- Des Gasper works at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague (Netherlands), a graduate school... moreDes Gasper works at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague (Netherlands), a graduate school within Erasmus University Rotterdam, currently as Professor of Human Development, Development Ethics and Public Policy. He studied economics, international development and policy analysis at the universities of Cambridge and East Anglia in Britain, and then worked through the 1980s in Africa as a government planner and university lecturer, before settling in The Hague. He was linked as Visiting Professor in 2005-08 to the Research Centre on Well-Being in Developing Countries at the University of Bath. His research in recent years has been on human security, well-being,and development ethics, with connection particularly to the fields of climate change and migration. He has undertaken work in Bangladesh, Botswana, India, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, and has given invited lectures in those countries and in Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Latvia, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Norway, Thailand, Spain, Vietnam, the UK and the USA.(Des Gasper works at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague (Netherlands), a graduate school within Erasmus University Rotterdam, currently as Professor of Human Development, Development Ethics and Public Policy. He studied economics, international development and policy analysis at the universities of Cambridge and East Anglia in Britain, and then worked through the 1980s in Africa as a government planner and university lecturer, before settling in The Hague. He was linked as Visiting Professor in 2005-08 to the Research Centre on Well-Being in Developing Countries at the University of Bath. His research in recent years has been on human security, well-being,and development ethics, with connection particularly to the fields of climate change and migration. He has undertaken work in Bangladesh, Botswana, India, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, and has given invited lectures in those countries and in Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Latvia, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Norway, Thailand, Spain, Vietnam, the UK and the USA.)edit
The paper investigates topics, emphases, frames and absences in the Summary for Policymakers parts of the three Working Group reports in the IPCC 5 th Assessment Report and the Summary for Policymakers of the Synthesis Report. It explores... more
The paper investigates topics, emphases, frames and absences in the Summary for Policymakers parts of the three Working Group reports in the IPCC 5 th Assessment Report and the Summary for Policymakers of the Synthesis Report. It explores similarities and differences by using various tools of lexical and discourse analysis, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. The main results are these: First, each Working Group's Summary reflects not only the Working Group's distinctive mandate but also a distinctive intellectual framing. Second, although there are some significant differences in the emphases given to different themes from the Working Groups, the Synthesis Summary covers the main topics of the three other Summaries, and constitutes a relatively integrated summary of the complete Assessment Report. In addition, third, we find though that the Synthesis Summary centrally follows up the risk framing and language which are prominent in Working Group II but semi-absent in the other Working Groups, as part of constructing a policy-relevant statement from the three distinctive reports. In addition, the Synthesis Summary makes use of linguistic devices which contribute to 'amplify' the strength of statements, as part of transferring messages effectively from the scientific context to a policy-maker audience. Fourth, we find that the style and tone of the IPCC Summaries conduce also to important absences and imbalances in emphasis: main victims of climate change (particular groups of vulnerable people) remain virtually invisible in the Summaries, unlike the impacts in nature and ecological systems or the aggregate economic impacts, and correspondingly the challenges, options and opportunities for action remain relatively underdeveloped in the analysis.
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Vulnerable poor people are commonly marginalized or even ignored in climate change analyses, in various ways. This short article notes seven such ways, which overlap but deserve separate attention. Together they contribute to a strange... more
Vulnerable poor people are commonly marginalized or even ignored in climate change analyses, in various ways. This short article notes seven such ways, which overlap but deserve separate attention. Together they contribute to a strange inversion in use of the precautionary principle—the principle of taking precautions against major possible threats even when they are not precisely known risks—in order to use it to implicitly protect the interests of privileged high-income consumers. The factors mentioned in the paper all contribute to this inversion: the ‘impersonal gaze’ of natural sciences that tend not to focus on particular population groups; the insistence on model-based quantification; monetized assessments; and assumptions of closed sectors. In addition, the inversion reflects a self-preoccupation by the affluent. More than just a failure to apply a precautionary principle for the poorest groups, the inversion of the principle ultimately means that its application is used to take precautions against causing disturbances to already privileged high-volume greenhouse gas emitters. In the absence of near-certainty, more evidence is demanded to avoid the ‘risk’ that emissions might be unnecessarily reduced, while the risks of major damage to the lives of vulnerable people who are remote in space, time and political centrality, are tolerated.
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The Human Development Report 2007/2008 about climate change and development made bold arguments concerning human rights and justice for poor and disadvantaged populations. However, its policy proposals were less bold, looking very similar... more
The Human Development Report 2007/2008 about climate change and development made bold arguments concerning human rights and justice for poor and disadvantaged populations. However, its policy proposals were less bold, looking very similar to those of the World Bank's World Development Report 2010. This article investigates in which direction the thinking on environment and sustainability by UNDP’s Human Development Report Office has evolved since 2007/8. A detailed frame- and lexical analysis of the HDR 2011 on Sustainability and Equity shows a markedly technocratic direction, largely apolitical and insensitive to human rights issues and justice, giving a diluted successor to the HDR 2007/2008, now close in perspective to the World Bank. This direction as well as the little attention to the socio-economic and political barriers to sustainability and to climate change impacts we find in the HDR 2011, has implications for the poorest sectors of South African society.
Keywords: climate change, development, environment, human rights, problem and policy frames, South Africa, United Nations Development Programme
Keywords: climate change, development, environment, human rights, problem and policy frames, South Africa, United Nations Development Programme
The language of ‘human security’ arose in the 1990s, including from UN work on ‘human development’. What contributions can it make, if any, to the understanding and especially the valuation of and response to the impacts of climate... more
The language of ‘human security’ arose in the 1990s, including from UN work on ‘human development’. What contributions can it make, if any, to the understanding and especially the valuation of and response to the impacts of climate change? How does it compare and relate to other languages used in describing the emergent crises and in seeking to guide response, including languages of ‘externalities’, public goods and incentives, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis? The paper examines in particular the formulations in those terms in Stiglitz's Making Globalization Work and Stern's The Economics of Climate Change and Blueprint for a Safer Planet, and how these authors are left groping for frameworks to motivate the changes required for global sustainability. It undertakes comparison also with the languages of human development and human rights, and suggests that, not least through enriching our skills of ‘narrative imagination’, the human security framework supports a series of essential changes in orientation—in our conceptions of selfhood, well-being and situatedness in Nature—and supports a required greater solidarity and greater awareness of our inter-connectedness.
My academic work is located at the intersection of public policy analysis, ethics and international development studies. I begin the lecture by saying something about that combination and intersection. Then I will illustrate it, through a... more
My academic work is located at the intersection of public policy analysis, ethics and international development studies. I begin the lecture by saying something about that combination and intersection. Then I will illustrate it, through a look at current discussions about responding to anticipated global climate change: ‘the craziest experiment mankind has ever conducted’ according to a recent editorial in The Economist newspaper (25 Nov. 2010).
