From Capital to Capabilities: Human Development Theory and New Directions in Economic Development

This paper investigates the potential of human development theory to provide alternatives to long-standing practical and conceptual problems in traditional economic development. We show that the capabilities approach developed by Sen and Nussbaum provides new solutions to four long-standing problems that define economic development activities focused on industrial recruitment and highly skilled professionals: (1) competition for scarce material resources, (2) connection to other planning specializations, (3) cities’ limited control over economies, and (4) coordinating the unmanageable networks that oversee plans.