Capacities and training: Possible outlooks

Abstract

This essay is the edited and expanded version of a presentation given at the SIREF Summer School that took place in Venice (September 2012). Its starting point draws on “work pedagogy.” Work pedagogy is a subject that detaches itself from a merely functionalist view on the relation between the individual and her work. Accordingly, work pedagogy is understood under the light of the meanings emerging from its development, which provide a
picture of increasing complexity. In fact, the “pedagogical concept of work” could be interpreted as having two horns: its first horn acknowledges that any work has an intrinsic educational-formative dimension, whereas its second horn stresses on the fact work is what prepares the subject as a being living in society.
Following these premises, this paper deals with the following issues: how is it possible to understand human development as something capable to overcome a GDP-centred approach? How is it possible to obtain a clear-cut but comprehensive account of Nussbaum’s concept of “capability”? What is the educational and pedagogical value of the “capability approach”? Moreover:
how is it possible to value people’s resources in order to construct a
welfare system that enhances their capabilities as subjects? Are there any “political” (in its broadest sense) implications that are entailed by the idea of a capability-oriented welfare?