A Human Empowerment Approach to Economic and SocialJustice

This book is meant for all interested in humanempowerment, the capability approach, land reform,and economic and social justice. Lawrence Daka weavestogether these themes in light of Amartya Sen'sgroundbreaking philosophical informational basis-thecapability approach. He builds on Sen's response toweaknesses of traditional economics and normativeutilitarianism as evaluative disciplines and JohnRawls' influential theory. By testing it with theZimbabwe land reform, Daka judges that Sen's approachis not a fully adequate evaluation framework in lightof increasing poverty, deprivation, anddehumanization, especially in the third worldbecause it reveals a strong individualistanthropology still operative in it. Instead offocusing on integral human beings, the approach isoverly abstract, incomplete and inconsistentespecially when applied to zones of deprivation. Inorder to achieve a better quality of life, humandignity, and an integral, comprehensive,community-oriented, and robust anthropology inevaluating individual and social advantages anddevelopment, Daka proposes a human "empowerment"understanding of economic and social justice as arevision of Sen's approach.