled jobs in cities,which offered them new places to change.The other set remained in school longer to achieve a larger set of empowering functionings that they converted into more substantive freedoms in a variety of settings.展开更多
基金Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.42271230,42330510)。
文摘The relationship between the neighborhood environment and well-being is attracting increasingly attention from researchers and policymakers,as the goal of development has shift from economy to well-being.However,existing literature predominantly adopts the utilitarian approach,understanding well-being as people’s feelings about their lives and viewing the neighborhood environment as resources that benefit well-being.The Capability Approach,a novel approach that conceptualize well-being as the freedoms to do or to be and regard environment as conversion factors that influence well-being,can offer new lens by incorporating human development in-to these topics.This paper proposes an alternative theoretical framework:well-being is conceptualized and measured by capability;neighborhood environment affects well-being by providing spatial services,functioning as environmental conversion factors,and serving as social conversion factors.We conducted a case study of Changshu City located in eastern China,utilizing multiple resource data,applying explainable artificial intelligence(XAI),namely eXtreme Gradient Boosting(XGBoost)and SHapley Additive exPlana-tions(SHAP).Our findings highlight the significance of viewing the neighborhood environment as a set of conversion factors,as it provides more explanatory power than providing spatial services.Compared to conventional research based on linear relationship as-sumption,our results demonstrate that the effects of neighborhood environment on well-being are non-linear,characterized by threshold effects and interaction effects.These insights are crucial for informing urban planning and public policy.This research enriches our un-derstanding of well-being,neighborhood environment,and their relationship as well as provides empirical evidence for the core concept of conversion factors in the capability approach.
文摘This paper explores how empirical capability approach studies assess well-being for young and old generations in affluent countries, defined as high-income OECD countries. After a brief overview on the theoretical capability background and empirical core decisons, the authors discuss empirical capability studies on the well-being of children, adolescents and the elderly. The authors find that the issues of child and youth well-being have been increasing interested by capability researchers while despite of the importance of demographic change, few researchers deal with old-age issues. The authors conclude that for young as well as old generations, capability approach studies confirm that income assessment is not sufficient to capture well-being for the young and the old but has to be enriched by a more comprehensive perspective on capabilities and functionings. Moreover, it is recommendable and issues that have already entered the agenda of studies on for research on elderly to adopt research methods, questions capabilities of children and young adults. As capability sets for both, young and old generations are in general characterized by changes, i.e., expansions in the case of children, declines in the case of older people, both may benefit from a more dynamic perspective on life cycles on their way to potential dynamic capability theories and empirics.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(T2261129477,42471297,42101203)the Central Universities Basic Scientific Research Business Fund Project(2024CDJSKXYGG06,2022CDJJJ-010).
文摘Poverty remains one of the most pressing global challenges of this era,affecting millions of people across both developing and developed countries.The poverty alleviation resettlement(PAR)is a policy with Chinese characteristics for eradicating poverty.By integrating the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach,this study developed a theoretical framework to analyze the factors influencing the well-being of poverty alleviation migrants(PAMs).A telephone survey conducted between July and August 2022 in Hubei Province,Guizhou Province,Shaanxi Province,and Chongqing Municipality of China yielded 259 valid questionnaires.Using the partial least squares-structural equation modeling(PLS-SEM),this study revealed that financial accessibility,health level,living conditions,and social networks significantly enhanced the well-being of PAMs,with living conditions having the strongest impact on the well-being of PAMs.Furthermore,the factors affecting well-being varied across age groups.Social networks played a more significant role in the elderly group,whereas health level had a greater impact on the young and middle-aged group.These findings deepen the understanding of the PAR and its effects on the well-being of PAMs,offering valuable insights for policy-makers and practitioners to refine poverty alleviation strategies and enhance social welfare.
基金supported by JSPS KAKENHI,Grant Number(ID:21J01732 and 22K14956)the Lotte Foundation,Grant Number(ID:LF000805).
文摘Existing food insecurity instruments are focused largely on the financial constraints associated with acquiring sufficient amounts of food.This narrow focus has resulted in underestimating the true prevalence of food poverty,particularly in high-income countries.Food poverty needs to be defined as capability deprivation,extending from the nutritional to the temporal,spatial,qualitative and affective aspects of eating.In this article,the Alkire-Foster counting approach is evaluated and an alternative method for measuring such multidimensional food poverty is proposed.The method is demonstrated by using evidence from interviews with 53 single mothers,the most highrisk social group in Japan.On the basis of an operational definition of food deprivation and poverty cut-offs,16 mothers(30%)were identified as living in food poverty,followed by a qualitative analysis of their deprivation profiles.The results show that the economically-poor were highly likely to fall into food poverty,but that food poverty also occurred without economic deprivation,notably among the mental or physical illness carriers and long-hour workers.This multidimensional and decomposable measurement tool is effective for identifying foodpoor populations not reflected in traditional food insecurity measurement instruments.
文摘While the capability approach is increasingly being adopted for evaluating well-being and social justice in the field of human development,this approach in disaster research has remained scarce.This research thus seeks to address the disaster risk that humans face through a lens of capabilities,with a focus on the lives of people with disabilities.A multi-case study approach was adopted and two rural communes in Vietnam were selected as study con texts.Data were collected using focus group discussions and interviews that involved people with disabilities,parents/caregivers of people with intellectual/psychosocial disabilities,and representatives from related organizations.It was found that people with disabilities are affected by disasters due to the lack of capabilities that they value in coping with disasters.A range of capabilities that people with disabilities value was revealed in the study sites,with many being valued not only in times of disasters but also in daily life.The findings also highlight that,to actualize their valued capabilities,people with disabilities need access not only to resources but also to the factors that enable them to convert the resources to their valued capabilities.In most cases,the limitations to the achievement of capabilities are related to the external environment.
文摘This paper explores the relationship between girls’schooling and empowerment in western China in the first decade of the 21st century.This paper adopted a capability-empowerment framework based on Sen’s capability approach into which were integrated concepts by Bourdieu,Appadurai,Nussbaum,Kabeer,and Unterhalter,to help to understand the tenacity with which village girls pursued schooling.In interviews with a group of 23 girls and young women,several valued functionings of intrinsic capability sets in the freedom dimensions of well-being and agency and their association with rising levels of school attainment were found.The girls were found to be gaining empowering capabilities through schooling,but that these were not equally distributed,neatly slicing the group into two sharply defined groups with different life paths.One set dropped out in the middle school years with a smaller set of empowerment capabilities to work in low-skilled jobs in cities,which offered them new places to change.The other set remained in school longer to achieve a larger set of empowering functionings that they converted into more substantive freedoms in a variety of settings.
