The Capabilities of Academics and Academic Poverty
运用阿马蒂亚·森的能力方法，将社会科学学术研究的评价焦点从“质量”“影响”转向学者的能力，并定义学术贫困为无法满足基本学术需求的状态。
Summary This paper presents a novel analysis about the capabilities of academic researchers and academic poverty. Adopting the capability approach, which A martya S en developed to address concerns such as poverty, inequality and development, we shift the focus of analysis and discussion around evaluating academic research and academics in the social sciences from measures of so‐called ‘quality’, ‘impact’ or ‘excellence’ to the capabilities of academics. For us, the conceptualization and evaluation of academic research is a question about what academics have reasons to value, and about their ability to achieve valuable beings and doings. It is also about determining what might constitute academic poverty, and what academics are required to do in order to avoid that poverty. Relating our analysis to debates around universities, in particular about quasi‐market pressures, we identify the possibility of basic capabilities in academic research, namely: the capabilities that are necessary to fulfill basic academic needs. Our proposition is that there is academic poverty when an academic researcher is not capable of fulfilling basic academic needs, such as: adhering to standards of coherence, robustness and rigour; searching for and disseminating the spirit of the truth. Moreover, if the academic has the capabilities to fulfill those basic academic needs and yet chooses not to do so, she renders herself in a state akin to academic poverty.