Capabilities and Housing: Questions of Application

ABSTRACT

We welcome the opportunity to respond to the Focus article (This issue), which explores how a capabilities approach (CA) might be applied to housing policy. We believe that the CA holds much promise in orienting apparently disparate approaches to housing scholarship, and in fostering interdisciplinary collaborations that explore the relationship between housing and human flourishing. However, it is our assertion that application of the CA requires explicit articulation of the norms and values used to specify housing-related functionings and capabilities, and that such specification should precede attempts to apply the approach. Accordingly, we respond to two aspects of the focus article, which make normative claims that require further exposition and debate. Firstly, we consider the difference between the capabilities approach and a capabilities application and highlight the normative moves this involves. Secondly, we consider the import of these normative moves in relation to the Focus article’s discussion of functionings and capabilities relevant to housing. We conclude by suggesting that the full potential of the CA in relation to housing lies in its integrative and normative scope, and that a research programme exploring this potential would commence with critical analysis of the normative underpinnings of contemporary housing theory, policy and practice, prior to considering questions of application.

KEYWORDS:

• Capabilities approach
• Capabilities application
• Housing
• Normativity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.