Social investment, human rights and capabilities in practice: the case study of family homelessness in Dublin

Abstract

This chapter brings together capabilities and rights theory with a participative action and policy engaged framework, to provide an account of their practical operationalization in the context of marketisation in housing policy. It explores how the capabilities (particularly functionings, conversion factors, and agency) and rights of homeless families were impacted. It details how the Participatory Action Human Rights and Capability Approach (PAHRCA) methodology enabled homeless families to co-construct with researchers, and to articulate to policymakers, new 'bottom-up' knowledge. Applying the capability approach (CA) as an evaluative framework in Irish housing policy, the chapter demonstrates how housing is an essential prerequisite in enabling a person to exercise choices in almost every area of life required to maximize personal and family well-being. It explains that the potential contribution of the CA in social policy case can come through participation of the vulnerable themselves in a process of co-production and self-assertion.