Ethics and development

The field of development ethics explores questions and debates concerning what is good development of societies and of the world, and good development for individual persons. Generations of experience suggest the inadequacy of the assumption that societal-, world- or personal- development can be equated to economic growth and wealth. That assumption neglects issues of equity, security, personal relationships, natural environment, identity, culture and meaningfulness. In particular, equating national development to national economic growth neglects the welfare and rights of many groups of already disadvantaged people. Over ten million people a year, for example, are displaced from their home due to economic expansion, frequently with little or no compensation (Penz et al. 2011). An important alternative conception of development is ‘human development’, meaning achievement with respect to a wide range of well-reasoned values, not only those measured in money, and advancement of people’s ability to achieve such well-reasoned values (Haq 1999; Nussbaum 2011). Development ethics tries to identify and systematically reflect on values and value-choices present in, or relevant to, cases and processes in the development of societies, persons, regions, and the globe.
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