This paper develops a "capabilities approach" in asking what people are actually able to do and to be. In developing the author's version of the capabilities approach as a partial account of basic social justice, she emphasizes its links with constitutional law -- saying that my account of the ten central capabilities provides a source...

Held in Melbourne in February 2007, this conference was an exploration of policy proposals designed to assist people in making transitions across the life course. The focus was on social investment and an investigation into how such ideas can translate into an updated participation income - or guaranteed minimum income - proposal. Sir Tony Atkinson...

The Governments and Communities in Partnership conference held in September 2006 brought together key policy makers, community leaders and researchers from around Australia, together with leading experts from the UK, Ireland, Austria, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. The aim of the program was to deepen the academic and policy debate about the impact...

In this background paper for next year’s conference on Governments and Communities in Partnership: From Theory to Practice, Mark Considine examines whether the end of the old rigidities in bureaucratic and institutional thinking has something really new to say to researchers, practitioners and citizens. Further details information about Governments and Communities in Partnership: From Theory...

In order to transform disability in Australia we need to tackle our deep-seated fears, moral convictions and relationships, argues Christopher Newell in this Centre for Public Policy lecture. Transformation requires the fostering of purposeful and mundane relationships which are based upon, and help us to explore, the inherent worth and contribution of people with disability...