Human Development &
Capability Association

This article outlines a method with which an aspect of development policy can be analysed as philosophical conceptions of the good life. It puts the method to use by discussing whether Bangladeshi development policy has norms equal to those of the capability approach. The interdisciplinary method seeks to combine elements of social anthropology and welfare economics. In order to see what conceptions of the good life are present in a given development policy, two steps must be taken. Firstly, diverse, context-sensitive descriptions of the development policy must be made, equal to those found in social anthropology. Secondly, the development policy must be operationalised as a set of values to make it comparable with a conception of the good life. Testing the method, a field work on Bangladeshi development policy is described and operationalised as the degree to which the policy values agency, equality and universalism.

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