NWU to host international launch of Capabilities at Work

The North-West University will host the international book launch of Capabilities at Work: The Added Value of the Capability Model for Well-Being and Work on Wednesday, 23 September 2026, from 10:00 to 13:00 (SAST) at Momentum in Pretoria.

Edited by Jac van der Klink and Sebastiaan Rothmann, the volume brings together leading scholars and practitioners from around the world to examine how the capability approach can reshape our understanding of well-being and work.

The book responds to a pressing global context. Across the world, human development is stalling and an AI divide is widening. In South Africa, youth unemployment tops 60% amid deep inequality — shaping whose potential is realised and whose is quietly lost. Beneath these crises lies a pattern much work research overlooks: resources and rights exist, yet the conditions to convert them into sustainable employability keep failing.

The capability approach asks a different question — not what predicts performance, but what people are genuinely free to be and do, so they can function, stay healthy, and flourish at work. It is a question of social justice as much as science: who is truly free to pursue decent work, and a life, they have reason to value?

The launch will be held in a hybrid format, with 100 seats available for in-person attendance in Pretoria and a live broadcast on YouTube. A formal invitation and registration details will follow.