The advance of biotechnology facilitates extraction of " fresh " organs like kidneys from living people, and their transplantation to sick people. The transplant trade has expanded the options for life-saving treatment but it violates... more
The advance of biotechnology facilitates extraction of " fresh " organs like kidneys from living people, and their transplantation to sick people. The transplant trade has expanded the options for life-saving treatment but it violates many traditional understandings regarding appropriate market exchange. The kidney trade is the largest example, despite being the subject of heated public debate and having no legal basis across most of the world. It has been both challenged, medical, social, legal and economic grounds. While the controversy continues, the gap between policies and illegal practices widens. The trade is expanding in Asia as well as in war-torn MENA areas (He, 2015). Kidney sale is perhaps still under-theorized in some respects. In all discussions, the sellers should sit at the center, for only the poor, destitute or socially disadvantaged sell, whereas only the well-off and socially advantaged buy. Discussions have concentrated on: (1) goals of the sellers, (2) varying benefits and harms they can experience, and (3) illegal informal arrangements that facilitate the decision to sell an organ. But there is confusing evidence on consequences, and limited connection between those discussions and the normative assessment of how far are selling decisions the desperation behavior of people who possess too little real choice. This paper explores kidney sellers' perspectives and the process of decision-making in some villages of Bangladesh. We examine the organ sellers' degree of freedom in relation to what they value to achieve, identify its limits, and see how those lead them to the choice of organ-selling. Selling decisions are made in a context where some people lack adequate material
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Learning objectives 1. To understand development ethics as an essential dimension of international development studies, for explanatory work and self-awareness as well as for evaluation and policy design. 2. To recognize issues for... more
Learning objectives 1. To understand development ethics as an essential dimension of international development studies, for explanatory work and self-awareness as well as for evaluation and policy design. 2. To recognize issues for values-sensitive thinking about development: in conceptualizing costs and benefits, considering who bears them, and asking which types of change process are legitimate. 3. To become alert to which issues, identities and interests get considered and which get downgraded or ignored. 4. To identify relevant tools in development ethics for description, analysis/evaluation, and action.
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This essay outlines characteristic concerns of development ethics, with special attention to issues around the recognition of costs and risks and the (in)equity of their distribution; including to how these issues arise in relation to... more
This essay outlines characteristic concerns of development ethics, with special attention to issues around the recognition of costs and risks and the (in)equity of their distribution; including to how these issues arise in relation to environmental impacts of economic development, and to current work on human security analysis which tries to embody important development ethics concerns in an approach helpful for policy-relevant research and policy design.
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Development projects have frequently brought clashes between claims for improvement for powerful groups nationwide and worldwide and the rights of marginal groups in project-affected areas, leading to ruinous forced resettlement of the... more
Development projects have frequently brought clashes between claims for improvement for powerful groups nationwide and worldwide and the rights of marginal groups in project-affected areas, leading to ruinous forced resettlement of the latter. Economic cost-benefit analysis based on the potential compensation principle endorses sacrifice of weaker groups’ livelihoods and rights for the sake of benefits for groups in which many members are already (much) better off. The chapter examines and links two lines of response: the ethic of responsibilities from Penz, Drydyk and Bose, based on studying dam projects and the ‘human development ethic’ embedded in existing international agreements; and human rights-based approaches elaborated for mining projects. A global language of human rights, including principles of recognition, accountability and participation, proves a vital medium for mobilising and linking local and international civil society groups and getting seats for weaker local groups at project negotiating tables, which can then allow processes of mutual learning and accommodation. Serious attention to these principles and standards, together with other elements of a human development ethic and responsible development, should become routine in economists’ training and practice.
Keywords: development ethics; displacement; development projects; cost-benefit analysis; compensation principle; rights-based approaches social movements
Keywords: development ethics; displacement; development projects; cost-benefit analysis; compensation principle; rights-based approaches social movements
Abstract: The paper assesses the rationale, contributions, structure, and challenges of the field of development ethics. Processes of social and economic transformation involve great risks and costs and great opportunities for gain, but... more
Abstract: The paper assesses the rationale, contributions, structure, and challenges of the field of development ethics. Processes of social and economic transformation involve great risks and costs and great opportunities for gain, but the benefits, costs and risks are typically hugely unevenly and inequitably distributed, as is participation in specifying what they are and their relative importance. The ethics of development examines the benefits, costs, risks, formulations, participation, and options. The paper outlines a series of ways of characterizing such work, arguments for and against its importance, and some of its important sources and contributions, especially from the interdisciplinary stream of work represented over several decades by Denis Goulet. Definitions are diverse since the work covers many different intersections of practice and theorizing, at multiple levels. The paper considers and replies to arguments against discussing development ethics: claims that it involves only endless proliferation of different opinions, is an expensive luxury that undermines long-run development, is superfluous if one already works with the capability approach or the human rights tradition, or never has influence. Finally, it presents suggestions for how development ethics thinking can have increased impact, with reference to incorporation in policy analysis and planning methods, professional codes and training, and to its intellectual location and communication strategies. The field should articulate the methodological pragmatism which much of it has adopted, consistent with its required role as a practice-oriented interdisciplinary meeting ground.
Keywords: practical ethics; human rights; human development; human security; sustainability; methodological pragmatism
Keywords: practical ethics; human rights; human development; human security; sustainability; methodological pragmatism
Denis Goulet (1931-2006) was a pioneer of human development theory and a founder of work on ‘development ethics’ as a self-conscious field that treats the ethical and value questions posed by development theory, planning, and practice.... more
Denis Goulet (1931-2006) was a pioneer of human development theory and a founder of work on ‘development ethics’ as a self-conscious field that treats the ethical and value questions posed by development theory, planning, and practice. The paper looks at aspects of Goulet’s work in relation to four issues concerning this project of development ethics—scope, methodology, roles, and organisational format and identity. It compares his views with subsequent trends in the field and suggests lessons for work on human development. While his definition of the scope of development ethics remains serviceable, his methodology of intense immersion by a ‘development ethicist’ in each context under examination was rewarding but limited by the time and skills it requires and a relative disconnection from communicable theory. He wrote profoundly about ethics’ possible lines of influence, including through incorporation in methods, movements and education, but his own ideas wait to be sufficiently incorporated. He proposed development ethics as a new (sub)discipline, yet the immersion in particular contexts and their routine practices that is required for understanding and influence must be by people who remain close to specific disciplinary and professional backgrounds. Development ethics has to be, he eventually came to accept, not a distinct (sub)discipline but an interdisciplinary field.
