Catholic Community of Pleasanton

Social Justice Newsletter

April 10, 2014

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Today's issue of the newsletter initiates an effort to find ways that members of  CCOP can work with individuals and groups in the Tri-Valley-to-Oakland corridor to enable people to live fuller and more productive lives.  Two series of articles have their first installments:

  • An exploration of Needs and Opportunities in the Tri-Valley-to-Oakland Corridor
  • A Social Justice Vocabulary drawn from the book, Wellbeing, Justice and Development Ethics, by Severine Deneulin

Comments are welcome and may be sent to [email protected].

 

 vocab

A Social Justice Vocabulary
  
We in our part of the East Bay can gain new insight in how to deal with the social inequities we see around us. New meanings have been given to words like well-being and development. The change was initiated by a welfare economist from India named Amartya Sen. His lectures and papers starting in 1979 led to his receiving a Nobel Prize in 1998. He acquired a colleague named Martha Nussbaum with whom he co-authored The Quality of Life in 1993 and who wrote Women and Human Development: the Capabilities Approach in 2000. They and several colleagues founded the Human Development and Capability Association in 2003.
  
Two of the key terms of what Amartya Sen called the "capability approach" are well-being and agency. Whenever we do anything we like to do it well rather than poorly. We like to feel ourselves to be competent in at least some of the things we do and we feel affirmed if others take note of our abilities. As we approach and then enter into adulthood we like to feel that we have a place and a function in society. A capability is a kind of functioning that is open to us. If you live in a society that has no use for horse trainers or for silversmiths then those are occupations that are not available to you (in that society). A capability is also a kind of functioning you are not barred from because of your skin color, national origin, religion or something else.
  
Well-being comes from having achieved a kind of functioning you have reason to value and also having other kinds of functioning open to you.
  
Agency is the power a person has to be the captain of his ship, to plan and make decisions and accomplish what he or she has set out to do.  
 
This is the first of a series of articles that utilize the conceptual framework provided by the book, Wellbeing, Justice and Development Ethics, by Severine Deneulin to help us understand our social environment.

   

Anyone interested in learning more about the capability approach can access online another book by Dr. Deneulin An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approachwhich gives background information about the work and thought of Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum and many other researchers.

  

The aim of the book Wellbeing, Justice and Development Ethics "is to introduce in an accessible way a framework which may provide us with the necessary conceptual tools to help frame social and political action and transform current institutional arrangements on the basis of these two fundamental aspects of our humanity: agency and wellbeing... The book argues that the capability approach provides such a framework, which could help transform or create different social, economic and political arrangements from the ones which deepen inequality, undermine people's opportunities to live well and destroy the environment".

  

Functioning

   

Amartya Sen in his book Development As Freedom says "The concept of 'functionings' ... reflects the various things a person may value doing or being.  The valued functionings may vary from elementary ones, such as being adequately nourished and being free from avoidable disease, to very complex activities or personal states, such as being able to take part in the life of a community and having self-respect".

 

Other examples of functionings are being a songwriter, a bookstore owner or a heart surgeon.

  

Capabilities

   

Capabilities are the "opportunities people have to achieve certain functionings" according to Severine Deneulin's vocabulary in Wellbeing, Justice and Development Ethics.

 

Amartya Sen explains, "A person's 'capability' refers to the alternative combinations of functionings that are feasible for her to achieve.  Capability is thus a kind of freedom: the substantive freedom to achieve functioning combinations (or, less formally put, the freedom to achieve various lifestyles)". 

  

Wellbeing

  

Getting back to Deneulin's terminology, wellbeing is "the ability people have to function well as human beings, or opportunities people have to do or be what they have reason to value (Sen's interpretation), or to achieve

central human functioning (Nussbaum's interpretation)" which includes "the following capabilities: to live a life of normal length; to have bodily health; to have bodily integrity; to think and reason (this includes guarantees of freedom of expression); to express emotions; to engage in critical reflection about the planning of one's life; to engage in social interaction and have the social bases of self-respect; to live with concern for the natural environment; to laugh and play; to control one's environment (this includes participation in political choices that govern one life and work) ...and the capability to hold property rights". 
 

Agency

   

Agency, Deneulin says, is "the ability people have to pursue goals that they have reason to value (whether connected with their own or other people's wellbeing, including ecological balance).  Agency also relates to the degree of involvement of a person in the decisions that affect his or her life" 

 

Agency is the power that each of us has to act, deal with, and confront the problems we face and to work to bring about desired changes. The term individual agency is used to refer to exertions of power or influence by individuals. The word agency can also refer to groups, organizations, or nations. It refers to abilities to acquire knowledge, to make observations, to recognize desirable or undesirable outcomes and form judgments accordingly, and to make and carry out plans, alone or with others.

 

Conclusion

 

Severine Deneulin's book raises the question, how can we "human beings decide what it means to live well in relation to each other, and how to do so?"  Her answer seems to be that we can recognize in ourselves and in each other an inherent need to function fully and to be agents of our own destiny.

