2013 HDCA Annual International Conference - "Human Development: Vulnerability, Inclusion and Wellbeing
9-12 September 2013, Managua Nicaragua
More information about the conference can be found at www.hdca2013.org
Conference registration now open click here to register
Thematic Groups
The Human Development and Capability Association encourages researchers who share common interests to organize thematic groups. At present, sixteen thematic groups are active. If you are involved in a similar thematic group, or if you would like to start one, please read and complete the following document and hence contact us at info@hd-ca.org. Please know that the thematic groups currently work only in English. | |
| Technological and other designed products have profound and complex relationships with human capabilities. Many, perhaps most, are developed with the aim of expanding valuable freedoms and powers and have indeed made important positive contributions - ranging from new medical technologies that enable people to lead longer and healthier lives, to ICTs empowering people to play a more active role in shaping their social and political environment, to urban environments that are conducive to people's capabilities for affiliation (to mention just a few examples). Others are – in capability terms – more questionable: do chemical weapons or, less dramatically, hydrogenated fats or supercars or crystal meth really offer any expansion of the freedoms people have reason to value? The interaction between technologies / design products and human abilities and capabilities is complex – technologies are created for multiple ends and have multiple effects, positive and negative, intended and unintended, predictable and unforeseen, short and long-term. They simultaneously enable and constrain people, and they enable and constrain different people differently and over different timescales. Critical and ongoing research and analysis in this area is therefore necessary. The implications of the capability approach for technology & design (and possibly also the other way around) are only just beginning to be explored and much work remains to be done. Investigating the interaction between human capabilities, technology and design will require contributions from many academic disciplines, since questions in this area touch upon other themes such as governance, individual versus collective choice, participation, power, ideology, culture, values, ethics, economy, and sustainability. Questions may also be asked in the context of both ‘the North’ and ‘the South’. This thematic group aims to stimulate progress in the area of human capabilities, technology and design by bringing together both researchers and practitioners of diverse disciplinary backgrounds. The group uses a listserve to keep in touch: HDCATECHNOLOGY@JISCMAIL.AC.UK. To subscribe, please send an e-mail to group coordinator Ilse Oosterlaken (see below). After you have been added to the list, you will be able to send messages to all other group members and you will receive their messages. You don't have to be an HDCA member to join the mailing list, but we strongly encourage HDCA membership! Only thematic group members that are also HDCA members are listed below. IF YOU ARE AN HDCA MEMBER & WOULD LIKE TO JOIN THIS GROUP, PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE TO GET LISTED ON THIS PAGE! |
| If you would like to join this group click here. You will need to be logged in, and you must be a current HDCA member. |
News, Events and Announcements
Updated bibliography on the CA and Innovation/Technology/Design now available | |
| With input from members of the group, Ilse Oosterlaken has created an extensive bibliography on the topic of the capability approach and innovation/technology/design. The bibliography was shared on the group's mailinglist and will be updated annually. | |
| For more information, please click here... | |
| Submitted by Ilse Oosterlaken | Last Modified on 2012-08-29 |
Special issue innovation/technology/design of Maitreyee, the e-bulletin of the HDCA | |
| Maitreyee, the e-bulletin of the HDCA, is a starting point for academics and practitioners who work in human development areas and who are seeking a brief introduction to research and work undertaken on a number of human development topics. In March 2012 has published an issue on innovation/technology/design. Initially Maitreyee is only available to HDCA members, but after 6 months it becomes publicly available. | |
| For more information, please click here... | |
| Submitted by Ilse Oosterlaken | Last Modified on 2012-08-29 |
CfP for a CA session at ICT4D Conference | |
| Dorothea and Yingqin Zheng are organising a CA track in the next IFIP 9.4. conference to be held in Jamaica in May 2013. The track will be part of WG 9.4: Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries. The call for papers can be found here: http://www.ifipwg94.org/track-12-capability-approach-and-ict4d. Here is conference website where you could find out more about the conference and the IFIP 9.4 group: http://www.ifipwg94.org/ifip-conference-2013. | |
| For more information, please click here... | |
| Submitted by Ilse Oosterlaken | Last Modified on 2012-08-29 |
Special issue Information Technology for Development | |
| The journal 'Information Technology for Development' has just published a special issue on the capability approach. It contains 6 articles, some of them written by members of our thematic group. The articles are: * Development as freedom; how the Capability Approach can be used in ICT4D research and practice (editorial) - Annika Andersson, Åke Grönlund & Gudrun Wicander * Building collective capabilities through ICT in a mountain region of Nepal: where social capital leads to collective action - Devinder Thapa, Maung K. Sein & Øystein Sæbø * The capability approach as a tool for development evaluation; analyzing students’ use of internet resources - Mathias Hatakka & Jenny Lagsten * Signifiers of the life we value? Considering human development, technologies and Fair Trade from the perspective of the capabilities approach - Dorothea Kleine, Ann Light & Maria-José Montero * Capable and convivial design (CCD): a framework for designing information and communication technologies for human development - Aditya Johri & Joyojeet Pal Enjoy! | |
