A Poset-Generalizability Method for Human Development Indicators

Abstract

The paper introduces a poset-generalizability perspective for analysing human development indicators. It suggests a new method for identifying admissibility of diferent informational spaces and criteria in human development analysis. From its inception, the Capability Approach has argued for informational pluralism in normative evaluations. But in practice, it has turned its back to other (non-capability) informational spaces for being imperfect, biased or incomplete and providing a mere evidential role in normative evaluations. This paper ofers the construction of a proper method to overcome this shortcoming. It combines tools from poset analysis and generalizability theory to put forward a systematic categorization of cases with diferent informational spaces. It provides illustrations by using key informational spaces, namely, resources, rights, subjective well-being and capabilities. The ofered method is simpler and more concrete than mere human development guidelines and at the same time it avoids results based on automatic calculations. The paper concludes with implications for human development policies and an agenda for further work.