In this article, the literature around the entitlement approach to fam
ine is assessed against the background of recent developments in econo
mics which are perceived to have increasingly encroached upon the prev
iously neglected subject matter of the other social sciences. In this
light, emphasis is given to the tension that exists in the entitlement
approach between its micro-foundations and macro-consequences and cau
ses. This, in turn, is related to the broader problem in social theory
of the relations between structures and agency. Whilst it is found th
at the entitlement approach does embody an implicit causal content in
the filtering of socioeconomic mechanisms through the distribution of
individual entitlements, it is ultimately argued that the approach is
primarily suited to investigative rather than causal analysis.