The purpose of this paper is to present exploration of themes that interconnect six studies in environmentally and socially sustainable human development.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present exploration of themes that interconnect six studies in environmentally and socially sustainable human development.
Design/methodology/approach
The article presents an overview of the papers included in this special issue.
Findings
As humanity threatens to undermine its habitat, a social economics returns to core concepts and themes that became expunged from neoclassical economics: serious examination of persons, seen as more than given points of desire; a broadened perspective on types of good, including a non‐neoclassical conception of public goods as publicly deliberated priority goods that are not well managed through free markets and “common goods” as shared bases vital for everyone; study of what commodities and goods do to and for people; a central role for public reasoning about which are public priority goods, rather than using only a technical definition of a public good; an acceptance of notions of ethical responsibility and responsibilities concerning the provision and maintenance of public priority goods determined through public reasoning; and attention to institutional formats for such deliberation. Amongst the greatest of public priority “goods” are the concepts of common good and responsibility.
Research limitations/Implications
The findings reinforce the agenda of socio‐economics for central attention to the mutual conditioning of economy, society, polity, and environment, including analysis of the sociocultural formation of economic actors and of ideas of “common good”.
Originality/value
Cross‐fertilization of theorization with cases from Costa Rica, Kenya, Nepal, Thailand, Rwanda, sub‐Saharan Africa and global arenas.
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From a Latin American decolonial and transdisciplinary perspective, this article expands the increasingly relevant conversation about disaster ethics, not only in depth and scope…
Abstract
Purpose
From a Latin American decolonial and transdisciplinary perspective, this article expands the increasingly relevant conversation about disaster ethics, not only in depth and scope but also both interdisciplinarily and interculturally. By reviewing key points of development ethics that are closely related but underexplored, it makes the case for focusing on disaster recovery as a relevant distributive phase for improving future prevention and mitigation, while remedying long-standing injustices.
Design/methodology/approach
To do so, against the backdrop of recently emerging postcolonial, decolonial and structural approaches to disaster and vulnerability studies, the article presents a theoretical conversation between decolonial studies, development ethics, intercultural practice and philosophy, and disaster ethics beyond utilitarian approaches.
Findings
So far, development and disaster ethics remain worlds apart, despite their relevant convergence around the key notion of “recovery” and its underlying normative determination. This article identifies that prevailing utilitarian ethics in emergency response, in addition to their problematic universalization, have prevented further engagement with deontological and process-based principles, including a nuanced distributive sensitivity. As a result of such cross-fertilization, methodological individualism in an intercultural encounter is suggested, as well as continued engagement with pluriversal deliberation about key ethical values and notions regarding disaster risk and response.
Originality/value
Calling for distributive bottom-up engagement beyond professional and academic boundaries, this article presents a new direction for decolonising disaster ethics, so far unexplored, seeking to bridge the value gap between development and disaster efforts, planning and prevention.
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Séverine Deneulin and Nicholas Townsend
Public economics has recently introduced the concept of global public goods as a new category of public goods whose provision is central for promoting the well‐being of…
Abstract
Purpose
Public economics has recently introduced the concept of global public goods as a new category of public goods whose provision is central for promoting the well‐being of individuals in today's globalized world. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which introducing this new concept in international development is helpful for understanding human well‐being enhancement.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper considers some implications of the concept of the common good for international development.
Findings
The concept of global public goods could be more effective if the conception of well‐being it assumes is broadened beyond the individual level. “Living well” or the “good life” does not dwell in individual lives only, but also in the lives of the communities which human beings form. A successful provision of global public goods depends on this recognition that the “good life” of the communities that people form is a constitutive component of the “good life” of individual human beings.
Originality/value
The paper suggests that the rediscovery of the concept of the common good, and identification of how to nurture it, constitute one of the major tasks for development theory and policy.
