Development Ethics and Moral Engagement: Some Political and Ethical Dilemmas in Development Research

Anyone attempting to write anything on the subject of development has to immediately confront the inherently contested and normative nature of the concept. Such have been the conceptual, theoretical, methodological and substantive debates over development that it has been seen as a concept, and indeed field of studies, in crisis: its aims, agents and unit of development have been questioned and challenged (Pieterse, 2001, Chapter 1). Development is ‘an idea, an objective and an activity’ (Kothari & Minogue, 2002, p. 12) that consequently gives rise to debates over theory, policies and aims. As Pieterse and Kothari and Minogue go on to argue, such debates cannot be separated from relationships of power and the different paradigms and ideologies that shape intellectual discussion, stakeholder perspectives and decisions in policy-making institutions.