Capability and Oppression

ABSTRACT The capability approach focuses on understanding and removing unfreedom, so it is surprising that connections between capability and oppression have been little discussed. I take seven steps towards filling that void. (1) There is an intuitive conceptual connection if we understand “oppression” as being held or confined to low capability levels. (2) Normatively, it is noteworthy that oppressed people are held at low capability levels as a result of the agency of others, even if (as in systemic or structural oppression) this effect is not always intended. (3) Capability research can contribute to explaining and understanding oppression, including systemic or structural oppression, and (4) this research not only allows but invites inquiry into what is distinctive about specific forms of oppression. (5) Why these unfreedoms are pervasive and persistent requires deeper explanations, which have agency foundations: one group contributes causally to reducing the agency freedom of others, whether this reduction is anyone’s purpose or not. (6) Our thinking about what is wrong with oppression must match our understanding of why it is pervasive and persistent; thus (7) recognising oppression as a kind of subjection is essential for understanding what is wrong with systemic oppression.