The Entitlement Approach – a case for framework development rather than demolition

Olivier Rubin (1)

1 Department of Political Science [Copenhagen]

The article dismisses most of the objections previously forwarded in this journal by Khandakar Qudrat-I Elahi against Amartya Sen's framework for famine analysis: the entitlement approach. Instead, the article argues that even thirty years after the conception of the entitlement approach, it remains a potent framework for famine analysis, as illustrated by the recent 2005 famine. However, as contemporary famines are increasingly linked to factors that have hitherto received limited attention in entitlement analysis – conflicts, legal collapses and political struggles – the article calls for supplementary famine analysis on the meso and macro levels.

Mots clés: Social Sciences & Humanities

Olivier Rubin. The Entitlement Approach – a case for framework development rather than demolition. The Journal of Development Studies, 2009, 45 (04), pp.621-640. ⟨10.1080/00220380802649947⟩. ⟨hal-00518320⟩