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Research and teaching in societal development ethics face potentially four fundamental types of objection: first, that ethics is obvious already; second, that it is instead impossible, on epistemological grounds; third, that it is... more
Research and teaching in societal development ethics face potentially four fundamental types of objection: first, that ethics is obvious already; second, that it is instead impossible, on epistemological grounds; third, that it is theoretically possible but in practice fruitless; and fourth, that it is in any case politically insignificant. The paper presents qualified rebuttals of the four objections. In the process of doing so, it builds up a picture of this field of thought and practice: its modes, methods and alternative forms of organization, and some of its pitfalls and potentials, exemplars and achievements.
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Referring to a wide variety of case studies, anecdotes and abstracted choice situations, this article considers the range and roles of different types of cases presented in trying to understand tensions, conflicts and choices in... more
Referring to a wide variety of case studies, anecdotes and abstracted choice situations, this article considers the range and roles of different types of cases presented in trying to understand tensions, conflicts and choices in development. Since various purposes are legitimate and complementary (including sensitization, theorization, and informing decision-making) so too are various styles and uses of cases: some real and some hypothetical, some thick (including a lot) and some thin (omitting a lot). While thick description can provide instructive and even inspiring exemplars, it is not invariably helpful in moral argument. The article synthesizes these ideas into a picture of distinct stages in work in ethics and practical reasoning.
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Part of the broadening of ideas of ‘development’ involves matters of personal security and societal peace. This paper examines why and how, with reference to conceptual and historical analyses and to case studies of domestic violence,... more
Part of the broadening of ideas of ‘development’ involves matters of personal security and societal peace. This paper examines why and how, with reference to conceptual and historical analyses and to case studies of domestic violence, emergency relief in civil wars, and South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It considers: physical violence as a major and ethically central aspect of many people’s experience; how violence and the resultant suffering are neglected and even denied, due partly to an economics-style focus on commodities; and some alternative lines of intellectual and practical response, at individual, agency, and societal levels, to past, present and prospective violence.
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Can development ethics avoid presuming that European cultures have universal validity and yet also avoid treating every distinct culture as sacrosanct and beyond criticism? While work on ‘culture and development’ valuably stresses the... more
Can development ethics avoid presuming that European cultures have universal validity and yet also avoid treating every distinct culture as sacrosanct and beyond criticism? While work on ‘culture and development’ valuably stresses the importance of cultural differences and identity it has often been hindered by conceptual limitations when faced with the ambiguities, variety, conflict and change within societies. This article queries a communitarian belief, that morality cannot be anything other than whatever a community's norms are, and suggests that recent development ethics work usefully blends universalist ethics with room for local traditions and choices. As advances on both (a) forms of liberalism that are universalist in scope but Eurocentric and over-individualistic in content, and (b) relativist forms of communitarian or post-modern ethics, three current approaches are noted: new work on Basic Human Needs theory, including Amartya Sen's capabilities approach; Martha Nussbaum's Aristotelian extension of Sen; and Onora O'Neill's Kantian development ethic. Particular attention is paid in the article to disputes concerning women's rights.
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From the starting point of rich outsiders telling LDCs to redistribute internally and of others including (usually the well-off in) LDCs telling the DC rich to redistribute internationally, the agenda of the paper is as follows. First,... more
From the starting point of rich outsiders telling LDCs to redistribute internally and of others including (usually the well-off in) LDCs telling the DC rich to redistribute internationally, the agenda of the paper is as follows. First, to consider the claim that many development studies have been normatively primitive and neglected rightful claims which run counter to their redistribution proposals. Part 2 looks at the range of conceptions of distributive justice in fact available. Second, the more specific proposal that concerns with equality are misguided, either as a path to other current goals like welfare or liberty, or as an independent value. Part 3 comments on a series of such arguments against egalitarianism. It proposes that New Right claims are heavily overstated, though individually some have a degree of force and some are complementary and hence cumulative. There are matters of appropriate degree beyond Singer's radical sacrifice as well as beyond Nozick's radical rejection.
Third, we must look at two recurrent themes in the anti-egalitarian arguments: absolutized values and a radical individualism. Part 4 considers the style and context of anti-redistributivist thought, to help situate its claims that concerns with equality will be absolutized, and/or are overridden by the absolute or unconditionally prior claims of freedom.
The themes of absolutization and individualism are examined further in Parts 5 and 6, which turn from the direct attacks on egalitarianism to consider the claims of alternative normative theories of distribution, based on past events, not present needs or potentials. Part 5 reviews Locke and Nozick's theories of just acquisition, which lead on to assessment of past acquisitions and past DC-LDC relations. This potentially embarrassing subject for property holders leads in turn to a Hayekian defence via radical ignorance: namely that only appropriate processes, present holdings and the dangers of intervention can be securely known, and seeking someone to blame for misfortune is likely to be merely a childish outcry. Blaming is another theme in theories preoccupied with preceding events: being to blame, or not being to blame. Part 5 looks at its roots in individualistic psychology.
Part 6 first reviews claims of absolute individual desert and suggests that these fit only a Crusoe on his `desert island'. It then analyzes the `blaming the victim' variant of desert theory that is often found in development literature. Finally, it seeks a more adequate view of the situation, constraints and consequent scale and types of obligation of the individual within his/her society (e.g. the developmentalist dispensing advice and official funds, but perhaps not his or her own).
Part 7 moves on to the claim that specifically international redistribution is beyond any moral obligation, because nations are self-enclosed ethical universes. It considers whether there are any duties, or rights, to act - or even speak - across national boundaries. And if the foreign rich claim the right to preach redistribution to the local rich, can they at the same time exempt themselves from the duty to make transfers to the local poor? It will be argued that national boundaries have significance as working rules but not as absolute moral divisions.
Part 8 concludes with the issue of interpreting the many constraints that must be respected in any concern with appropriate redistribution: notably the assessment of their relative force and fixity. Which are feasible excuses? It does not concentrate on substantive issues of just what are the constraints, just what are and would be the effects of attempts at redistribution and whether they actually help the poor. That would require another essay.6 Instead it examines types of feasibility and judgement, and the possible roles for ethics in a world of constraints.
Third, we must look at two recurrent themes in the anti-egalitarian arguments: absolutized values and a radical individualism. Part 4 considers the style and context of anti-redistributivist thought, to help situate its claims that concerns with equality will be absolutized, and/or are overridden by the absolute or unconditionally prior claims of freedom.