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Jean‐Luc Dubois and Milène Trabelsi
Conflicts, especially when they turn into civil war or genocide, have irreversible consequences for people. The impact is not only economic as shown by several quantitative…
Abstract
Purpose
Conflicts, especially when they turn into civil war or genocide, have irreversible consequences for people. The impact is not only economic as shown by several quantitative studies, but also social and ethical since it deeply affects the mind and behaviour of both current and future generations. The main issue is, therefore, to avoid the eruption of such conflicts, in both pre and post‐conflict situations, by implementing preventive approaches. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Even if macro‐analyses bring up a series of objective causal factors to explain the reasons of uprisings and conflicts, we insist on the importance of people's micro‐attitudes when confronted by such events. The freedom of the agent to react appropriately in order to generate peace, and his responsibility towards the other, become nowadays essential and have to be improved by appropriate innovative education programmes.
Findings
Learning to live together and to behave with esteem and confidence, can contribute substantially to the peace‐keeping or peace‐building processes, especially in pre and post‐conflict situations. Such specific capabilities connect to the “life skills” education programme and could bring vital new opportunities.
Practical implications
However, the economic or political causes of societal failure may still remain, at the macro‐level, and jeopardise these opportunities, with the risk of transforming these positive capabilities into negative behaviour. Therefore, implementing in addition a social precautionary principle and appropriate investigation tools such as observatories and sentinel sites may be required to monitor such risks.
Originality/value
The paper offers insights into the following issue: to what extend and under which conditions will micro‐level measures effectively contribute to peace‐keeping, in the case of pre‐conflict situations, and to peace‐restoring in the case of post‐conflict contexts.
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Jérôme Ballet, François‐Régis Mahieu and Katia Radja
To analyze the impact of policy on people's identities, and the conflicts which can result from this.
Abstract
Purpose
To analyze the impact of policy on people's identities, and the conflicts which can result from this.
Design/methodology/approach
The case of the Rwanda genocide is used to examine identity disturbances related to policies.
Findings
Identity adjustments generated by policies can have devastating effects such as genocide. This raises the issue of national decision makers' responsibilities as well as those of the international institutions advocating and enforcing such policies.
Research limitations/implications
This study implies that we need to consider the impacts of policies on people's identities and to extend such empirical research.
Practical implications
The issue of institutions' responsibilities must be discussed, for both national and international institutions; and a precautionary principle in decision making must be set for expert advisors.
Originality/value
The paper addresses the links between economic policies and their effects on individual identity, an area which has not yet been examined in economic studies.
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Jennifer S. Holmes and Sheila Amin Gutiérrez de Piñeres
Existing attempts to assess national development and processes of democratization suffer from conceptual and measurement challenges. This paper proposes a comprehensive concept of…
Abstract
Purpose
Existing attempts to assess national development and processes of democratization suffer from conceptual and measurement challenges. This paper proposes a comprehensive concept of democratic development and develops a more inclusive concept of democracy to provide a common set of categories to evaluate its depth and quality.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to measure the depth and health of democracy, democratic development incorporates four categories of human progress, each measured by multiple variables. The four categories deemed important for human progress are general development, democratic health, democratic inclusiveness, and human capital. Components of democratic development incorporate existing measures of political and economic development to create a comprehensive and accessible measure of democratic development.
Findings
The comparative tables based on multiple goals of development clearly reveal that neither the GDP index nor the HDI are adequate measures of development. Democratic development can be more fully captured by four perspectives: development, democratic inclusiveness, democratic health, and human capital, providing a framework to measure progress in reform, democracy, and development, from public agencies up to the national level. This concept incorporates aspects and orientations of the capabilities approach to create a concept that is amenable to use as a self‐assessment tool and as a basis for comparison of development, broadly conceived.
Practical implications
This inclusive concept is particularly well suited for analyzing citizen satisfaction and democratic stability.
