capabilities and Latin American critical traditions Carballo, A.

242 Pages·2012·2.33 MB·English

WestminsterResearch
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Empowering development: capabilities and Latin American
critical traditions
Carballo, A.

This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster.
© Miss Ana Carballo, 2016.
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EMPOWERING DEVELOPMENT:
CAPABILITIES AND LATIN AMERICAN CRITICAL TRADITIONS



Ana Estefanía Carballo

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
WESTMINSTER FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY.
JANUARY, 2016.
ABSTRACT

This thesis theoretically and critically examines the move towards people-centred
approaches to development. It offers a critical examination of the work of Amartya Sen
using theoretical resources emerging from Latin American traditions.
Amartya Sen’s calls to understand Development as Freedom (1999) have significantly
influenced mainstream development thinking and practice, constituting the clearest
example of people-centred approaches to development today. Overcoming the
limitations of previous state-centred notions of development articulated around ideas of
economic growth, in Sen’s Capability Approach (CA) development is seen as a process
of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. In this understanding, the agency of
development shifts from the state to individuals and the analytic focus moves from
economic growth to individual capabilities. In this manner, this framework is structured
towards the central goal of empowerment, wherein the expansion of capabilities is seen
both as the means and end of development. Since its inception, the widespread support
for the CA has allowed for the expansion of ethical considerations within mainstream
development thinking.
Even while the remarkable advances offered by Sen’s work should be praised, this thesis
argues that these have come with new limitations. These limitations stem from, what is
termed here, a “Paradox of Empowerment” that effectively encloses Sen’s approach
within Western notions of development. While Sen’s approach is poised to provide a
theoretical framework that is built on the expansion of freedom and individual agency,
there is little agency here to move beyond the ideas of development fundamentally
linked to liberal democracies and market economies. This thesis engages with several
critical traditions from Latin America, recovering their often undervalued insights for
development thinking. Crucially, this engagement provides the critical framework to
illustrate the aforementioned paradox and explore multiple dimensions of
empowerment central for contemporary development thinking and practice. In this, the
thesis engages Sen’s work with the Liberation Theology of Gustavo Gutierrez, with Paulo
Freire’s Critical Pedagogy and with the contemporary discussions of ‘Buen Vivir’
associated with Indigenous philosophies of the Andean region. Throughout its chapters,
it uncovers the conceptual baggage within the Paradox of Empowerment in Sen’s work
and examines the ethical challenges and boundaries of this approach in relation to the
collective dimension of development processes, the possibilities for structural
transformation and concerns for sustainability. Progressively engaging the different
dimensions of this paradox, this thesis advances the recovery of the transformative
potential of the ideas of empowerment for development.


ABSTRACT │ 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................2
TABLE OF CONTENTS .........................................................................................................................3
ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................................................6
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .........................................................................................................................7
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ............................................................................................................9
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 11
Development of What? People-centred approaches to development .............................. 15
Why Latin America? ........................................................................................................... 21
Overview of thesis chapters and main arguments .............................................................. 24
Some methodological remarks............................................................................................ 27
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 30
CHAPTER 1 - THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEVELOPMENT: LATIN AMERICA AND THE SEARCH FOR
DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES ...................................................................................................... 32
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 32
The Emergence of Development Theory and the Modernization Imperative ................ 36
Latin America and the resistance to mainstream paradigms of development .................. 39
Revisiting the acknowledged Latin American contributions to development theory 41
The periphery of Development theory: Introducing Liberation Theology and Critical
pedagogy’s contribution to development .................................................................... 46
The Theoretical and Empirical Contestations of Development Theory .......................... 52
Overcoming the Impasse: The Search for Development Alternatives.............................. 55
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 60
CHAPTER 2 - DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM: MAINSTREAMING DEVELOPMENT ETHICS .......... 63
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 63
The limitations of 'positive' economics: the need for an ethical perspective ..................... 68

