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The Human Development and Capability Approach in Conversation

The Human Development and Capability Approach in Conversation

By: Human Development and the Capability Association (HDCA)
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This is the podcast from the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA). The podcast features conversations with scholars and practitioners of the human development and the capability approach. Conversations include discussions of research, theory and application. For more information see our website: https://hd-ca.org/

© 2026 The Human Development and Capability Approach in Conversation
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Episodes
  • #5 Energy Justice & The Capability Approach
    Oct 28 2024

    In this episode, we discuss energy justice and what a capabilities fromework can bring to it. We were joined by Dr Nathan Wood who helped put the episode together, Professors Lucie Middlemiss and Joohee Lee.

    Professor Lucie Middlemiss

    Professor Lucie Middlemiss joined the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds in 2004 as a Teaching and Research Fellow. She completed her PhD in the School in 2009 and subsequently became a Lecturer in Sustainability the same year. In 2017, she was promoted to Associate Professor in Sustainability and full Professor in September 2021. Professor Middlemiss earned an MSc in Environmental Management from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and spent five years working in publishing. She currently chairs Fair Energy Futures, an initiative focused on addressing energy injustice and inequality, while also co-leading the Leeds Relational Energy Group. Additionally, she co-leads the ‘Fuel Poverty Evidence’ project.


    https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/see/staff/1422/professor-lucie-middlemiss

    Energy poverty and social relations: A capabilities approach:

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2019.05.002

    Professor Joohee Lee

    Joohee Lee is Assistant Professor in the Department of Climate and Energy at Sejong [pronounced Se-Jong] University and Research Fellow at the Foundation for Renewable Energy & Environment. She researches issues of energy justice, climate justice, just and sustainable transitions, bottom-up and community-based transitions, and citizen empowerment. She earned a PhD in energy and environmental policy at the Center for Energy & Environmental Policy (CEEP) at the University of Delaware, United States. Operationalising capability thinking in the assessment of energy poverty relief policies: Moving from compensation-based to empowerment-focused policy strategies. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 22(2): 292-315. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2021.1887108. [3] Lee, Joohee, John Byrne, and Jeongseok Seo. (2023). Chapter 7: Re-imagining energy-society relations: An interactive framework for social movement-based energy-society transformation. In Majia Nadesan, Martin Pasqualetti, and Jennifer Keahey, eds., Energy Democracies for Sustainable Futures. Elsevier. Pp. 59-71. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-822796-1.00007-3.

    Operationalising Capability Thinking in the Assessment of Energy Poverty Relief Policies: Moving from Compensation-based to Empowerment-focused Policy Strategies:

    https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2021.1887108


    Dr Nathan Wood;

    Nathan is a postdoc at the Fair Energy Transition Center in the Netherlands, based at Utrecht University and Eindhoven University of Technology. He recently completed his PhD Energy, Capability, and Justice: a foundation for a normative account of energy systems, in which he focused on using moral and political philosophy to better understand the ethical problems arising from energy systems and their governance.

    https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7b7Qdp4AAAAJ&hl=en&inst=7240083048524121927&oi=sra

    Tensions, capabilities, and justice in climate change mitigation of fossil fuels

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2019.02.014

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    42 mins
  • #4 NEW BOOK... Urban Inequalities with Graciela Tonon
    Oct 7 2024

    In this episode, we're led by Graciela Tonon, who's recently edited a new book on urban inequalities.

    This book proposes an interdisciplinary and multidimensional perspective of urban inequalities based on a range of theoretical, methodological, and professional approaches. Chapters consider different types of inequalities: in health, education, age, housing, energy, space, civic rights, social exclusion, ethnicity, poverty, segregation, work status, nutrition, public policies, democracy, human rights, technology, digital learning, subjective well-being, environment, and climate change. Contributions analyze the situation of different groups: children, youth, and indigenous people. The book highlights the importance of policy-making to overcome inequalities and addresses the key role of citizen participation.

