null Video Interview with Martha Nussbaum



Professor Martha Nussbaum: Capabilities Approach and The Role of Public Services

 
 
In this video, Helsinki´s Director of Youth Affairs Tommi Laitio interviews Professor Nussbaum on the role of public services in fostering decent life and on the role of arts and culture. The event was hosted by the Helsinki Youth Department in collaboration with the University of Helsinki and ArtsEqual research project (University of the Arts Helsinki). It was streamed live on 20 June 2016. The event took place at the University of Helsinki.
 
Professor Martha Nussbaum of the University of Chicago is one of the world´s leading thinkers on multiculturalism, humanities and human development. She is widely recognized for her work on the capability approach, a theory on good life focusing on what individuals are actually able to be and do which has been highly influential amongst others in development policy.


Nussbaum (2000) frames basic principles for good life in terms of 10 capabilities, i.e. real opportunities. She claims that a political order can only be considered as being decent if this order secures at least a threshold level of these 10 capabilities to all citizens. The ten capabilities are:

1. Life
2. Bodily Health
3. Bodily integrity
4. Senses, Imagination and Thought
5. Emotions
6. Practical Reason
7. Affiliation
8. Other Species
9. Play
10. Control over one´s Environment

Photo of Martha Nussbaum from Wikipedia