Philosophy, Ethics and Politics of Development

Content

Aims and Objectives:

Development ethics is and interdisciplinary field of study and research which examines the multi-faceted nature of ethical problems and challenges involved in development as well as their relation to the protection of individual and cultural integrity and their impact in international aid, cooperation and development policies. The course examines the theoretical foundations of ethics of development in relation to the questions of global justice and the ethical dimensions of aid and intervention. It also introduces the study various approaches to philosophical study of development and ethics, including need-based approach, capability ethics and post-development critique.

The course will examine the theoretical basis for the ethical dimensions in development and the practical ethical implications of dominant approaches and modes of development including the policies and practices of major international institutions, national governments, and independent NGOs. Practical examples and case studies will be used to evaluate the ethical dimensions of specific development projects and policies.

The course will cover the following topics:

• What is development and what is development ethics?
• Ends and means of development
• Economic and political conceptions of development and their post-development critique
• Theories of distributive justice and development ethics: need based approach, economic approaches, human capability approach, harm and risk approaches, cosmopolitanism and global justice: National and international rights and obligations in the ethics of poverty reduction: including the right to development
• Post-colonial critiques of development: alternatives approach to development?
• Culture and development
• Gender and development
• Governance, Corruption and development
• Environment and sustainable development
• International aid, diplomacy and development
• Conflict and human security

SUGGESTED READINGS (CENTRAL ONES MARKED WITH #, AND THE COMPULSORY ONES WITH ##):

SUGGESTED READINGS (CENTRAL ONES MARKED WITH #, AND THE COMPULSORY ONES WITH ##):

• Amstutz, M. (1999). International Ethics. Concepts, Theories and Cases in Global Politics. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.
• ## Chatterjee, Deen (ed.) (2004). The ethics of assistance. Cambridge University Press.
• ## Crocker, D. (1991). 'Toward Development Ethics', World Development, 19(5), 457-83.
• ## Crocker, David (1992). 'Functioning and Capability. The Foundations of Sen's and Nussbaum's Development Ethics', Political Theory, Vol. 20, No. 4, Nov.1992: 584-612, (reprinted in Nussbaum, M. and Glover, J. (1995) Women, Culture and Development. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• ## Dower, Nigel (2008). The nature and scope of development ethics. Journal of Global Ethics, Special issue; Development ethics: accountability, responsibility, and integrity. Vol 4, Number 3, December 2008.
• # Escobar, Arturo (1995). Encountering Development: the Making and Unmaking of the Third Wolrd., New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995.
• #Gasper, Des (2008). Denis Goulet and the Project of Development Ethics: Choices in Methodology, Focus and Organization, Journal of Human Development. Volume 9, Number 3, November 2008: 453-474.
• # Gasper, Des (2004) The ethics of development: from Economism to Human Development, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• Glover, J. (1977). Causing Death and Saving Lives. Middlesex: Penguin Books.
• # Goulet, Dennis (1995). Ethics of Development. London: Zed Press
• Gyekye, Kwame (1994). Taking Development Seriously. Journal of Applied Philosophy, Vol II. NoI, (1994)
• # Haq, Mahbub ul. (1995). Reflections on Human Development. New York: Oxford University Bress.
• ## Hellsten, S.K. (1998). 'Distributive Justice, Theories of', Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, Volume 1. New York: Academic Press.
• ## Hellsten , S.K. (2006). Poverty: Impact on Development. Encyclopedia of the Developing World. Volume 3, O-Z Index. Ed by Thomas M. Leonard. New York: Routledge .
• # Hellsten, S.K. (2007) Leadership, ethics and politics : the problem of Dirty Hands in the political economy of contemporary Africa. Ethics and Politics, Volume 4, Number 2.
• ## Howard, Rhoda 1995).’Women’s Rights and the Right to Development’ Mohanty, C.T., Russo, A. Torres, L. (1991) Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism.
• # Nussbaum, Martha and Amartya Sen (eds.)(1993). Quality of Life. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
• ## LaFollette, H. (2002). Ethics in Practice. An Anthology. Chapter IV: World Hunger and International Justice. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Little, Daniel (2003). The Paradox of Wealth and Poverty. Mapping the Ethical Dilemmas of Global Development. Boulder, Colorado: West view.
• Nussbaum, M and Glover, J (1995)(Eds). Women, Culture and Development. A Study of Human Capabilities. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (pp. 116-152, 235-253)
• # Nussbaum, Martha (2000). Women and Human Development: the Capabilities Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Nustad, K.G. (2001). Development: the devil we know? Third World Quarterly, vol. 22, No. 4, pp 479-489.
• # Pogge, Thomas (2002). World Poverty and Human Rights. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• # Sen, Amartya (1994). Development at Freedom, Cambridge University Press.
• # Sachs, w. (2001). Development Dictionary. London: Zed Press.
• Shaphiro, Daniel (1987). 'Universal Welfare Rights & Empirical Premises', Public Affairs Quarterly, Vol 1:4, Oct.
• Streeten Paul, Shahid Javed Burki, and ul Haq Mahbubu. (1981) First things first: Meeting basic human needs in developing countries. New Yrok: Oxford University Press.
• # Tinker, Irene (1990) Persistent Inequalities: Women and World Development. New York: Oxford University Press.
• # Ujombana, N.J (2000). The Third World and the Right to Development: Agenda for the Next Millennium, Human Rights Quarterly 22 (2000): 753-787.
• UNDP Development Reports 1999-2008 (available on the www).
• UN Declaration on Right to Development
• Vogl, Frank (2002) 'Myth: Corruption is a Cultural Phenomenon', TI Newsletter, June 2002, available at http://www.transparency.org/newsletters/2002.2/special.html#vogl Third World Quarterly, Special issue on corruption, ed. By Williams, Robert (1999): 20(3).

The literature will be available in Philosophica-library (Siltavuorenpenger 20A) in Mid-January.

Course work and forms of study

The course is assessed by an essay. Essay questions will be handed out during the course.