Mario Biggeri

Children Conceptualizing their Capabilities: Results of a Survey Conducted during the First Children's World Congress on Child Labour *

This paper reports the results of a research project that allowed children to define their capabilities as the basis of a bottom‐up strategy for understanding the relevant dimensions of childrens well‐being. The subjects of this research were children participating in the ‘Childrens World Congress on Child Labour’ held in Florence in May 2004, organized by the Global March against Child Labour and other associations. Children were invited to interact and express their opinions on the most relevant issues related to their childhood and adolescence. The paper has three main aims. The first is to propose and legitimate a view that considers children not simply as recipients of freedoms, but also as participants in the process of delineating a set of core capabilities. The second is to propose a methodological approach to the conceptualization of a list of relevant capabilities. The third is to identify a tentative list of relevant capabilities for children through a participatory bottom‐up approach. One of the key findings of the research is that, among the capabilities conceptualized, education, love and care are primary in terms of relevance. *. This paper is a result of the research project ‘Children Establishing Their Priorities: Developing Bottom Up Strategies for Understanding Children’s Well Being and Childhood, and their Impact on Research on Child Labour’, a collaboration between the organizers of the Children’s World Congress on Child Labour, especially the Global March Against Child Labour, and the NGO Mani Tese and the PhD Course in Politics and Economics of Developing Countries at the University of Florence, Italy. The study is carried out by a research group of the University of Florence composed of economists, development economists, statisticians, demographers, anthropologists and psychologists. We acknowledge the support of the University of Florence and of the Fondazione Culturale Banca Popolare Etica (the funds, which enabled us to cover some expenses, were donated by the family of Pia Paradossi, who was a much‐loved member of Mani Tese Firenze).

Understanding China's move into Africa: an empirical analysis

An important new issue on the international scene is the upsurge in market and non-market South–South relations. The aim of this paper is to understand the dynamics that lie behind the recent Chinese move into Africa by empirically exploring the determinants of Sino-African relationships. In order to have a comprehensive picture, the analysis takes into consideration the main channels of commercial and political interactions: outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), trade and aid (international economic cooperation). The empirical analysis utilises a panel data set, from 1998 to 2005, for 43 African countries. The econometric estimates for three simultaneous equations are based on an instrumental variables method. Results show that the Chinese move into Africa is driven by strategic interaction among the three channels (FDI, trade and economic cooperation) as well as by pull factors, i.e. the characteristics of the receiving countries in terms of natural resource endowments and their market potential.

Children’s Agency and the Capability Approach: A Conceptual Framework

The aim of this chapter is to explore the possibilities for fruitfully using the capability approach (CA) as a theoretical foundation for understanding children as subjects of human development. This means considering children not simply as recipients of freedoms, but as active social actors and agents in their communities with their own priorities, strategies and aspirations. By doing so, we hope to contribute to the current theoretical debate on the assessment of children’s well-being with a simple and useful framework. Our overarching goal is to improve policies towards children’s well-being.

Children’s Valued Capabilities

This chapter considers the perceptions that children themselves hold 1 regarding the relevance of education for their own well-being. The human development of children can be regarded as “an expansion of capabilities” or of “positive freedoms.” Capabilities, choices, and conditions during childhood and adolescence crucially affect children’s position and capabilities as adults. Deficiencies in important capabilities during childhood not only reduce the well-being of those suffering from the deficiencies, but may also have larger societal implications. Results from field studies carried out in Italy, India, and Uganda, which located children at the center of a bottom-up strategy for understanding the relevant dimensions of children’s well-being, are reported. In relation to democratic dialogue about selecting capabilities, it is argued that children are capable of understanding and contributing thoughtful opinions. The overall concern is to demonstrate what children think they should be able to do and be, that is, their valued capabilities. It considers that an operationalization of the capability approach has to deal with the issue of defining a list of relevant capabilities, although this need not have a universal character.

The Missing Dimensions of Children's Well-being and Well-becoming in Education Systems: Capabilities and Philosophy for Children

The objectives of this paper are twofold. The first is to consider how the capability approach can help rethink the policy goals of educational systems by analysing well-being and well-becoming from an individual and societal point of view. The second is to explore Philosophy for Children as a suitable pedagogical approach to promote capable agents and enhance critical, creative and caring thinking. The paper is divided into four parts. After a background is sketched, the capability approach and the concept of evolving capabilities are disentangled in order to rethink educational systems. The Philosophy for Children approach is then presented as a pedagogical base and possible instrument to foster the individual faculties (creativity, critical thinking and care) needed to flourish and participate fully in society (these are usually missing in achievement-based educational systems). In the final part of the paper the main elements of change are recalled and some conclusions are offered.