| For more information, please click here... | |
| Submitted by Ilse Oosterlaken | Last Modified on 2012-08-29 |
Edited volume The Capability Approach Technology & Design | |
| Springer has just published the edited volume 'The Capability Approach, Technology & Design' in her book series 'Philosophy of Engineering and Technology'. Many of the chapter in the book are written by members of this thematic group. The first introduction chaper to the book presents a quite extensive literature review on the topic. | |
| For more information, please click here... | |
| Submitted by Ilse Oosterlaken | Last Modified on 2012-04-12 |
Workshop on critical realism, CA & social entrepreneurship/innovation/design | |
| On April 30, 2012 there will be a workshop in Berlin under the title "Philosophy of science & case studies – An exploratory workshop with a focus on critical realism and the capability approach" - so no technology or design in there. But if you read the description of the workshop, you will see that the area of application highlighted in the workshop will be social entrepreneurship / design / innovation. If you would like to register or have any questions about the workshop, please contact Rafael Ziegler. | |
| For more information, please click here... | |
| Submitted by Ilse Oosterlaken | Last Modified on 2012-02-14 |
Special issue on the CA of journal 'Ethics and Information Technology' | |
| The journal 'Ethics and Information Technology' has recently published a special issue on the capability approach. Several of the articles in the issue are written by members of this thematic group. | |
| For more information, please click here... | |
| Submitted by Ilse Oosterlaken | Last Modified on 2011-09-15 |
Workshop ICT4D & CA | |
| Those of you who were at the recent 2011 HDCA conference will probably know that there was a pre-conference workshop on ICT4D and the CA. It was hosted by IICD, a Dutch NGO specializing in ICT4D. The workshop provided great interaction between academics and practitioners. To see a description of the topic on which discussions were convened, plus a photo impression of the workshop, please visit the workshop's webpage. | |
| For more information, please click here... | |
| Submitted by Ilse Oosterlaken | Last Modified on 2011-09-15 |
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Atanu Garai Globethics.net, Indiaatanu.garai@gmail.com |
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Ilse Oosterlaken 3TU.Centre for Ethics and Technology / TU Delft, Netherlandsoosterlaken@ethicsandtechnology.eu |
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Sammia Poveda UNESCO Chair/Centre in ICT4D, Royal Holloway University of L, United Kingdomsammia.poveda.2011@live.rhul.ac.uk |
 | Piyush Gurukul kangari University, Haridwar, Indiapiyush21oct@rediffmail.com |
| Peter Bardoel Netherlands |
| William F. Birdsall Library consultant, Canadawfbirdsall@hotmail.com |
| Corinne Bosse Athabasca University, Canada |
| Julia Carbone Duke University, |
| Alain J F Chiaradia |
 | Mark Coeckelbergh University of Twente, Netherlandsm.coeckelbergh@utwente.nl |
| elizabeth depoy University of Maine, |
| Andy Dong The University of Sydney, Australia |
| Álvaro Fernández-Baldor Centro de Cooperacion Al Desarrollo UPV, Spainalferma2@upv.es |
| Atanu Garai Globethics.net, India |
| Judit Gébert University of Szeged - Faculty of Economics and Business Adm, Hungarygebert.judit@gmail.com |
| Bjorn-Soren Gigler London School of Economics, United Statesb.gigler@lse.ac.uk |
| Helena Grunfeld Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, Australiahelena.grunfeld@live.vu.edu.au |
| Marco Haenssgen University of Oxford, United Kingdom |
 | Jean-Yves Hamel United Nations Development Programme, United Statesjean-yves.hamel@undp.org |
| Dominik Hartmann University of Hohenheim - Stuttgart, Germany |
| Andrés Hueso González Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain |
| Justine Johnstone Science and Technology Policy Research (SPRU), Sussex Univ., United Kingdomj.johnstone@sussex.ac.uk |
| okan kara The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey , Turkeyokankara@gmail.com |
| Pramod Khadilkar Indian Institute of Science, Indiapramod.khadilkar@gmail.com |
| Dorothea Kleine UNESCO Chair/Centre in ICT4D, Royal Holloway, University of , United Kingdomdorothea.kleine@rhul.ac.uk |
 | Mona Luxion Oxford Brookes University, m.luxion@gmail.com |
 | Julio Iván Madueño Aparicio PUCP, Peruimadueno@yahoo.com |
| Monto Mani Indian Institute of Science, Indiamonto.mani@gmail.com |
 | Manu Mathai United Nations University, Japanmanu@udel.edu |
| Lawrence Melniker |
 | Annemarie Mink Delft University of Technology, Netherlandsa.mink@tudelft.nl |
| Colleen Murphy Texas A&M University, United StatesCmmurphy@philosophy.tamu.edu |
 | Crighton Nichols University of Sydney, Australia |
| Pia Otte Norway |
| Clare Poolman University of Leeds, UK, United Kingdomclarempoolman@hotmail.com |
| Sammia Poveda UNESCO Chair/Centre in ICT4D, Royal Holloway University of L, United Kingdomsammia.poveda.2011@live.rhul.ac.uk |
| Katerina Sideri University of Oxford, UK/ University of Crete, Greece, Greece |
| Lalaine Siruno Delft University of Technology, Netherlands |
 | Randy Spence Esda, Canadawrspence@gmail.com |
| Sharath Srinivasan University of Cambridge , United Kingdomss919@cam.ac.uk |
 | Marc Steen TNO, Netherlandsmarc.steen@tno.nl |
 | Jeffrey Swindle University of Cambridge, United Statesjeffswin@gmail.com |
 | Donna Vaughan Partners in Micro-development Inc., Australia |
 | Margaret Ward Queensland University of Technology, Australiamargaret.ward@student.qut.edu.au |
| William Wresch |
