Human Development and Capability Association
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Human Development and Capability Association
@hdca.bsky.social
Global association exploring human development & the capability approach through research, policy, and practice. 🌍 #HDCA
https://hd-ca.org/
📢 New #Research: “Adaptive Preferences as Constraints on Self-Development” by Azizjon Bagadirov.

The paper revisits the concept of adaptive preferences—desires shaped by unjust or limiting conditions—and asks the question: how do these preferences actively constrain self-development... 1/2
Adaptive Preferences as Constraints on Self-Development
The problem of adaptive preferences (APs) played a central motivating role in the Capability Approach, since these internalised preferences were seen as one of the causes of the perpetuation of the...
www.tandfonline.com
December 29, 2025 at 9:39 AM
🌍 Join the HDCA Human Rights Thematic Group!

Are you passionate about #HumanRights and expanding our understanding of rights-based approaches across disciplines?

This group brings together scholars, policy-makers & educators to collaborate on theory, practice, & action in #HumanDevelopment... 1/2
HDCA - The Human Development and Capability Association
hd-ca.org
December 24, 2025 at 9:02 AM
🎥 Now Available Online!

Lecture: Contesting Corporate Responsibility from the Margins — Reflexive Lessons from Co-Produced Research

Prof. Rajiv Maher explores how #CorporateResponsibility is challenged & reshaped through research with communities often on the margins of corporate influence...

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Contesting Corporate Responsibility from the Margins: Reflexive Lessons from Co-Produced Research
Professor Rajiv Maher (EGADE Business School, Tec de Monterrey, and Copenhagen Business School) gave a lecture entitled
hd-ca.org
December 23, 2025 at 8:58 AM
📢 New #Research Alert! 🧠✨

Patience Mukwambo explores how #education can either ENABLE or LIMIT students’ freedom to contribute meaningfully.

Drawing on personal narratives, the paper highlights how race, identity, & institutional norms shape learning & participation in educational spaces...

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Educational Institutions and Epistemic Freedom: The Experiences of Second-generation Zimbabwean Immigrants in England
Guided by a decolonial lens and Fricker’s [2007. Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford: Oxford University Press] capability for epistemic contribution, this paper explores ho...
www.tandfonline.com
December 22, 2025 at 9:38 AM
🌱 What will happen to human possibility when #AI reshapes the very capabilities that define our lives?

This article considers AI’s role in human development, & how these systems may transform our freedoms, relationships, & futures... 1/2

hd-ca.org/is-ai-transf...
#CapabilityApproach #SocialScience
HDCA: Is AI transformative for human flourishing?
Phillipa Shepherd, Université Grenoble Alpes, FranceCaroline Kuhn, Bath Spa University, UK Understanding AI’s role in human development requires more than [...]
hd-ca.org
December 19, 2025 at 9:10 AM
📣 AVAILABLE NOW!
The video of our Health & Disability #webinar is now online!

Organised by the Health & Disability Thematic Group, three researchers presented their current work applying the #CapabilityApproach to health, disability, and well-being.

🚀 Learn about this fascinating #research here ⬇️
HDCA Health & Disability Early-Career Research
Organised by the HDCA Health & Disability Thematic Group, three early-career researchers presented their current work applying the Capability Approach to health, disability, and well-being: - Maggie ...
hd-ca.org
December 18, 2025 at 8:50 AM
🚀 Join the HDCA European Network!

🌍 The Network brings together researchers, policy makers and practitioners interested in the #CapabilityApproach and #HumanDevelopment and who are working on, or in, Europe — supporting communication, connection & dialogue across its membership... 1/2

#AcademicSky
HDCA - The Human Development and Capability Association
hd-ca.org
December 17, 2025 at 8:52 AM
🌍 “The Role of Language(s) in Transformative #HigherEducation in Africa: A Capabilities Perspective” — by Ntimi Mtawa, Larry Ndivo & Laela Adamson — shines a spotlight on the role of language-in-education policies and practices.
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#CapabilityApproach
The Role of Language(s) in Transformative Higher Education in Africa: A Capabilities Perspective
Against the backdrop of discussions and debates about the potential for Higher Education (HE) to have a transformative role and to foster processes and competencies for sustainable development, thi...
www.tandfonline.com
December 15, 2025 at 9:06 AM
🌍 Call for Papers – #JHDC Special Issue

Beyond #Development Paradigms for #Sustainable #Futures: We’re rethinking the economy to put human development, justice, and sustainability first.