    Check Urban Inequalities: a multidimensional and international perspective out at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-59746-6

    Pariticipants

    Graciela H. Tonon

    Graciela holds a PhD in political science (USAL-Argentina). She is a full professor and director UNI-COM, Social Studies Institute at Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, Argentina and director Research Center in Social Sciences (CICS-UP) at Universidad de Palermo, Argentina. Graciela is a fellow of the Human Development and Capability Association (2013-present). She is vice-president of Publications International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (2023-2024). She received the ISQOLS Distinguish Service Award for Substantial Contributing to a Better Understanding of Quality-of-Life Studies (2016). Her fields of expertise are quality of life, Capability Approach, children, qualitative research Methods, Community, Higher Education, Inequalities, Public Policy and Social Work. https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0003-1892-7958

    Peter Krause

    Peter is based at the Department Socio Economic Panel (SOEP) German Institute of Economic Research (DIW, Berlin). His research topics and working areas include Income Distribution and Dynamics, Social Indicators, Capabilities, Quality of Life, Inequality, Well-being.

    https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter-Krause-8

    Jon Hall

    Jon is a policy specialist in the Human Development Report Office, UNDP

    Jon graduated in Mathematics, has a master's degree in Statistics (University of London) and another in Public Service Administration (Australian and New Zealand School of Government). Before joining the Human Development Report Office, Jon spent seven years working for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where he led the Global Project on Measuring Societal Progress, which was instrumental in preparing the path of the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission for the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress. He had previously worked for the Australian Bureau of Statistics and was the lead author of the first two issues of "Australian Measures of Progress", which won a national award in 2003.

    Jhonatan Clausen

    Jhonatan is the director of IDHAL Latin American Institute of Human Development, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), and a professor of economics. he holds a PhD in Social and Policy Sciences - International Development from the University of Bath, UK. He teaches human development and economics (PUCP) https://www.pucp.edu.pe/profesor/jhonatan-clausen-lizarraga

    Jack Simpson

    Jack is a visiting lecturer at the University of Leeds. He holds an MA in PPE from the University of York and a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Leeds. He is also Officer at Large and Fellow at the Human Development and Capability Association, where he has been on the executive council since 2019. He is also on the board of the International Development Ethics Association.

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    28 mins
  • #3 Introducing the Early Career Researchers and Practitioners Network
    Sep 14 2024

    In this episode we speak to organisers of the Early Careers Researchers and Practitioners Network.

    Organisers Raphael Ng, Abigail Lennox, Dorothy Ferary & Gareth Wall join us to discuss the group, it's history and it's purpose.

    The network is a really vibrant space for capabilities work. You can find out more including how to join it here: https://hd-ca.org/thematic_group/early-career-researchers-practitioners-network

    ------

    Some more info...

    The overall purpose of Early Career Researchers and Practitioners Network (ECRPN) is:

    To facilitate a community that supports early career members in their research and transition from their stage as a student towards a professional phase of their career, and to also foster exchange and integrate practitioner’s knowledge and experience.

    Objectives

    • Offer a platform where members can develop and achieve their capabilities as growing researchers and practitioners in capabilities work.
    • Build a space and coordinate activities to share knowledge and experience, and collaborate across disciplines in research, and cross-sectorally with practitioners.
    • Organize events aimed at advancing research and skills development.
    • Events fostering practitioner interactions.
    • Coordinate support and build community amongst the early career scholars and practitioners. Stimulate interaction between established HDCA scholars and early career scholars.
    • Strengthen the interchanges between members, practitioners and established scholars in capabilities work.

    Activities

    • Online co-writing pomodoro session on Jitsi.
    • Webinars covering advice and shared experiences for early career research, including topics on skills and professional development, meet-the-editors/meet-the-practitioners sessions, writing in English for non-native English scholars etc.
    • Mentorship program stimulating interaction between Established and Early Career HDCA scholars.
    • Panel presentations and Meetup during HDCA conferences


    Music by Muertito: https://www.instagram.com/muertito.music/
    Production: Verity Watts of https://bettersongs.co.uk/

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    23 mins
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