Confronting Power through Policy: On the Creation and Spread of Liberating Knowledge

The expansion of capability opportunities is an underlying objective of the capability approach. However, related goals such as righting basic social inequities or correcting ecological imbalances require changes in social institutions and practices. Such change in turn rests on the creation and spread of liberating knowledge and practices. In this light, I argue that prospective analyses (i.e. analyses intended to result in concrete proposals for actions to enhance the functioning of society) require methodologies that will clarify the nature of liberating knowledge and the obstacles to its development and diffusion. Methodologies appropriate to the evaluation of the state of being or the capability to function of individuals are not sufficient for this task. Rather, methodologies are required that have been crafted for the study of social behaviour, ones that recognize the situated nature of knowledge and that work with insights from different standpoints. Such methodologies will facilitate analysis of social power in different institutional contexts and will clarify the process of the creation and spread of new social understandings and practices.