Towards a human empowerment approach to justice: An appropriation of Amartya Sen's capability approach, with particular reference to the Zimbabwe land reform

The dissertation responds to the question: how can we respect human dignity more fully, and become more human in light of Amartya Sen's groundbreaking capability approach? It builds on Sen's response to the weaknesses of traditional economics and normative utilitarianism as evaluative disciplines and John Rawls' influential theory. But it judges that Sen's approach is not fully adequate in light of increasing poverty, deprivation, and dehumanization, especially, in the third world. It asks: what can be a more significant and relevant framework, which can help us to evaluate and achieve a better quality of human life? It proposes an "empowerment" understanding of justice as a revision of Sen's approach.; The argument builds on Sen's approach and its appropriation as the central evaluative and analytical lenses to assess relevant concepts. It uses Zimbabwe's land reform as an example to test the approach. Sen's philosophical informational basis rightly suggests expanding people's capabilities because human beings are diverse and value life differently. However, the approach reveals a strong individualist anthropology still operative in it. It is also overly abstract, incomplete, and inconsistent especially when applied to situations of deprivation. A universal and adequate approach to shape social policies should focus on integral human beings and not overlook values such as land, which in Zimbabwe is more than a commodity. Land is life, a symbol of identity, ancestral gift for common ownership and use, and cannot be marketed. The argument suggests Sen's preference to remain a liberal like Rawls significantly contributes to his weakness.; The thesis proposes human empowerment approach to social justice which focuses on an integral, comprehensive, community-oriented, and robust anthropology in the evaluation of individual and social advantages and development, especially in developing countries like Zimbabwe. It argues that a framework based on an understanding of empowered human beings can help us rethink Sen's approach, overcome deprivation, evaluate and achieve more humane societies in which people can realize their full human potential.