 

  

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New Dublin Initiative Would Establish Planning Process for Doolan Canyon


A second initiative focused on land uses on the east side of Dublin has been submitted to the City of Dublin by several residents. The "Let Dublin Decide Initiative of 2014" would create a new Eastern Study Area consisting of approximately 1,650 acres located adjacent to and in Doolan Canyon east of the City's current boundaries. According to the initiative, "It would establish a guiding policy that would let Dublin decide what, if anything, should happen in the Eastern Study Area. The City Council, as soon as practicable, should apply to the Local Agency Formation Commission to obtain an amendment to the City's Sphere of Influence in order to bring the Eastern Study Area within the City boundaries and pursue annexation." 

 

Read the complete article 

 


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**** Newsletter Contents **** (titles are clickable)
:: A Social Justice Vocabulary
:: New Dublin Initiative Would Establish Planning Process for Doolan Canyon
:: Needs and Opportunities in the Tri-Valley-to-Oakland Corridor, Part 1
:: Updating of Pleasanton's Housing Element has started
:: Brief Links
:: Upcoming Events

   needs

Needs and Opportunities in the Tri-Valley-to-Oakland Corridor, Part 1

 

Part 1 of this series will provide information about some of the needs among the 69,000 residents of Pleasanton and about opportunities to serve one another.  Subsequent installments will be concerned with Dublin and Livermore, then Castro Valley and the towns and cities along the corridor leading to and including Oakland. The aim is to attract our readers to the general goal of helping each other, especially those who are socially disadvantaged, to live fully human lives.  This involves creating more cohesive communities -- more neighborliness -- and enabling each other to better fulfill our potential.

 
Please give us your thoughts: [email protected].

  
This newsletter has brought its readers attention to the need for affordable housing in Pleasanton and also the need for ("workforce") housing near places of employment and retail businesses, with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  Much the same needs exist in the other areas mentioned.

 
The general need that is seen for the Tri-Valley-to-Oakland corridor and for the Tri-Valley area in particular is higher levels of cooperation, civic engagement and inter-personal relationships.   Everyone needs to feel that he or she has a place in society.  Everyone's needs should be of equal concern to us: young children, the elderly, those with disabilities, the mentally ill, the poor, inmates of jails and prisons, the rich and the powerful, the lonely and the mourning, those who have lost hope.


Pleasanton

 
The city of Pleasanton's website has a community page, listing community resources.  Among these are

Additionally, Pleasanton has two online newspapers which, along with many other features, have lists of locally maintained blog sites:

Other available data about Pleasanton includes

 

  

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Updating of Pleasanton's Housing Element has started


A Community Workshop was held on March 24 to begin the process of updating the Housing Element of Pleasanton's General Plan, a document required by state law.

  

A Stakeholder Meeting for non-profit housing developers, local service providers, and community organizations was held on April 7. 
  
A Stakeholder Meeting for for-profit housing developers and finance professionals is scheduled for today, April 10, at 3:00 P.M. in Conference Room #3, 157 Main Street 
  
The Housing Commission is scheduled to receive a status report and public input on April 17 and to review the preliminary draft and public input on June 19. 
  
The Planning Commission is scheduled to receive a status report on April 23 and to review the preliminary draft and public input on June 25. 
   
All meetings of the Housing Commission and Planning Commission are to be held in the City Council Chamber, 200 Old Bernal Ave., beginning at 7:00 P.M.

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Brief Links 

  

The Christian Penumbra (New York Times Op-Ed piece, Ross Douthat, March 29), link 
 

The Fight to Reveal Abuses by Catholic Priests (New York Times Retro Report by Clyde Haberman, March 31), link

  

Video: Secrets of the Vatican (PBS Frontline report, February 25), link   


Halfway Back to Society (New York Times editorial, March 29), link    

 

The Jesuit Post, https://thejesuitpost.org/ 

 

NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, http://www.networklobby.org/ 

 

NETWORK Education Program, http://network-education.org/ 
 
Homily by Deacon Joe Gourley, 4:00 & 6:30 masses, March 30, homily text
 
 
  

  

 
Upcoming Events
  

Friday, April 18, 4:30 P.M.

Good Friday Cross Walk
The Cross Walk will begin at 4:30 P.M. on Good Friday at St. Augustine's Church Parking Lot.  We will process from St. Augustine's to St. Elizabeth Seton Church, a distance of 3.3 miles, stopping for prayer and reflection.  All members of the CCOP community are encouraged to attend. The walk will take place rain or shine.  

  

Tuesday, April 22
3rd annual Transportation Choices Summit  more info
Embassy Suites, 100 Capitol Mall - Sacramento, California 95814

   

Wednesday, April 23
Optional Advocacy Day
Capitol Bldg, Sacramento

 

Saturday & Sunday, April 26 & 27, All Masses
Rice Bowl Collection
Both churches

Sunday, April 27, 6:00 P.M.
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Ruth Gasten will speak, Congregation Beth Emek, 3400 Nevada Court, Pleasanton.  More info 

 

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Social Justice Committee