These paper had been selected for the workshop «Twenty Years of Human Development” organized by United Nations Development Program and Cambridge University in 2010.
The knowledge society raises new challenges for human development due to the change brought about by the new forms in which people communicate, participate and distribute information. The present research analyzes the role of communication in the elimination of the deprivations that limit people’s liberty to obtain what they value in life; its relation to the fundamental pillars of the capability approach –equity, efficiency, empowerment, and liberty-; its dimension as a capability and its role in individual and collective empowerment.