TABLE OF CONTENTS│ 3
Capabilities as fundamental elements for an ethical consideration of economics ............ 73
Capabilities as freedom: The capability approach as an ethical consideration of
development ......................................................................................................................... 78
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 86
CHAPTER 3 - THE PARADOX OF EMPOWERMENT IN SEN’S CAPABILITY APPROACH ................ 87
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 87
Understanding Empowerment in the capability approach................................................. 90
The Paradox of Empowerment: The political and economic dimensions of empowering
practices ................................................................................................................................ 96
Freedom as Empowerment: .............................................................................................. 103
The theoretical core of Human Development Policies ................................................... 103
Conclusion and next steps ................................................................................................. 110
CHAPTER 4 - DEVELOPMENT AS LIBERATION: THE COLLECTIVE DIMENSION OF
EMPOWERMENT ............................................................................................................................. 113
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 113
Development as Liberation: The preferential option for the poor ................................. 116
The collective dimension of development in Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach ....... 123
The communal dimension of liberation: Solidarity and Christian Base Communities .. 129
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 135
CHAPTER 5 - DEVELOPMENT AS CONSCIENTIZAÇAO: THE TRANSFORMATORY POTENTIAL OF
DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................................................................... 138
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 138
Paulo Freire and the emergence of participatory development ....................................... 142
The transformatory potential of development: Freire’s work beyond participatory
methodologies .................................................................................................................... 148
Empowerment as Conscientização ............................................................................ 150
Development as Conscientização ..................................................................................... 152
An ontological vocation for social transformation: Indicating a pathway beyond the
paradox ....................................................................................................................... 157
Concluding remarks: Outlining the limits of Critical Pedagogy for development .......... 168

TABLE OF CONTENTS│ 4
CHAPTER 6 - DEVELOPMENT AS SUMAK KAWSAY: DEVELOPMENT BEYOND THE HUMAN .. 174
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 174
Contemporary trends of Human Development in Latin America: Sen and the policy
understandings of Buen Vivir ............................................................................................ 179
‘El Retorno del Indio’: Reframing the debate on development .............................. 179
Exploring the connection between Indigenous philosophies and development policies
.................................................................................................................................... 184
Human Development and Indigenous Philosophies: Moving beyond Sen’s Perspective of
Empowerment .................................................................................................................... 189
The ayllu in the Andes: recovering the communal dimension of development
discussions .................................................................................................................. 189
Beyond sustainability concerns: the Pachamama and the Biocentric turn .............. 195
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 201
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................. 203
Unpacking the conceptual baggage of the Paradox of Empowerment ............................ 206
The Garden of Forking Paths ........................................................................................... 213
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................... 216

TABLE OF CONTENTS│ 5
ABBREVIATIONS


BV – Buen Vivir
CA – Capability Approach
CBC – Christian Base Communities
CELAM - Latin American Episcopal Conference
DAF – Development as Freedom
ECLAC – Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
HD – Human Development
LT – Liberation Theology
PLA - Participatory Learning and Action
PRA - Participatory Rural Appraisal
SK – Sumak Kawsay
UN – United Nations
UNDP – United Nations Development Programme
WB – World Bank
WC - Washington Consensus
ISEB –Istituto Superior de Estudos Brasileiros (Higher Institute of Brazilian Studies)

ABBREVIATIONS│ 6
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The writing of this thesis has led me down a long and eventful path, and I have been fortunate
to transit it in the company of others. These others, whose companionship I would like to now
acknowledge, have made this experience not only an academic but also a personally enriching,
inspiring and illuminating one. For that, I am deeply grateful.
I would first like to acknowledge the guidance of my supervisors, Ricardo Blaug and Farhang
Morady. Without their support, advice, encouragement and confidence, this thesis would simply
not exist. I am grateful for the patience and effort devoted to reading, commenting and
constructively criticizing every piece of writing that I have sent them. Yet, my gratitude goes well
beyond how they have enriched this thesis. I would like to thank both of them for providing me
with an inspiring illustration of the most wonderful aspects of academic life. In their mentorship,
I have seen the clearest examples of academic kindness. Along these lines, a special mention
goes to Ricardo: thank you for so boldly embodying the ideals of academic honesty and for all
the times you unwaveringly defended what you believed it was right.
I would also like to acknowledge the financial support I received from the University of
Westminster. I was fortunate enough to receive an ambivalent full Research Studentship which
assisted me in the financial difficulties that every PhD student endures, and without which life
in London would have been distinctly more difficult. More importantly, I would like to
acknowledge the support of many wonderful people at the Department of Politics and
International Relations at the University of Westminster. To Dibyesh Anand, Maria Holt and
Dan Greenwood, goes my gratitude for their assistance, guidance and encouragement. Your
patience and willingness to help were crucial in keeping me on track, and a source of inspiration
for academic life. To Frands Pedersen, Tassilo Herrschel, Aidan Hehir, Rob Macmaster,
Graham Smith, and again to Ricardo Blaug and Farhang Morady: thank you for trusting me
enough to allow me to enter in the wonderful world of teaching in higher education. Your
support and guidance has made teaching a wonderful and enriching experience, both personally
and academically. To the many undergraduate students who had to bear with me in countless
hours, I thank you for your patience, and for offering challenging and new inputs to my research.
To Suzy Robson, Thomas Moore, Liza Griffin and Jamie Allinson goes also my gratitude for
their support. I have always felt academically and personally welcome in the Department that
has hosted me so many years. It has been a wonderful place to grow in so many dimensions,
and for that, I am very grateful.
I was also fortunate to spend some months as a Visiting Fellow at the Graduate School for Socio-
Ecological Research at the University of Kassel, Germany. I would like to thank the Deutsches
Akademischer Ausländer Dienst (DAAD) for the financial support received in their Fellowship
program. More importantly, I would like to thank Aram Ziai, Christopher Scherrer, Christian
Möllman, Stefan Peters, Hans-Jürgen Burchardt, Veronica Romanowski, Lucía Suau Arinci,
Friedrich Bossert, Jongkil Kim and all of the PhD students in that department for making my
stay in Germany an intellectually challenging and personally enjoyable one. My thesis project
has benefited enormously from the time in Kassel.
If a PhD is meant to offer an original pathway into the fascinating world of academic inquiry, I
must acknowledge that mine has been particularly enlightened by my friends and colleagues at

