September 1-5, 2025

Hosted by the University of Bradford

“Culture, Peace and Capabilities”

At the heart of the capability approach (CA) is the idea of human flourishing. However, human flourishing is challenging, and in some cases, not possible, in a world of conflict and insecurity – whether between nations, or between groups within a country or between individuals at the micro-level of a society.

The foundational ideas of the CA (of both Sen and Nussbaum schools) envision a society where constitutional guarantees and deliberative public reasoning provide for the protection of minorities and disadvantaged individuals, and at a theoretical level these should be the starting points for building institutions to mitigate against conflict and to resolve conflicts where these appear.

As we welcome the community of the ‘Human Development and the Capability Association’ to the University of Bradford where the UK’s first Peace Studies Department was founded in 1973, the idea of connecting the CA with peace is an exciting and significant theme to explore. Bradford is also celebrating being the UK ’City of Culture 2025’. The year-long celebration recognizes the contributions made by generations of waves of immigrants over the last two centuries.

For more information, please visit the following page.

With support from: