'Sufficiency Re-examined: A Capabilities Perspective on the assessment of Functional Adult Literacy'

International audienceThe dichotomous categories of 'literate' and 'illiterate' have been criticised in Literacy Studies, and recent quantitative surveys. There is a consensus that the categories should be abandoned. However, the dichotomy has considerable utility in the analysis of educational achievements and inequality in developing countries. Statistics on functional adult literacy are intended to tell us whether people have achieved a minimum level or threshold of functioning necessary for their daily life. We should carefully consider the implications of such change. In this paper we review and re-examine the notion of sufficiency in functional literacy, and the challenges involved in literacy measurement. We propose some alternative perspectives from poverty analysis (lines, thresholds, fuzzy sets). The closeness to principles of plurality inspiring the 'New Literacy Studies' make Sen's (1985, 1999) emphasis on multidimensionality in the Capability Approach a promising route out of the dichotomous impasse