Towards Applications of Capability Sensitive Design of Technologies

The Capability Approach (CA) introduced by Amartya Sen (A. Sen, 1988, 1990) is focused upon the moral significance of individuals’ capability of achieving the kind of lives they have reasons to value. Within the CA framework, information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be seen as tools for expanding individual capabilities. By expanding informational capabilities, technologies can contribute to users’ social empowerment (Johnstone, 2007). Presently, the functionings enabled by ICTs and their impacts are increasingly social. Consequently, technology design is increasingly centered on people and human-computer interactions. Designing software with local relevance and suited to the African context, is a priority within the Mobile Empowerment R&D unit of SAP-Research (Pretoria). As part of the Advanced Development Unit, SAP-Research (Pretoria) in South Africa has adopted design thinking as a method for the design of contextualized ICTs. In this paper we align the theoretical underpinnings of CA with the innovation methodology of design thinking. We argue that design thinking can be applied as a method, a set of research tools, behaviors and activities, for carrying out ‘capability sensitive design’; a term merging CA with ‘value sensitive design’ which was originally introduced by (I. Oosterlaken, 2009). We also argue that CA offers a framework for the development of a body-of-knowledge which can inform design thinking activities, within the scope of projects aimed at developing technologies in a capability sensitive manner.