Capabilities and wellbeing: operationalising the capabilities framework

The study was funded by an innovation award and sought to explore the extent to which philosophical ideas about the capabilities approach to develop an instrument for measuring human capabilities – or freedoms. Using a normative framework based on the work of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum a survey instrument was developed piloted and then sent out to about 1000 adults in the UK. The resulting data has been used to explore a variety of issues, particularly multi-dimensional poverty measurement, the role of fear and past violent experiences on quality of life, gender/age differences and the determinants of happiness.