Analysing approaches to constructing capacities

If effective ways of constructing capacities are to be understood, several means of identifying and assessing multiple approaches to conceptualising and contextualising such capacities need to be developed. This chapter explores and evaluates some of those approaches, adopting an eclectic and culturally diverse approach that considers each approach simultaneously from the perspectives of its proponents among the chapter authors and of scholars researching in one or more fields informing capacity constructions. The chapter uses an analytical research framework, drawing on the principles of hermeneutics, whereby authors’ individual analyses are interpreted and synthesised against the backdrop of identified contemporary literature. Based on the application of this framework, the authors elicit several elements that appear to be commonly accepted aspects of capacity-building, while acknowledging some areas of disagreement about defining and theorising capacities.