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS│ 7
Alternautas. Finding like-minded young researchers, similarly inspired by the voices and debates
of Abya Yala in the global world and together creating a virtual space from which to join them
has been a constant source of inspiration and knowledge for my thesis. I am especially grateful
to Johannes Waldmüller, Adrián Beling, Julien Vanhulst, María Mancilla García, Eugenia
Giraudo, Anne Freeland and Juan Loera Gonzalez for their digital (yet none the less real)
companionship in this journey.
I have been fortunate to share my PhD days at the University with a wonderful group of people.
Their friendship has brought me through the most difficult aspects of a thesis and has made me
enjoy and celebrate more the bright ones. My personal and academic life would have been
distinctly poorer without the company of friends like Pol Bargues, Elisa Randazzo, Richard
Neve, Jessica Schmidt, Rob Cowley, Tom Mills and Mustafa Menshawy. A special mention
should go to Pol, who has managed to accompany me in this journey from the very first day to
the last one.
My life in London provided me with more ‘academic’ friends than the ones that gathered in
room 406 or occasionally at the Yorkshire Grey. Their friendship provided me with a much
needed solace beyond the walls of the University of Westminster, and an important source of
intellectual inspiration. I must here thank Tara Mulqueen, Maria Fernanda Quintero, Hannah
Franzki, Matthias Ebenau, Simon Kaye and Sue Iamamoto. This thesis project has distinctly
improved from conversations with them, but more importantly, my life has been forever marked
by their friendship. I am especially indebted to Tara and Simon, whose help and friendship was
fundamental in the last closing weeks. For reminding me that there is a world outside academia,
and for their patience and encouragement, go my thanks to Soraya Insignares, Kate Collins,
Marina Mansilla Hermann and Simon Fitzpatrick.
I would like to thank my family. I would not be who I am nor this thesis would have come to
fruition if it wasn’t for their unwavering long-distance support and encouragement. Beyond this,
however, in more ways than I can express, I have learned and drawn intellectual inspiration from
them. I would like to thank my parents, Julio Rafael Carballo and María Inés Bergoglio, as well
as my siblings, Jerónimo Rafael, Juan Martín and María Mercedes who have set an impossibly
high (yet wonderfully inspiring) example. I also would like to thank my grandparents, who, in
learning to overcome technological barriers to contact me across oceans, have offered me more
support than they can imagine. In particular, this thesis is dedicated to Remo Bergoglio, a doctor,
a professor, a hospital director, a trade unionist, a writer, my grandfather, and above all, a
wonderful human being. He was the first to believe I should one day follow in his steps and
become a doctor; here I dedicate to him my most sincere attempt in fulfilling the ambitions of
his encouragement.
Yet, above all the contributions that this thesis has benefitted from, I am lost for words to thank
Clayton Chin, without whom none of this would have been possible. He, who has made all the
houses I have inhabited while writing this thesis in the UK, Germany, Belgium and Australia a
real home, has been the most important source of academic and personal support. I am grateful
for his invaluable help in the intellectual discussions of its ideas, the tireless proof-reading and
editing, his intelligence and for providing such an inspiring academic example, but above all, for
giving meaning to the days spent in its completion.
Finally, I must acknowledge that while this thesis has been enriched by the help of so many, its
mistakes and shortcomings are my sole responsibility.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS│ 8
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP


I hereby confirm that this thesis is the product of my own work. All sources used are referenced.

Ana Estefanía Carballo
Melbourne, January 28th, 2016.

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP│ 9