Lastly, whereas the capability approach usually focuses on the conversion of resources into individual capabilities and functionings, some scholars have argued that this is too individualistic (Evans 2002; Gore 1997; Stewart 2005). In fact, it is argued, many capabilities can only be held or achieved through collective action. This has resulted in the notion of ‘collective capabilities’ (Ibrahim 2006; 2020). For example, the capabilities for friendship, assembly, and political speech can only be held or realized in collaboration with other individuals (Ibrahim 2020, 210). Likewise, Binder (2009; 2019) argues that cultural contexts influence individual agency goals and thus the capabilities that we choose to pursue. In these ways, social relations, collectives, and the larger social, cultural, and institutional context function as conversion factors for some capabilities. Robeyns (2017, section 4.6), however, argues that the collectivist critique conflates the capability approach’s commitment to normative, or ethical, individualism (i.e., “that individuals, and only individuals, are the units of ultimate moral concern”) with a commitment to methodological, or ontological, individualism — that “all social phenomena are to be explained wholly or exclusively in terms of their properties” (Bhargava 1992, 19). Although the capability approach, according to Robeyns, is committed to the former, it does not necessarily follow that collectives and social relations have no bearing on how those capabilities are realized. 