Catholic Social Teaching and the Ac Pability Approach to Human Development: a Critical Analysis and Constructive Proposal Mary E Filice
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Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Summer 2013 Catholic Social Teaching and The aC pability Approach to Human Development: A Critical Analysis and Constructive Proposal Mary E Filice Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Filice, M. (2013). Catholic Social Teaching and The aC pability Approach to Human Development: A Critical Analysis and Constructive Proposal (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/539 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING AND THE CAPABILITY APPROACH TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND CONSTRUCTIVE PROPOSAL A Dissertation Submitted to the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Mary Filice August 2013 CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING AND THE CAPABILITY APPROACH TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND CONSTRUCTIVE PROPOSAL By Mary Filice Approved April 24, 2013 ________________________________ ________________________________ James P. Bailey, Ph.D. Elizabeth Agnew Cochrane, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Theology Associate Professor of Theology (Committee Chair) (Committee Member) ________________________________ Aimee Upjohn Light, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Theology (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ James C. Swindal, Ph.D. Maureen O‘Brien, Ph.D. Dean, McAnulty Graduate School Chair, Department of Theology of Liberal Arts Professor of Theology Professor of Philosophy iii ABSTRACT CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING AND THE CAPABILITY APPROACH TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND CONSTRUCTIVE PROPOSAL By Mary Filice August 2013 Dissertation supervised by Dr. James P. Bailey This aim of this dissertation is to present the argument that Catholic Social Teaching‘s focus on integral human flourishing can make theoretical contributions to the field of Human Development as well as practical contributions to social and political initiatives currently underway. The most powerful vehicle of communication for reporting the global position on poverty is the Human Development Report produced by the United Nations Development Programme, which adopts the Capability Approach as its evaluative framework for measuring individual well being. I propose that Catholic Social Teaching can protect the Capability Approach from its potential to lean towards individualism through the inclusion of the principles of solidarity and the common good, participation and community, and the virtue of charity. iv I present my argument by first separately examining the main principles of both the Capability Approach and Catholic Social Teaching. I then have a dialogue between the two in order to show where there is common ground and then state the case for the individualistic tendency of the Capability Approach. Drawing from four major documents on human development, Gaudium et Spes (The Church in the Modern World), Populorum Progressio (on the Development of Peoples), Sollitudo Rei Socialis (On Social Concern), and Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), I develop my argument for the above contributions that can be made by Catholic Social Teaching. Included is a chapter depicting Catholic Social Teaching in action, which offers examples of four organizations that use the principles presented with the organizations‘ work that strives for human flourishing. I conclude with a practical application of a program I have developed for low income women that combines the two: Catholic Social Teaching and the Capability Approach, with the goal of demonstrating that the two can work together and following Nussbaum‘s understanding that development discussion should be female focused. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank you for the opportunity to write this dissertation and pursue this research. I embarked upon the journey of developing a women‘s program more than ten years ago without knowing that the Capability Approach existed. Through the guidance of Dr. Bailey, I began enquiring about the theory, where and how it was being implemented. I was first met with hesitation by the Human Development and Capability Association, since their interest in religion was simply from the perspective of how religion affects development and not what any one faith‘s principles could offer to the discussion. Over the years and through participation in the organization, I and other like minded academics have encouraged them to be more open to hearing and appreciating what Catholic Social Teaching has to offer. I now am the coordinator for the Religion and Culture Thematic Group and also sit on the Ethics Thematic Committee, where various social sciences come together to learn from each other. It has been a slow process in making inroads in this secular organization, but it has been well worth the journey. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………. iv Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………….….…. vi Introduction ………………………………………………………………………....… vii Chapters 1. The Capability Approach: Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum‘s Alternative to Standard Economic Frameworks for Thinking about Human Development ……..….1 2. Catholic Social Teaching- A brief history and Nine Key Themes……………….…...67 3. Catholic Social Teaching, Communitarian Ethics and a Warning to Capability Thought ………………………………………………………………………….….129 4. Catholic Social Teaching As Lived By the Faithful…………..………………….…197 5. Women Affirming Women: Catholic Communitarianism Maximizing the Capabilities Approach…...………………………………………………………… 231 Conclusion...……………………………………………………………………………281 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………284 Appendices A. Women Affirming Women Business Plan ………………………………….………297 B. WAW 2012 Fall Newsletter ………………………………………………….……..301 C. Letters of Recommendation Used for Grant Purposes.………………………..…… 305 vi Introduction Over the past two decades, the main concern of Human Development has been on the focus of growth and progress for humanity. The most powerful vehicle of communication for reporting the global position on poverty has been the Human Development Report produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). With the objective of human development being ―to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives,‖ the U.N. has adopted the Capability Approach(CA) as its framework for the evaluation of individual well-being.1 The CA is a normative method for thinking about poverty, inequality and human development with its main focus being on enhancing or expanding people‘s capabilities. It is a multidimensional approach that is concerned with the nature of lives that people are living as well as with assessing human wellbeing by identifying components that traditional economic measurements do not capture. I will argue that Catholic Social Teaching‘s focus on integral human flourishing can make theoretical contributions to the field of Human Development as well as practical contributions to social and political initiatives currently underway. Catholic Social Teaching‘s contributions to Human Development discussions have been touched upon by Severine Deneulin in two brief articles: One article looks at the Second Vatican Council‘s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World: Guadium et Spes, and the other examines insights from 1 Severine Deneulin with Lila Shahani, eds., An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach: Freedom, and Agency (Sterling: Earthscan, 2009), 26. vii Pope Paul VI‘s Populorum Progressio. She suggests that although Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and secular development thinking appear to be similar on the surface, faith communities have a certain set of values and practices that challenge the existing values and practices of economic and social order. I intend to expand upon Deneulin‘s work through an analysis of several key principles of CST, highlighting a weakness in the CA and where, I believe, CST can make a significant addition. I substantiate my position by including an actual program I have designed that caters to disadvantaged women that is built upon the main principles of CST and uses Martha Nussbaum‘s CA‘s list as a guide. Since Amartya Sen‘s Capability Approach has greatly inspired the Human Development program and has provided the basis of a paradigm in economics and in the social sciences in general, I begin with his methodology before turning to Martha Nussbaum‘s work, which build‘s upon and complements Sen‘s. I am especially interested in her contribution in the field of women and human development. This area of interest stems from both the growing recognition of the importance of women in economic and social development, as well as from a personal commitment I have made to improve the lives of women. For over ten years now, I have been involved with a women‘s respite program that supports impoverished women in Columbus and the surrounding areas. I hold that Nussbaum‘s research, closely allied with key principles of Catholic social teaching, can help develop a program to help the women in this group to see themselves as ends in their own right rather than the ends of others. The second chapter