Francesco Laruffa

Bio: Francesco Laruffa is an academic researcher from University of Geneva. The author has contributed to research in topics: Capability approach & Neoliberalism (international relations). The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 12 publications receiving 64 citations.

Social investment: Diffusing ideas for redesigning citizenship after neo-liberalism?:

Abstract: Social investment has become the dominant approach to welfare reform in Europe and elsewhere. Scholars supporting this perspective have argued that it represents a paradigm shift from neo-liberalis...

Towards a Critical Sociology of Democracy: The Potential of the Capability Approach:

Abstract: The aim of this article is to lay down the foundations of a critical sociology of democracy and participation. Based on Amartya Sen’s capability approach, we identify four major pitfalls of classic...

What is a Capability-enhancing Social Policy? Individual Autonomy, Democratic Citizenship and the Insufficiency of the Employment-focused Paradigm

Abstract: Since the mid-1990s, global social policy discourse and practice has shifted from a focus on social protection and redistribution towards the promotion of people’s labour market participation and h...

Deliberative democracy in the real world, the contribution of the capability approach

Abstract: Drawing on Amartya Sen’s writings, this article presents the capability approach to democracy and shows its relevance for the sociological reflection and research on democratic processes conceived ...

Human beings as receivers, doers and judges. The anthropological foundations of sustainable public action in the capability approach

Abstract: In this paper, we argue that the capability approach can suggest avenues to reform social policies in the direction of a more valuable and sustainable conciliation between people's different engage...

Towards a Social Investment Welfare State? Ideas, Policies and Challenges

Abstract: There is a growing consensus among academics and policy-makers alike that the welfare state of the twentieth century is no longer suited to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. How can ...

The uses of knowledge in global health.

Abstract: > If …the problem of society is mainly one of rapid adaptation to changes in the particular circumstances of time and place… [then] the ultimate decisions must be left to the people who are familiar with these circumstances, who know directly of the relevant changes and of the resources immediately available to meet them. We cannot expect that this problem will be solved by first communicating all this knowledge to a central board which, after integrating all knowledge, issues its orders. We must solve [the problem] by some form of decentralization… > > But the ‘[people] on the spot’ cannot decide solely on the basis of [their] limited but intimate knowledge of the facts of [their] immediate surroundings. There still remains the problem of communicating to [them] such further information as [they need] to fit [their] decisions into the whole pattern of changes of the larger […] system. How much knowledge [do they] need to do so successfully? Which of the events which happen beyond the horizon of [their] immediate knowledge are of relevance to [their] immediate decision, and how much of them need [they] know? > > —F. A. Hayek (1899–1992)1Like any academic involved in global health—and especially as a journal editor—I am frequently called on to make judgements on research papers.2 Like anyone reading such papers, I rely on the declared aim, usually at the end of the introduction or background section. The declared aim can reveal whom we imagine we write for (ie, gaze or audience) and the standpoint from which we write (ie, pose or positionality).3 But much too often, it reads like an afterthought, as though it was written in pretence or in tenuous hope, like an item thrown aimlessly into deep space in the hope that it might hit a target called equity . The declared aim of research papers …