The themes of absolutization and individualism are examined further in Parts 5 and 6, which turn from the direct attacks on egalitarianism to consider the claims of alternative normative theories of distribution, based on past events, not present needs or potentials. Part 5 reviews Locke and Nozick's theories of just acquisition, which lead on to assessment of past acquisitions and past DC-LDC relations. This potentially embarrassing subject for property holders leads in turn to a Hayekian defence via radical ignorance: namely that only appropriate processes, present holdings and the dangers of intervention can be securely known, and seeking someone to blame for misfortune is likely to be merely a childish outcry. Blaming is another theme in theories preoccupied with preceding events: being to blame, or not being to blame. Part 5 looks at its roots in individualistic psychology.
Part 6 first reviews claims of absolute individual desert and suggests that these fit only a Crusoe on his `desert island'. It then analyzes the `blaming the victim' variant of desert theory that is often found in development literature. Finally, it seeks a more adequate view of the situation, constraints and consequent scale and types of obligation of the individual within his/her society (e.g. the developmentalist dispensing advice and official funds, but perhaps not his or her own).
Part 7 moves on to the claim that specifically international redistribution is beyond any moral obligation, because nations are self-enclosed ethical universes. It considers whether there are any duties, or rights, to act - or even speak - across national boundaries. And if the foreign rich claim the right to preach redistribution to the local rich, can they at the same time exempt themselves from the duty to make transfers to the local poor? It will be argued that national boundaries have significance as working rules but not as absolute moral divisions.
Part 8 concludes with the issue of interpreting the many constraints that must be respected in any concern with appropriate redistribution: notably the assessment of their relative force and fixity. Which are feasible excuses? It does not concentrate on substantive issues of just what are the constraints, just what are and would be the effects of attempts at redistribution and whether they actually help the poor. That would require another essay.6 Instead it examines types of feasibility and judgement, and the possible roles for ethics in a world of constraints.
University quality and its measurement have been strongly on the agenda of university policy since the 1980s. There is no consensus about what a good university is, but increasingly priority has been given to a narrow focus on... more
University quality and its measurement have been strongly on the agenda of university policy since the 1980s. There is no consensus about what a good university is, but increasingly priority has been given to a narrow focus on contribution to supporting economic production and growth, as part of an economy- and market-centred conception of society. We argue that a human development approach is also very often relevant in educational policy and evaluation and can assist us to define and characterize a good university. From the following core values of human development – well-being, participation and empowerment, equity and diversity, and sustainability – we propose a list of dimensions for a human development orientation in research, teaching, social engagement and university governance, and then discuss the implications of these values and how they can be used in evaluation and steering of universities’ work.
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University quality and its measurement have been strongly on the agenda of university policy since the 1980s. There is no consensus about what a good university is, but increasingly priority has been given to a narrow focus on... more
University quality and its measurement have been strongly on the agenda of university policy since the 1980s. There is no consensus about what a good university is, but increasingly priority has been given to a narrow focus on contribution to supporting economic production and growth, as part of an economy-centred and market-centred conception of society. We argue that a human development approach is also very often relevant in educational policy and evaluation and can assist us to define and characterize a good university. From the following core values of human development—well-being, participation and empowerment, equity and diversity, and sustainability—we propose a list of dimensions for a human development orientation in research, teaching, social engagement and university governance, and then discuss the implications of these values and how they can be used in evaluation and steering of universities' work.
Various studies suggest that major changes are required in predominant human values during the next two generations, to ensure politically and environmentally sustainable societies and a sustainable global order: away from consumerism to... more
Various studies suggest that major changes are required in predominant human values during the next two generations, to ensure politically and environmentally sustainable societies and a sustainable global order: away from consumerism to a focus on quality of life; away from a certain type of possessive individualism, towards more human solidarity; and away from an assumption of domination of nature, towards a greater ecological sensitivity. The paper reviews evidence on the scale of these challenges. Second, it analyses their implications and the possibilities of change at personal, societal and global levels, with special reference to education and the respective roles and mutual entanglement of personal change and system change. Thirdly, it discusses possible lessons and contributions of internationally oriented postgraduate education, drawing some suggestions from experience in the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague.
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The paper discusses the relevance of the human development and capability approach for development project planning, management and evaluation. With reference to the set of five other studies that it introduces, it suggests in which areas... more
The paper discusses the relevance of the human development and capability approach for development project planning, management and evaluation. With reference to the set of five other studies that it introduces, it suggests in which areas insights from human development-and-capability thinking offer advances and in which areas such thinking needs to link with and be complemented or corrected by thinking from other sources and traditions. The paper aims at capturing the learning from recent experiences and studies, both for project planning and for the human capabilities perspective.
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A review essay of: Barbara Harriss-White and S. Subramaniam (editors), Illfare in India – Essays on India’s Social Sector in Honour of S. Guhan, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 1999, pp. 412, Published in 2001 in 'Review of Development... more
A review essay of:
Barbara Harriss-White and S. Subramaniam (editors),
Illfare in India – Essays on India’s Social Sector in Honour of S. Guhan, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 1999, pp. 412,
Published in 2001 in 'Review of Development and Change' , VI(2), 295-304.
Barbara Harriss-White and S. Subramaniam (editors),
Illfare in India – Essays on India’s Social Sector in Honour of S. Guhan, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 1999, pp. 412,
Published in 2001 in 'Review of Development and Change' , VI(2), 295-304.
This paper considers the concepts and assumptions on which Amartya Sen’s policy perspective rests. It examines first his conception of, preoccupation with, and priority to freedom, and explores the strong similarities to the work of John... more
This paper considers the concepts and assumptions on which Amartya Sen’s policy perspective rests. It examines first his conception of, preoccupation with, and priority to freedom, and explores the strong similarities to the work of John Stuart Mill. It situates Sen’s treatment of freedom in relation to his idea of society and his limited conception of community. Second, we compare the valuation he gives to freedom with his declared reticence otherwise in specifying or assessing values. The paper extends Deneulin’s arguments on the insufficiency of freedom as a principle of the good, to suggest development is the collective struggle for and extension of well-reasoned freedoms and humane capabilities, in balance with other reasoned values. Thirdly, we assess Sen’s views on institutionalization of his ideas, and see the incompleteness of political freedom as path to promotion of other human freedoms, especially in the context of market forces. We need criteria to judge the processes and outcomes of political freedom, and legal constitutions to embody additional values besides political freedom. Sen’s ideas require the necessarily conflictual construction of a rights-based approach, to counter evergrowing concentrations of money power.