Originality/value
Rather than focusing on singular measures, the approach presented here offers a balanced set of measures aimed at providing a comprehensive view of the gamut of democratic and economic development processes relative to existing models that is more appropriate for self‐assessment/planning purposes than traditional measures, which may be more appropriate for statistical modeling purposes.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of a procedural deliberative alternative to an atomistic conception of individuals and an economic logic of markets or a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of a procedural deliberative alternative to an atomistic conception of individuals and an economic logic of markets or a priori universal lists, as ethical foundation for evaluating socio‐economic change.
Design/methodology/approach
To develop this argument, the paper combines a modified Kantian categorical imperative with deliberative ethics drawing on the writings of Habermas and Dewey. The journey through the European Enlightenment thought of Kant to the contemporary thought of Habermas and Bourdieu aims at mapping continuity and change in key themes in development ethics. These ideas are then given practical application in a case‐study of the people‐forestry interface in Nepal.
Findings
The paper shows how Kantian non‐deception links to Habermas' notion of communicative action and Dewey's notion of cooperative inquiry, and how Kantian non‐coercion links to the inclusion of subaltern voices. While the paper proposes that more open deliberative processes can potentially produce ethical gains, it also identifies an idealistic risk in this position. Bourdieu's thinking is utilised to reveal limitations on improving deliberative processes where there are powerful mechanisms reproducing inequalities.
Practical implications
The paper makes the case for greater attention being given to exploring deliberative processes as a prerequisite for ethical developmental actions.
Originality/value
The paper brings together authors who rarely feature in the development studies discourse and applies their ideas to a practical case study.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare three different principles – the culpability, capacity and concern principles – for allocating responsibility for governance in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare three different principles – the culpability, capacity and concern principles – for allocating responsibility for governance in a multi‐level context of addressing sustainable development.
Design/methodology/approach
The principles are first analysed from a theoretical and normative standpoint, linking to earlier literature on for example, the contribution principle, subsidiarity and global citizenship. Then the three principles are analysed in an empirical setting. The selected case is the issue complex around the health and environmental concerns from pesticide use in developing countries. Document analysis and semi‐structured interviews were carried out with relevant stakeholders from local, national and global governance levels on themes which enabled analysis of the workability and justness of the principles and whether they were already applied to some degree.
Findings
Analysis of the case shows the mutual complementarity of the three principles for allocating responsibility for governance, especially when culpability and capacity are dispersed across different agents and levels. However, the concern and capacity principles emerged as more important and promising. The results indicated the need for moving the value basis of agents towards more selfless global concern in order to create an effective multi‐level governance system.
Practical implications
The results may help policymakers at different levels to analyse more systematically who should assume responsibility for sustainable development governance and why.
Originality/value
Extends the analysis of principles for allocating responsibility for global issues.
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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to debates about environmental policy in developing countries by examining how far sustainable livelihoods approaches (SLAs) to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to debates about environmental policy in developing countries by examining how far sustainable livelihoods approaches (SLAs) to development may allow an alternative and less universalistic approach to environmental changes such as soil erosion.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides an overview of debates about environmental narratives and SLAs. There are tensions in both debates, about how far local institutions represent adaptations to predefined environmental risks, or instead enable a redefinition of risks according to the experience of poor people. In addition, there is a tension in how far SLAs should be seen as a fixed institutional design, or as a framework for organizing ideas and concerns about development. The paper presents research on soil erosion in Thailand as a case study of how SLAs can redefine risks from erosion for poor people.
Findings
SLAs provide a more contextual analysis of how environmental changes such as soil erosion represent risk to different land users, and hence SLAs can make environmental interventions more relevant for reducing vulnerability. But this approach can only succeed if intervener agencies are willing to consider challenging pre‐existing environmental narratives in order to empower local livelihoods.
Originality/value
The paper adds to existing research on SLAs by exploring the implications of SLAs for redefining environmental assumptions. The paper forms part of work aiming to make debates about the politics of environmental knowledge and science more practically relevant within development policy.