Collective political capabilities

Monique Deveaux’s Poverty, Solidarity, and Poor-led Social Movements makes a significant contribution to contemporary capability theories by challenging their individualism. Mainline versions of the Capabilities Approach (CA), including those developed Martha Nussbaum, Amartya Sen, Ingrid Robeyns, insist on methodological normative And with good reason: communitarianism most often reinscribes patriarchal power, especially within family. Deveaux, however, argues that this individualism yields depoliticized account poverty as deprivation, thereby downplaying or even denying agency poor. But poor-led social movements politicize poverty, understanding it political relation between individuals institutions. These build collective capabilities: capabilities can be exercised only groups promote goods. The current paper explicates, extends, defends powerful challenge mainline theories.