The capability approach as a foundation for craft self-help enterprises in South Africa

Abstract

Many rural craft initiatives in South Africa have as their core objective the alleviation of poverty. A popular assumption is that personal income or wealth is the primary solution to alter social deprivation. Economist and philosopher Amartya Sen argues that capabilities refer to the ability to choose a life one has reason to value. Capability deprivation minimises the choices people can make – poverty, thus, is reframed as a form of capability deprivation. What the capability perspective does in poverty analysis is to enhance the understanding of the nature and causes of poverty and deprivation by shifting primary attention away from means (such as income) to ends that people have reason to pursue, and, correspondingly, to the substantive freedoms to be able to achieve these ends. This article discusses how income poverty is but one of various capability deprivations which curtail the success of some craft self-help enterprises. Furthermore, it suggests a way to evaluate how well people are doing – be it an enterprise or an individual, which ideally would result in an interaction of a rise in standards of living and an improvement in the quality of life.

Etlike ambagskuns-initiatiewe in Suid-Afrika het as uitgangspunt die bekamping van armoede. Die algemene veronderstelling is dat persoonlike inkomste of rykdom die belangrikste oplossing is om sosiale veragterliking te bowe te kom. Amartya Sen, ’n ekonoom en filosoof, redeneer dat bekwaamhede betrekking het op die vermoë om ’n lewe te kan kies wat iemand van waarde kan ag. Die keuses wat mense kan maak, word uiters beperk indien hulle hulle nie kan bekwaam nie – armoede word dus hergestruktureer as ’n vorm van gebrek aan bekwaamheid. Wat die bekwaamheidsperspektief tydens die analiese van armoede doen is om die ontstaan sowel as die redes vir armoede en beperkte bekwaamheid te verstaan deur die fokus van middele (soos inkomste) na doelwitte wat mense nastreef, en die dienooreenkomstige selfstandige vryhede om sulke doelwitte te verwenslik, te verskuif. In hierdie artikel word geredeneer dat inkomste-armoede slegs een van vele bekwaamheids-beperkings is wat die welslae van selfhelp ambagsinitiatiewe kortwiek. Dit stel ook ’n manier voor om te bepaal hoe goed mense vaar – hetsy ’n sake-onderneming of ’n individu, wat ideaal gesien,’n interaksie tussen ’n styging in lewensstandaard, sowel as ’n verbetering in lewenskwaliteit tot gevolg sal kan hê.