Abstract
If effective ways of constructing capacities are to be understood, several means of identifying and assessing multiple approahces to conceptualising and contextualising such capacities needs to be developed. This chapter explores and evaluates some of these approaches, adopting an eclectic and culturally diverse approach that considers each approach simultaneously from teh perspectives of its proponents among the chapter authors and of scholars researching in one or more fields informing capacity constructions. Thus 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.