🗓️ Abstracts due: 19 Dec 2025
🗞️ Publication: Aug 2027
🔗 More info: rebrand.ly/ekj2835
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HDCA: For Authors
JHDC August 2027 Special Issue Call for Papers: Beyond Development Paradigms for Sustainable Futures: Integrating Emerging Approaches of the Economy [...]
rebrand.ly
December 12, 2025 at 9:47 AM
🌟 HDCA Thematic Group: Human Security 🌟

“The world can never be at peace unless people have security in their daily lives. Future conflicts may often be within nations rather than between them,” predicted the UN Human Development Report in 1994.
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hd-ca.org/thematic_gro...
#CapabilityApproach
HDCA - The Human Development and Capability Association
hd-ca.org
December 11, 2025 at 9:01 AM
📚 We’re delighted to share a new article in the Journal of Human Development & Capabilities:

“Forming an Eco-social Capability in the South African Higher Education Space” by Melanie Walker & Fenella Somerville.

#CapabilityApproach #HigherEd #ClimateJustice

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Forming an Eco-social Capability in the South African Higher Education Space
Our responses to urgent ecological challenges will shape justice into the future. Given that university graduates will become leaders in politics, the professions and businesses, the paper addresse...
www.tandfonline.com
December 10, 2025 at 8:45 AM
📢 HDCA #HealthAndDisability Webinar – Dec 11
Join us for an #EarlyCareerResearch webinar on health, disability, and the #CapabilityApproach!

🕑 Dec 11, 2:00–3:30 PM CET | 8:00–9:30 AM EST | 1:00–2:30 PM UTC

💬 15-min talks + 5-min discussion + 10-min Q&A

Don’t miss it!
hd-ca.org/es/event/web...
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Webinar: HDCA Health & Disability Early-Career Research
Date & Time: December 11, 2:00–3:30 PM CET (8:00–9:30 AM EST | 1:00–2:30 PM UTC) This webinar brings together early-career [...]
hd-ca.org
December 9, 2025 at 9:07 AM
🌍 New guest editorial in the JHDCA!

“Education, Sustainability & Social Justice”

This intro sets up our upcoming special issue, focusing on:
• The role of education + humanitarian crises
• Expanding opportunities for global South scholars
• Linking sustainability, capabilities & epistemic justice
December 4, 2025 at 12:25 PM
🌟 HDCA Thematic Group: Technology, Innovation & Design 🌟

We explore how #tech + #SocialInnovations shape people’s real freedoms. Some tools empower; others limit or exclude. Understanding these impacts means looking at design, power, values, and context.
December 3, 2025 at 9:30 AM
🌍 Join us on 9 Dec for the #lecture “Contesting Corporate Responsibility from the Margins.”

🕚 11:00–12:30 UTC

Featuring Prof. Rajiv Maher (EGADE Business School & Copenhagen Business School), sharing insights from co-produced #research with #Indigenous and #MarginalizedCommunities.
December 2, 2025 at 1:02 PM
🌱 How the CA can transform #education?

Check out the Capability and Education Network (CAEN), a vibrant HDCA thematic group connecting scholars & practitioners since 2003.

CAEN is open to everyone and is a welcoming space to share ideas and explore new directions in capability-informed education.
November 26, 2025 at 12:30 PM
🌍 Call for Papers – #JHDC Special Issue

Beyond #Development Paradigms for #Sustainable #Futures
We’re rethinking the economy to put human development, justice, and sustainability first.