Keywords: capability approach, freedom, markets, communities
Résumé
Ce papier considère les concepts et les hypothèses sur lesquels la perspective politique développée par Amartya Sen repose. Il examine d’abord sa conception de, et sa préoccupation pour la liberté, ainsi que la priorité qu’il y accorde. Il explore les fortes similarités entre le travail de John Stuart Mill et celui de Sen. Il situe son traitement de la liberté en relation avec son idée de société et sa conception limitée de la communauté. En second lieu, nous comparons la valeur que Sen donne à la liberté avec sa réticence déclarée à spécifier les valeurs. Le papier étend les arguments de Deneulin sur l’insuffisance de la liberté par rapport à la théorie du Bien. Il suggère que le développement est une lutte collective pour l’extension des libertés bien raisonnées et des capabilités humaines, en balance avec d’autres valeurs raisonnables. Troisièmement, nous examinons le point de vue de Sen sur l’institutionnalisation de ses idées et suggérons que la liberté politique est insuffisante comme moyen de promouvoir d’autres libertés humaines, particulièrement dans un contexte de forces de marché. Nous avons besoin de critères pour évaluer les processus et les résultats de la liberté politique, et des constitutions légales pour donner corps à des valeurs additionnelles au-delà de la liberté politique. Les idées de Sen requièrent nécessairement une construction conflictuelle de l’approche basée sur les droits afin de contrer la concentration toujours plus grande du pouvoir de l’argent.
Mots-clés : approche des capabilités, liberté, marchés, communautés
Keywords: capability approach, freedom, markets, communities
Résumé
Ce papier considère les concepts et les hypothèses sur lesquels la perspective politique développée par Amartya Sen repose. Il examine d’abord sa conception de, et sa préoccupation pour la liberté, ainsi que la priorité qu’il y accorde. Il explore les fortes similarités entre le travail de John Stuart Mill et celui de Sen. Il situe son traitement de la liberté en relation avec son idée de société et sa conception limitée de la communauté. En second lieu, nous comparons la valeur que Sen donne à la liberté avec sa réticence déclarée à spécifier les valeurs. Le papier étend les arguments de Deneulin sur l’insuffisance de la liberté par rapport à la théorie du Bien. Il suggère que le développement est une lutte collective pour l’extension des libertés bien raisonnées et des capabilités humaines, en balance avec d’autres valeurs raisonnables. Troisièmement, nous examinons le point de vue de Sen sur l’institutionnalisation de ses idées et suggérons que la liberté politique est insuffisante comme moyen de promouvoir d’autres libertés humaines, particulièrement dans un contexte de forces de marché. Nous avons besoin de critères pour évaluer les processus et les résultats de la liberté politique, et des constitutions légales pour donner corps à des valeurs additionnelles au-delà de la liberté politique. Les idées de Sen requièrent nécessairement une construction conflictuelle de l’approche basée sur les droits afin de contrer la concentration toujours plus grande du pouvoir de l’argent.
Mots-clés : approche des capabilités, liberté, marchés, communautés
Abstract: Mahbub ul Haq’s work to coordinate, establish and propagate the Human Development Approach offers an example of effective leadership in promoting more ethical socio-economic development. The paper reviews Pioneering the Human... more
Abstract: Mahbub ul Haq’s work to coordinate, establish and propagate the Human Development Approach offers an example of effective leadership in promoting more ethical socio-economic development. The paper reviews Pioneering the Human Development Revolution -- An Intellectual Biography of Mahbub ul Haq (eds. Haq and Ponzio, 2008), and extends themes from the UN Intellectual History Project to examine Haq’s contributions in terms of four aspects of leadership: articulating and applying values that combine depth with broad appeal; providing a fruitful and vivid way of seeing, a ‘vision’, that reflects the values; embodying the values and vision in workable practical proposals; and supporting and communicating the previous aspects through wide and relevant networks. It suggests that the human development approach may need to update its values and vision, including through better integration of human security thinking, if it is to retain the leadership role it acquired thanks to Haq.
Much of Amartya Sen’s work has been directly policy-related, but his methodology of policy analysis has not been explained in detail. Action-related social science involves value-imbued procedures that guide the numerous unavoidable... more
Much of Amartya Sen’s work has been directly policy-related, but his methodology of policy analysis has not been explained in detail. Action-related social science involves value-imbued procedures that guide the numerous unavoidable choices. This theme was explored earlier by authors close to Sen’s milieu such as Streeten and Stretton, and by forerunners including Dewey and Myrdal. Assisted by Jean Drèze, Sen has evolved a form of policy analysis guided by humanist values rather than those of mainstream economics. Features of the methodology include: 1) A wider range of values employed in valuation, with central attention to: how do and can people live? 2) Conceptual investigation of the wider range of values. 3) Use of the wider range of values to guide choice of topics and boundaries of analysis. 4) Hence a focus on human realities, not on an arbitrary slice of reality selected according to commercial significance and convenience for measurement. 5) Use of the wider range of values to guide other decisions in analysis; thus a focus on the socio-economic significance of results. 6) A matching focus on a wide range of potential policy means. The paper characterizes Sen’s policy analysis methodology, its roots in earlier work, and its relations to the UNDP Human Development approach and kindred approaches.
Keywords: policy analysis, human development, entitlements approach, capability approach
Keywords: policy analysis, human development, entitlements approach, capability approach
Building on the 2003 double special issue of Feminist Economics entitled “Amartya Sen’s Work and Ideas,” this paper responds to the review essay by Mozaffar Qizilbash. It identifies and illustrates various possible evaluations of a... more
Building on the 2003 double special issue of Feminist Economics entitled “Amartya Sen’s Work and Ideas,” this paper responds to the review essay by Mozaffar Qizilbash. It identifies and illustrates various possible evaluations of a theoretical system, including that it has acknowledged strengths, unrecognized strengths, remediable gaps or failings, or structural faults. The paper then looks at Sen’s system as a theoretical basis for “human development” – in particular in relation to personhood, emotions, and psychological interdependence – and argues that it points in directions required for economic and social analysis, including towards theories of care, but is not itself a sufficient treatment. The paper suggests deepening Sen’s system by connecting to other important languages of analysis concerning the structuring of attitudes, emotions, felt well-being, public reasoning, and politics.
KEYWORDS - Amartya Sen, theory assessment, human development, personhood, sympathy, care ethics
KEYWORDS - Amartya Sen, theory assessment, human development, personhood, sympathy, care ethics
" An exploration of themes that interconnect six studies in environmentally and socially sustainable human development. Findings: As humanity threatens to undermine its habitat, a social economics returns to core concepts and themes that... more
" An exploration of themes that interconnect six studies in environmentally and socially sustainable human development.
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 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.
Keywords: Common good; Personhood; Public deliberation; Public goods; Responsibility"
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 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.
Keywords: Common good; Personhood; Public deliberation; Public goods; Responsibility"
The paper specifies the core elements of Amartya Sen's capability approach to socio-economic valuation. It analyzes recent formulations by some of Sen's close associates, in addition to his own work, and identifies important variants,... more
The paper specifies the core elements of Amartya Sen's capability approach to socio-economic valuation. It analyzes recent formulations by some of Sen's close associates, in addition to his own work, and identifies important variants, obscurities and tensions, as well as the key rationale and value-added of the approach. The approach is placed within a system of partner discourses, notably the broader ‘human development’ approach. The paper then shows issues faced in operationalization, and dangers that overly vague specification of the approach's rationale and commitments could lead to questionable choices in practical use.
