Quality of Life Markets: Capabilities and Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper proposes an alternative understanding of Sen's Capabilities Approach that views capabilities as constantly evolving due to the permanent phenomenological re-construction of an individual's beings and doings, making apparent the potential link between human development and evolutionary economics. In addition, I discuss an example of how this alternative understanding may be put into practice in a Corporate Social Responsibility context for the sake of knowledge growth. In doing so, I attempt to lay the foundations for what could be labeled a 'Quality of Life Market', where quality-of-life improvements are transacted, at market-determined prices, advancing and promoting the core business of private firms, while empowering individuals to live lives they have reason to value.