🗓️ Abstracts due: 19 Dec 2025
🗞️ Publication: Aug 2027
🔗 More info: rebrand.ly/ekj2835
HDCA: For Authors
JHDC August 2027 Special Issue Call for Papers: Beyond Development Paradigms for Sustainable Futures: Integrating Emerging Approaches of the Economy [...]
rebrand.ly
November 25, 2025 at 1:21 PM
🚀 Is #AI enough to transform #education?

A new #PolicyForum shows why successful EdTech needs strong systems, teacher support, and local adaptation.

With lessons from Tiger Leap, OLPC & Plan Ceibal, it charts how AI can truly boost #learning and #equity.

AI Can Revolutionise Education but Technology Is Not Enough: Human Development Meets Cultural Evolution
Artificial Intelligence could dramatically boost educational outcomes and close gaps – but only if policymakers take a human-centred, systems-level approach to AI integration. Cultural evolution, t...
shorturl.at
November 24, 2025 at 12:31 PM
🌍 Can #AI help people not just survive but thrive in a changing #climate?

Join our policy forum on AI in Adaptive #SocialProtection

Learn how AI can anticipate shocks, deliver support faster, and build long-term resilience, while addressing risks like bias and exclusion.

Artificial Intelligence in Adaptive Social Protection: Expanding Human Capabilities for Climate Resilience
Climate change is amplifying human vulnerability and exposing gaps in social protection systems, particularly where they remain nascent or fragmented. Adaptive Social Protection (ASP), which integr...
shorturl.at
November 21, 2025 at 10:31 AM
📣 On 24 Nov, join us for the launch of Youth Voice and Participatory Arts in Global Development, a powerful new book by The May Group

The book explores how #participatory #arts can amplify #youth voices and support more #inclusive #development.
November 18, 2025 at 1:03 PM
🌍 Call for Papers – #JHDC Special Issue

Beyond #Development Paradigms for #Sustainable #Futures
We’re rethinking the economy to put human development, justice, and sustainability first.

🗓️ Abstracts due: 19 Dec 2025
🗞️ Publication: Aug 2027
🔗 More info:
HDCA: For Authors
JHDC August 2027 Special Issue Call for Papers: Beyond Development Paradigms for Sustainable Futures: Integrating Emerging Approaches of the Economy [...]
rebrand.ly
November 13, 2025 at 11:31 AM
🌱 How can we better understand and expand the real freedoms of children and young people?

The HDCA Children and Youth Capabilities Thematic Group is an interdisciplinary network exploring human development through the capability approach.

#HumanDevelopment #Children #Youth
November 12, 2025 at 12:30 PM
🤖 How can #AI serve human flourishing, not just efficiency?

A new open access #PolicyForum, “Navigating AI with a #HumanDevelopment Compass”, explores how AI can expand capabilities, agency & wellbeing across the life course.

By Lengfelder, Tapia & Biggeri.

Navigating AI with a Human Development Compass – Shaping Tomorrow’s Capabilities
This Policy Forum examines the intersections of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Development (HD) through the lens of the capabilities approach. As AI technologies increasingly permeate all s...
shorturl.at
November 11, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Early-career researcher? 🌍 Working on the capabilities approach but missing mentorship or a community? The HDCA Mentorship Program (ECRPN) is here to connect you with guidance, support, and collaboration across the globe!

Learn more: hd-ca.org/thematic_gro...
HDCA - The Human Development and Capability Association
hd-ca.org
November 10, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Why do women in the Middle East & North Africa have more education but fewer jobs? 🤔

A new study on Tunisia uses the #CapabilityApproach to rethink this “gender paradox”, showing it’s really about capability deprivation, not lack of education

By Çuhadar, Kawamura & Jawad

Can Capability-based Education and Social Policy Help Resolve the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Gender Paradox? A Case Study of Tunisia
This study aims to re-evaluate the MENA gender paradox, where women's participation in employment is low despite their higher access to education. Arguments about the inclusiveness of education sug...
shorturl.at
November 7, 2025 at 1:31 PM