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To what extent can Amartya Sen’s ideas on freedom, especially his conceptualization of development as freedom, enrich feminist economics? Sen’s notion of freedom (as the capability to achieve valued ends) has many attractions and provides... more
To what extent can Amartya Sen’s ideas on freedom, especially his conceptualization of development as freedom, enrich feminist economics? Sen’s notion of freedom (as the capability to achieve valued ends) has many attractions and provides important opportunities to analyze gender inequalities. At the same time, Sen’s recent emphasis on freedom as the dominant value in judging individual well-being and societal development also contains risks, not least for feminist analysis. We characterize the risks as an under-elaboration and overextension of the concept of freedom. Drawing on Sen’s earlier work and various feminist theorists, we suggest instead a more emphatically pluralist characterization of capability, well-being, and value, highlighting the distinct and substantive aspects of freedom, as well as of values besides freedom, in the lives of women and men. We illustrate this with reference to women’s economic role as caregivers.
KEYWORDS - Amartya Sen, development, freedom, well-being, values, capability approach
KEYWORDS - Amartya Sen, development, freedom, well-being, values, capability approach
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Research Interests:
The paper assesses Sen's more abstract version of capabilities theory, Nussbaum's more substantive Aristotelian version and attempts to apply such conceptions to women's lives. Sen's capability approach is a helpful intervention in the... more
The paper assesses Sen's more abstract version of capabilities theory, Nussbaum's more substantive Aristotelian version and attempts to apply such conceptions to women's lives. Sen's capability approach is a helpful intervention in the discourses of mainstream Western welfare economics and moral philosophy. To influence these, it retains some of their assumptions, and appears limited by its conceptions of the person and of agency. In both areas Nussbaum goes deeper, but her emphatically Aristotelian style is controversial and can short-circuit the debate she sought to advance. Priority areas for further work are: more adequate pictures of ‘culture’ and ‘the individual’ than she or Sen have used, to combine insights from communitarian critics with the strengths of the capabilities approach. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Human security analysis considers the intersection of deprivation and vulnerability, and is an essential part, or partner, of human development thinking, giving special attention to risks and forces of disruption and destruction. This... more
Human security analysis considers the intersection of deprivation and vulnerability, and is an essential part, or partner, of human development thinking, giving special attention to risks and forces of disruption and destruction. This paper highlights six strands or styles in such work since 1994: violent conflict, and its prevention and resolution; crime and ‘citizen security’; psychological insecurity; environmental change; comprehensive identification and comparison of all major threats; and study of selected priority threats in a particular time and place. The main attention in the paper goes to the first, second and fifth of these topics. The 1994 Human Development Report’s list of seven categories of frequently threatened values was not intended to promote consideration of each in isolation, for threats interconnect, their relative importance changes, and comparisons are required. The flexibility required runs counter to vested interests and established patterns of inclusion/exclusion; security is too often equated to familiar means instead of related to the changing agenda of threats. In each context, the paper advises regular alternation of broad-horizon studies to identify priority areas and their linkages, with narrower horizon studies that explore in depth the threats and alternatives within pre-selected priority fields.
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‘Good governance’ may be viewed as governance which effectively promotes human rights, human security and human development. The paper discusses human security analysis, which in certain ways offers an integration of these ‘human’... more
‘Good governance’ may be viewed as governance which effectively promotes human rights, human security and human development. The paper discusses human security analysis, which in certain ways offers an integration of these ‘human’ perspectives and also a ‘social’ orientation, combining a person-focus with systematic investigation of the environing systems of all sorts: physical, cultural, organizational. The importance of such analysis is illustrated through the example of climate change impacts and adaptation. The paper presents applications of a human security framework in governance, for policy analysis, planning and evaluation issues in climate change and other fields and from around the world. The concluding section suggests that human security analysis may provide a way to apply insights from social quality analysis to detailed case investigation and policy analysis, while reducing macro-sociological abstraction and neglect of the natural environment.
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Research Interests:
This paper describes the introduction of an emphasis on ‘personal security’ in human security thinking and practice, as part of the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to compartmentalize the pursuit of security. It reviews the past 20 years... more
This paper describes the introduction of an emphasis on ‘personal security’ in human security thinking and practice, as part of the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to compartmentalize the pursuit of security. It reviews the past 20 years of attention to ‘personal security’: both in compartments that consider organized physical violence or threats to personal safety and property (‘citizen security’), and as parts of more wide-ranging examination of threats to fulfilment of basic needs and rights, for example, in comprehensive mapping exercises undertaken in various UNDP Regional and National Human Development Reports or in studies of women’s security. The paper reflects on the complex process of opening-up conventional security thinking and practice in ways that add value and depth without shrinking into preconceived compartments.
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Human security analysis considers the intersection of deprivation and vulnerability, and is an essential part, or partner, of human development thinking, giving special attention to risks and forces of disruption and destruction. This... more
Human security analysis considers the intersection of deprivation and vulnerability, and is an essential part, or partner, of human development thinking, giving special attention to risks and forces of disruption and destruction. This paper highlights six strands or styles in such work since 1994: violent conflict, and its prevention and resolution; crime and ‘citizen security’; psychological insecurity; environmental change; comprehensive identification and comparison of all major threats; and study of selected priority threats in a particular time and place. The main attention in the paper goes to the first, second and fifth of these topics. The 1994 Human Development Report’s list of seven categories of frequently threatened values was not intended to promote consideration of each in isolation, for threats interconnect, their relative importance changes, and comparisons are required. The flexibility required runs counter to vested interests and established patterns of inclusion/exclusion; security is too often equated to familiar means instead of related to the changing agenda of threats. In each context, the paper advises regular alternation of broad-horizon studies to identify priority areas and their linkages, with narrower horizon studies that explore in depth the threats and alternatives within pre-selected priority fields.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Human rights, human development and human security form increasingly important, partly interconnected, partly competitive and misunderstood ethical and policy discourses. Each tries to humanize a pre-existing and unavoidable major... more
Human rights, human development and human security form increasingly important, partly interconnected, partly competitive and misunderstood ethical and policy discourses. Each tries to humanize a pre-existing and unavoidable major discourse of everyday life, policy and politics; each has emerged within the United Nations world; each relies implicitly on a conceptualisation of human need; each has specific strengths. Yet mutual communication, understanding and co-operation are deficient, especially between human rights and the other discourses. The paper tries to identify respective strengths, weaknesses, and potential complementarity. It suggests that human security discourse may offer a working alliance between humanized discourses of rights, development and need.
