Identifying and measuring capabilities for career development in NEET young people

Robertson, Peter J

Abstract

Amartya Sen's Capability Approach offers great potential as a conceptual framework for promoting social justice and well-being through economic and educational engagement. Yet the capability approach presents researchers with formidable difficulties, not least because it is intentionally left incomplete, and little guidance is available on its application. It is therefore necessary to make choices in order to apply the approach to a specific context. This paper will introduce the issue of social justice in a career development context, and meth-odological challenges in researching capabilities. It will attempt to provide a rationale for methodological choices in four stages. Firstly, the choice of epis-temology and ontology ; secondly, choices of level of analysis and disciplinary perspective ; thirdly, the choice of research methods. An example of career development with disadvantaged NEET young people (not in employment, education or training) in the United Kingdom will be considered.

Citation

Robertson, P. J. (2017). Identifying and measuring capabilities for career development in NEET young people. Recherches sociologique et anthropologique/ Sociological and anthropological research, 47(2), 83-99

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 1, 2017
• Publication Date: 2017-02
• Deposit Date: Mar 28, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 28, 2017
• Journal: Recherches sociologique et anthropologique/ Sociological and anthropological research
• Print ISSN: 1782-1592
• Publisher: Unit of Anthropology and Sociology of the Catholic University of Louvain
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 47
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 83-99
• Keywords: Capability approach; NEET young people; career guidance and development; methodology
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/821173