Key Factors of Recent Chinese Provincial Economic Growth

The aim of this paper is to analyse the factors that affected Chinese provincial economic growth after the reforms of the early 1980s, through a panel analysis (period 1986–2001). The production function approach focuses on human capital, ‘space-serving’ infrastructure, sectoral allocation of labour and institutional changes. Indices relevant for the analysis are elaborated and provincial capital stocks are estimated. The empirical results indicate the positive role of capital stock, human capital and physical infrastructure and underline that sectoral allocation of labour and institutional changes affected the level of aggregate output. A redistribution policy in favour of the inland provinces needs to be implemented so that human capital and infrastructure can be enhanced, bottlenecks can be overcome and investment can be attracted.

Opportunity Gap Analysis: Procedures and Methods for Applying the Capability Approach in Development Initiatives

Abstract This article explores the importance of and value added by applying the capability approach to strategize, design, monitor or evaluate development initiatives, by operationalizing this agency-oriented (participatory) and opportunity-based perspective and by widening standard methods to deal with new informational spaces. In the first part of the paper a dynamic analytical framework on capabilities expansion/reduction processes—which places at the central stage the opportunity gaps between valuable community functionings and individual capability sets—is presented. These gaps represent the policy area where tailored and appropriate place-specific and people-centred development initiatives can entail the maximum expansion of real freedoms. Then, on the basis of this framework, the paper presents an original participatory methodology—the “O-Gap Analysis”—which can complement standard methods to provide systematized assessments of capabilities within communities to inform policy actions. An empirical case study is also discussed, analysing the application of this methodological procedure regarding a community-based rehabilitation project in Uganda. Applying the capability approach policy interventions cannot be necessarily unique for all individuals or social groups experiencing opportunity gaps for what they have reason to value, as different barriers or mix of barriers and conversion factors, values, desires and aspiration call for tailored people-centred development initiatives.

From Valuing to Evaluating: Tools and Procedures to Operationalize the Capability Approach

As we have seen in Chapter 1, the operationalization of the capability approach (CA) has not been an easy task. While the CA has been used as an alternative programming and evaluative framework for projects carried out by NGOs in developing countries (Alkire, 2002; Ferrero et al., 2006; Frediani, 2007, among others), there is still a relative lack of tools and procedures available (Robeyns, 2006). Indeed, the evaluation and analysis of children’s well-being can enrich the informational base for multidimensional social assessments in the space of capabilities. Nevertheless, this requires techniques for identifying, prioritizing, measuring and comparing diverse capability sets in different situations (see also Alkire, 2008).

Child Poverty as Capability Deprivation: How to Choose Domains of Child Well-being and Poverty

As mentioned at the beginning of the book, there are several reasons why child poverty1 should be a much more important topic of development than it has been so far. At least five aspects are worth mentioning. First, children are disproportionately represented among the poor as they constitute a high share of the population in developing countries (from a third to a half), so reducing poverty necessarily means reducing child poverty. Second, child poverty, especially if persistent, often has irreversible effects for the current cohort of children, so there is a permanent pay-off from addressing them (in terms of mental, physical, emotional and spiritual development) (Mehrotra, 2006). Third, children are often hit hardest by poverty, household shocks and economic and social crises. Furthermore, reducing poverty for children by increasing their entitlements reduces future poverty, through an inter-generational transfer of poverty. Moreover, child poverty cannot be confined merely to the material aspects of children’s lives (Biggeri et al., 2006). If poverty, in general, has a multidimensional character this is especially true for children, as the relevance of different domains changes according to age. For instance, to be able to move is arguably less relevant for an infant than for an eight-year-old child.

Small and medium enterprise theory: evidence for Chinese TVEs

The research analyses small and medium enterprises (SMEs), i.e. township and village enterprises (TVEs), operating in rural China over the last decade. It focuses on factors that affect the growth of TVEs run by Township and Village (TV), defined as collective, at provincial level. The paper examines SME theory and the role of human capital in the SMEs development. Following this, it analyses the development of Chinese TVEs and their role in the socio-economic development of rural areas and of the national economy. A panel analysis is then performed, using provincial panel data of collective TVEs over the period 1986-93, in order to capture the major determinants of provincial growth. The results of the panel estimations highlight some important features of TVEs run by TV sector, and provide empirical evidence in support to the positive role of clustering (measured through a new index) and human capital in the provincial growth of this sector. Copyright