Development Education and Research and Development ethics Carol Healy Development Education and Research Network, NUI Galway

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

Key Reading Gasper, (Des 2004) The Ethics of Development: From Economism to Human Development. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Seers, Dudley (1979) ‘The meaning of development’ reprinted in S. Corbridge (ed) (2000) Development: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences Routledge

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’ pp 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

Development Conventionally seen as a post-1945 discipline, applied to “Third World” contexts An emergent and contested concept Positivist, Utopian AND critical, dystopian views Multiple development theories

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 Economic Growth

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 The public intellectual, public goods and public interest Representing the (less powerful) other What about cultural difference? Linking development and rights “Helping” and the nature of duties and obligations

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 Economism, Eurocentrism, neocolonialism, cultural imperialism Human costs of neoliberalism – disillusionment and the 1980s “lost decade” “Alternative”/“Post development” - the end of development?

The landscape since the 1990s 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?

Globalization – beliefs, policies, outcomes 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

“…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) Lessons from the past “belle époque”.

Inequality

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

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