Keywords: human rights, human development, human needs, human security
Keywords: human rights, human development, human needs, human security
The notion of human security provides a fruitful conceptual point of departure for the MDG/SDG discussions on the post-2015 agenda. Insecurity is a universal dimension of the human condition. Human security analysis puts people, not... more
The notion of human security provides a fruitful conceptual point of departure for the MDG/SDG discussions on the post-2015 agenda. Insecurity is a universal dimension of the human condition. Human security analysis puts people, not states, at the centre of the stage when assessing actions to enhance security. It appeals to human solidarity, both at the level of humankind and at the level of each individual. For these reasons it can broaden and deepen the post-2015 agenda – by integrating the values and concerns outlined in the Millennium Declaration, the goals and targets of the MDGs and those of preceding and other international development summits with the issues addressed by the climate change and humanitarian conferences and the human rights agenda.
The human security approach links well with the emerging discourse that seeks the integration of economic development, social development and environmental protection, and it adds necessary intellectual, existential and ethical depth. It also provides a framework for systematic attention to policy dimensions and to the empowering notion of individual and community-based ‘securitability’.
The human security concept, perspective and paradigm can thus function as an organising and exploratory framework for conceptualising development goals for the period beyond 2015. It can combine a broad approach to human development and to
policies for human development that are rights-based, priority-centred and genuinely empowering, with an understanding of the complexity of current vulnerabilities. It can provide a more visionary approach in framing ‘development’ objectives and human
development, and formulating policy, inspired by a commitment to human rights and social justice.
Keywords: Human security, human development, MDGs; securitability, development policy
The human security approach links well with the emerging discourse that seeks the integration of economic development, social development and environmental protection, and it adds necessary intellectual, existential and ethical depth. It also provides a framework for systematic attention to policy dimensions and to the empowering notion of individual and community-based ‘securitability’.
The human security concept, perspective and paradigm can thus function as an organising and exploratory framework for conceptualising development goals for the period beyond 2015. It can combine a broad approach to human development and to
policies for human development that are rights-based, priority-centred and genuinely empowering, with an understanding of the complexity of current vulnerabilities. It can provide a more visionary approach in framing ‘development’ objectives and human
development, and formulating policy, inspired by a commitment to human rights and social justice.
Keywords: Human security, human development, MDGs; securitability, development policy
This paper presents a structured comparison of the social quality approach with the UNDP-led ‘human development’ approach and the sister work (especially in the UN system and Japan) on ‘human security’. Through clarification of their... more
This paper presents a structured comparison of the social quality approach with the UNDP-led ‘human development’ approach and the sister work (especially in the UN system and Japan) on ‘human security’. Through clarification of their respective foci and roles and underlying theoretical and value assumptions, the paper suggests that partnership of the social quality approach with these ‘human’ approaches appears possible and relevant for each side.
The label ‘human security’ has attracted much attention since the 1994 Human Development Report, but there are numerous conflicting definitions and agendas, and widespread scepticism. The Ogata–Sen Commission report Human Security Now has... more
The label ‘human security’ has attracted much attention since the 1994 Human Development Report, but there are numerous conflicting definitions and agendas, and widespread scepticism. The Ogata–Sen Commission report Human Security Now has proposed a unified yet flexible definition and agenda. This paper specifies the Human Security Now concept as the intersection of: a concern with reasoned freedoms; a focus on basic needs; and a concern for stability as well as levels in key human development dimensions. Second, it specifies other elements of this human security discourse: a normative focus on individuals' lives and an insistence on basic rights for all; and an explanatory agenda that stresses the nexus between freedom from want and indignity and freedom from fear. Third, it clarifies where the human security discourse repeats the basic human needs conception, and where it adds and shows the consistency of the human security, human needs and human rights languages. Fourth, it specifies the types of intellectual ‘boundary work’ that the concept and discourse attempt: mobilizing attention and concern, connecting explanatory and normative agendas, and linking diverse intellectual and policy communities. Finally, it assesses human security as a boundary concept, including the particular label chosen, and diagnoses the threats as well as opportunities implicit in security language.
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Sen's entitlements approach has attracted much attention and imitation, including attempted extensions beyond its original context in the explanation of famines. It has evolved in various ways as it is applied to new regions, purposes,... more
Sen's entitlements approach has attracted much attention and imitation, including attempted extensions beyond its original context in the explanation of famines. It has evolved in various ways as it is applied to new regions, purposes, and subjects -- beyond South Asia, to policy design, and to matters of routine hunger, environment, gender and overall intra-societal distribution. For analysis of famines, the approach provides a valuable set of concepts and questions in explanation and policy design; but it gives a general frame rather than a comprehensive theory or detailed explanatory model. For wider subjects, this general approach -- a socially disaggregated, institutionally aware, analysis of effective command over specific necessities -- is again valuable. However difficulties may arise with its concept of `entitlement relations', and with confusions related to the label and the referent of the `entitlement' concept, and to the original `exchange entitlement' label. Sen's concepts and labels reflected, naturally enough, the purposes in his study of the 1940s Bengal famine and its specific conditions. A modified set of concepts and labels may be more helpful, together with an underlining of the variety of contexts and of the limits to any one theoretical frame.
This note should be read in conjunction with the Regional/ National Human Development Report Toolkit. While the toolkit provides general guidance on preparing a Regional or National Human Development Report, this note gives specific... more
This note should be read in conjunction with the Regional/ National Human Development Report Toolkit.
While the toolkit provides general guidance on preparing a Regional or National Human Development Report, this note gives specific suggestions on how to approach the concept of human security as a topic for such a report.
While the toolkit provides general guidance on preparing a Regional or National Human Development Report, this note gives specific suggestions on how to approach the concept of human security as a topic for such a report.
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AbstrAct: Migration is both a quest for security, and an act that exposes one to new kinds of insecurity, especially for international migrants. We argue that a human security approach to researching migration issues can provide... more
AbstrAct: Migration is both a quest for security, and an act that exposes one to new kinds of insecurity, especially for international migrants. We argue that a human security approach to researching migration issues can provide additional insights. It is migrant-centered and person-centered, systematically investigating the opportunities and vulnerabilities of complex persons. Human security adds an ontology that better grounds the work of explanation, evaluation and policy analysis. A literature review of the two areas (human security and migration studies) aids in revealing the issues at hand. The paper addresses gaps and weaknesses in the gender component of migration studies. A human security framework is not viewed as essential to the research, but may broach relevant, valuable and distinctive elements relating to theme of common security.
