ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach as a conceptual framework for research, practice and public policy in regard to the well-being of older people. Sen's Capability Approach provides us with a basis on which to theorise healthy ageing by taking into account and examining the influence of the social and material environment, and asking what older people themselves value. Andrew Scharlach's socially situated developmental model of 'optimum ageing' fits well with a capability perspective in that it accounts for environmental influences and cultural values. Sen argues strongly for taking the Capability Approach to the idea of justice. Sen's Capability Approach is a theoretical approach to social justice. In practice, this means that, rather than inquiring about levels of particular predefined attributes of success, which in turn may be oppressive, people assess their freedom to achieve their own valued functionings.
