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Development Education and Research and Development ethics

Development Education and Research and Development ethics . Dr Su-ming Khoo, Dept of Political Science and Sociology, NUI Galway. Synopsis. Meanings of development Key ethical themes The ethical turn in development The landscape since the 1990s and globalization/ Alter-globalization

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Development Education and Research and Development ethics

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  1. Development Education and Research and Development ethics Dr Su-ming Khoo, Dept of Political Science and Sociology, NUI Galway

  2. Synopsis • Meanings of development • Key ethical themes • The ethical turn in development • The landscape since the 1990s and globalization/ Alter-globalization • Discussion- the contribution of philosophy

  3. Key Reading • Gasper, (Des 2004) The Ethics of Development: From Economism to Humanism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press • Seers, Dudley (1979) ‘The meaning of development’ reprinted in S. Corbridge (ed) (1995) Development: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences Routledge

  4. Additional Reading • Cowen and Shenton (1995) ‘The Invention of Development’ in S. Corbridge (ed) Development: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences. London:Routledge • Dower, N (1998) ‘Aid Trade and Development’ pp137-57 in World Ethics: A New Agenda. Edinburgh University Press • Toye, John (1993) Dilemmas of Development –reflections on the counterrevolution in development economics. Oxford: Blackwell • Chatterjee, Deen K (2004) The Ethics of Assistance: Morality and the Distant Needy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press • Goulet, Denis (1995) Development Ethics: A Guide to Theory and Practice London: Zed • Goulet, Denis (1983) ‘Obstacles to Development- an ethical reflection’ World Development 11 (7) 7-26 • Nederveen Pieterse, J (2001) Development Theory: Deconstructions/Reconstructions. London: Sage • Polanyi, K (2004) The Great Transformation • Tucker, Vincent (ed) (1997) Cultural Perspectives on Development. London: Frank Cass/ EADI

  5. Development • Conventionally seen as a post-1945 discipline, applied to “Third World” contexts • Roots in Enlightenment project and its contradictions - “dark side” of modernity • Positivist, Utopian AND critical, dystopian views • An emergent and contested concept • A conative concept – “striving”

  6. What do we mean by ‘development? • Economic growth Dudley Seers (1979) critique • What is happening to poverty? • What is happening to unemployment • What is happening to inequality? • UNDP defines human development as ‘the enlargement of peoples choices’ • A. Sen (1999) Expanding freedom and removing various types of unfreedom as means and ends of development • BUT does this involve strong universalism? (Nussbaum, Global Ethic)

  7. Key ethical themes • Since development is concerned with choices, it is also concerned with differing conceptions of value (the “good life”) • Relationships between means and ends • Deprivation and inequality • Violence and structural violence • The public intellectual, public goods and public interest • Representing the (less powerful) other • What about cultural difference? • “Helping” and the nature of duties and obligations

  8. The ethical turn in development • Critiques of development in theory and practice have a basis in ethical concerns • Means-ends debate since 1960s • Critiques of Eurocentrism, neocolonialism, cultural imperialism • Human costs of neoliberalism – disillusionment and the 1980s “lost decade” • “Post development” - the end of development?

  9. The landscape since the 1990s • Post Cold War scenarios • Globalization and Alter-Globalization • The rediscovery of “Civil society” • “Global governance” or Global Ethics? • Inequality, violence and non-sustainability are still the biggest problems • What about cultural difference?

  10. Neoliberal globalization FREE MARKETS are BEST Society must politically REORGANIZE production and social relations to free markets All countries, communities, people benefit - symmetry Market Utopia ‘alter globalization’ Free markets can be obnoxious Society must politically re-organize production and social relations to govern markets Polarization and asymmetry are the status quo - must be addressed Stark Utopia Globalization – beliefs, policies, outcomes

  11. Lessons from the past “belle époque”. “…the idea of a self-adjusting market implied a stark utopia. Such an institution could not exist for any length of time without annihilating the human and natural substance of society; it would have physically destroyed man and transformed his surroundings into a wilderness” (Karl Polanyi, 1944: 3)

  12. Polarization AND deprivation – the poor ARE falling further behind and the incomes of 40% are too low 1992 2005 UNDP HDR1992, 2005

  13. The contribution of philosophy • ‘The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones…’ J. M. Keynes • ‘The significant problems that we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.’ A. Einstein • Humanism • The resources of critique • Conceptions of justice

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