A Good Life. Defining the Relevant Capabilities for Well-Being from Children’s Voices

Abstract

Over the last few years, parallel to the proliferation of Childhood Studies, there has been an expansion of multidimensional and integrative perspectives of children well-being. One on the most important issues within this field is the participation of children as active agents in the definitions of their own needs. The capabilities approach offers a very interesting theoretical framework because it considers children as active agents. This implies having the opportunity to influence their own lives and the general rules of society, according to their maturity and age, which should be an aspiration for every democratic society. Two different methods can be used to identify and validate the relevant capabilities for the children well-being: participatory and non-participatory. This article follows the first one. Specifically, the objective of this work is to revise and define through the children’s own words, a list of capabilities relevant for their well-being in a specific context (Andalusia, Spain). In order to do so, we collected more than 330 questionnaires with both, opened and closed questions from Children participating in 10 different Municipal Council of Children and Youth. The results show the richness and agency of children’s voices and the perception of the multidimensionality of wellbeing.