ABSTRACT
This conclusion reflects again on the intensified conditions of poverty affecting the post-pandemic world, in order to consider the relationship between the key concepts developed through the book, namely reason-to-value agency and durable empowerment. The conclusion also takes space to describe the relationship between the book's defence of a cosmopolitan recognition theory and official conceptions of empowerment and international development programmes strongly grounded in commitments to rights. In concluding that cosmopolitan recognition theory is likely to defend more complex social bases for empowerment and agency than rights-based development, especially for poor women in developing societies, the flexible potential of this theoretical approach beyond purely rights-based theories is highlighted.
