A challenge for research in development studies on values, ethics and morals

The articles in this special issue represent a selective output from the 2010 annual conference of the Development Studies Association on the theme of 'Development Paths: Values, Ethics and Morality'. Following a brief introduction to the articles, we pose several future research challenges in the field of Development Studies with respect to this theme. One involves moving beyond orientalism and reverse-orientalism in the question of values. The second relates to how values and ethics are institutionalised within rapid developmental transformations. The third addresses how the conditions of poverty and inequality are structurally produced through systems and ideologies of valuation. Finally, the current context of high levels of inequalities within and between societies begs for introspection in the field of Development Studies about how values and ethics are related to these inequalities. Ultimately, if we are to maintain our legitimacy as a field of studies that emerged in the era of decolonisation, we need to address the persistence of old and the emergence of new forms of severe exploitation and subordination in a world of so much affluence and at a time when human rights have come to be accepted as near-universal principles of governance.

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