Jérôme Pelenc

Sustainable Human Development and the Capability Approach: Integrating Environment, Responsibility and Collective Agency

The purpose of this paper is to address three major shortcomings of Sens capability approach with regard to sustainability: (i) First, the weakness of the ecological dimension of the capability framework. This can be overcome by devising a place where it is possible to relate the intrinsic and instrumental values of Nature; (ii) Second, the issue of responsibility, which is only considered from a consequentialist viewpoint by Sen (i.e. ex-post responsibility). Such a restrictive view can be extended by adding the ex-ante dimension of responsibility; (iii) Third, the relationship between the individual and collective levels. This can be overcome by introducing the idea of collective agency. Overcoming these limitations makes it possible to fully integrate the ecological dimension into an extended vision of the capability approach which makes it consistent with strong sustainability, and which leads to a new definition of the agent as a responsible person acting so as to generate sustainable human development.

The contribution of Biosphere Reserves to regional sustainability: an institutional approach

This paper suggests that the institutional theory gives us a comprehensive view of basic institutional obstacles that influence the contribution Biosphere Reserves (BR) deliver to regional sustrainability. Using the four aspects of path dependence, fit, scale and interplay outlined by institutional theory as analytical axes for the analysis, the implementation and institutionalisation of six different BRs is analysed by this article. Institutional theory shows that BR models offer a way to fit in with regional characteristics while providing a cooperative tool for regional sustainability. Nevertheless, the ideas of implementing a BR not only follow bottom-up approaches with the broad involvement of local stakeholders, but also have often started from the top. The manner of their implementation has different effects on the acceptanceand perception of the BR as an institution.