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In recent years a substantial volume of work has used a human security perspective to explore international migration. This paper reviews, synthesises and extends that work. It first characterises distinctive elements of human security... more
In recent years a substantial volume of work has used a human security perspective to explore international migration. This paper reviews, synthesises and extends that work. It first characterises distinctive elements of human security analysis, under two headings: its equity dimensions, including a focus on all persons and on their basic needs, and its explanatory dimensions, including a stress on interconnections, also on a world-scale, and on the consequent intersections, opportunities and risks. The paper then identifies a series of contributions in migration studies: in descriptive and explanatory work and in policy analysis. Besides highlighting contributions, it looks at possible weaknesses and at relationships with sister streams of work, including livelihoods studies, well-being research, capability theory, and gender studies. While nearly all the various contributions from human security analysis can also be gained from one or more other streams of work, the human security framework provides a powerful and motivated synthesis, plus some useful distinctive elements, including the important theme of common security.
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This chapter provides concluding reflections from a set of nineteen case studies of transnational and intra-national migration and mobility. It contrasts the ‘sedentary bias’ present in policy regimes and associated thought centred on... more
This chapter provides concluding reflections from a set of nineteen case studies of transnational and intra-national migration and mobility. It contrasts the ‘sedentary bias’ present in policy regimes and associated thought centred on nation states, where movement is seen as exceptional, including normatively exceptional, with the centrality of movement in the processes of socio-economic change and evolution, particularly those promoted under capitalist systems of economic organization. While market capitalist and nation state principles of organization differ, they combine in hybrid systems, such as those currently being elaborated in policy regimes for temporary migrant workers, to exploit migrant labour. Many of these arrangements mirror the indentured labour regimes of earlier eras. The chapter presents by contrast a perspective based on principles of human rights and human security that uses a global framework both for understanding and for evaluation and then adds an explicit gender-aware enrichment of that perspective, in order to do justice to the special vulnerabilities and exploitation of women’s migrant labour. A human security perspective, in particular, helps to base concern for human rights in an awareness of bodily and emotional needs, of global interconnections, and of the intersecting circumstances in people’s everyday lives; but it requires, and lends itself to, gender-enrichment through partnership with insights from feminist theory, as illustrated in the book’s various case studies. The systems of the nation state, market capitalism, and gender power that are discussed in this chapter, that structure the experiences of migrant women workers, are very deeply established. The chapter suggests directions for possible re-cognition, to reduce and counter the invisibility and misframing of migration, and of women and their work; it also suggests priority areas for research and networking following the format employed for the book: linking researchers, policy practitioners and migrant advocates, South-South-North.
Keywords: Women’s migration, human security, human rights. migration regimes, globalization, women’s labour, intersectionality.
Keywords: Women’s migration, human security, human rights. migration regimes, globalization, women’s labour, intersectionality.
Introductory and overview chapter for a 22 chapter book
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Research Interests:
Faced with massive crises in the 1990s, such as in Rwanda-Zaire, aid agencies have had to make ethical and strategic choices of great magnitude. One approach seeks to compare goods and bads from agencies’ involvement, and to specify a... more
Faced with massive crises in the 1990s, such as in Rwanda-Zaire, aid agencies have had to make ethical and strategic choices of great magnitude. One approach seeks to compare goods and bads from agencies’ involvement, and to specify a 'bottom line' beneath which bads outweigh goods so that agencies should withdraw or change their involvement. In a second approach a line is drawn between (a) an agency's area of responsibility and (b) actions and consequences which are the responsibility of others--not a bottom line but a line dividing mine from thine. The paper probes and assesses those approaches, showing problems with both but especially with the second; qualifies them by reference to issues of motivation, feasibility and organisational level, and presents some complementary types of approach; and stresses finally that effective strategic action must be guided by broad causal analysis.
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Work on global ethics looks at ethical connections on a global scale. It should link closely to environmental ethics, recognizing that we live in unified social-ecological systems, and to development ethics, attending systematically to... more
Work on global ethics looks at ethical connections on a global scale. It should link closely to environmental ethics, recognizing that we live in unified social-ecological systems, and to development ethics, attending systematically to the lives and interests of contemporary and future poor, marginal and vulnerable persons and groups within these systems and to the effects on them of forces around the globe. Fulfilling these tasks requires awareness of work outside academic ethics alone, in other disciplines and across disciplines, in public debates and private agendas. A relevant ethics enterprise must engage in systematic description and understanding of the ethical stances that are expressed or hidden in the work of influential stakeholders and analysts, and seek to influence and participate, indeed embed itself, in the expressed and hidden choice-making involved in designing and conducting scientific research and in policy analysis and preparation; it will contribute in value-critical and interpretive policy analysis. It should explore how the allocation of attention and concern in research and policy depend on perceptions of identity and of degrees of interconnection, and are influenced by the choice or avoidance of humanistic interpretive methodologies. The paper illustrates these themes with reference to the study of climate change.
Terms like ‘human security’ try to catch the attention of an audience and to catch the user’s own attention; in other words they aim to stimulate and motivate. Having caught attention they try to organize it: they link to a perspective, a... more
Terms like ‘human security’ try to catch the attention of an audience and to catch the user’s own attention; in other words they aim to stimulate and motivate. Having caught attention they try to organize it: they link to a perspective, a direction for and way of looking. Having caught and organized attention, they aspire to influence or even to organize activity: they provide frames for work. Such terms and the frameworks that they mark seem though to often come and quickly go, to rapidly rise and fall in international usage. A few terms become established but in the process often change or lose meaning. How important, persuasive and durable is a ‘human security’ framework likely to be? I will suggest, firstly, that a human security perspective promotes some necessary prerequisites for serious discussion of issues in global ethics. Prior to entry into any of the detailed debates in global ethics come a series of related choices about how we see ourselves and the world. First, how far do we see shared interests between people, thanks to a perception of causal interdependence, so that appeals to self-interest are also appeals to mutual interest. Second, how far do we value other people’s interests, so that appeals to sympathy can be influential due to interconnections in emotion. Third, how far do we see ourselves and others as members of a common humanity or as members of a national or other limited social community or as pure individuals: is our prime self-identification as interconnected or separate beings? This prior set of perspectives determines our response to proposed reasoning about ethics and justice. Adoption of a human security perspective can influence, even reconfigure, how we see ourselves and others and our interconnectedness, and thereby reconfigure how we think about both ethics and security. Secondly, with specific reference to issues of global climate change, I will suggest that the necessary transition in predominant societal perspectives and personal life-styles needs a language or languages of transition that make vivid and meaningful what is at stake, that unite and motivate groups committed to change, and that persuade enough of those groups who could otherwise block change. If we look at the value shifts identified as necessary by the Great Transition work we see that human rights language and the capability approach’s ‘development as freedom’ while potentially important are not sufficient. By themselves they are too potentially individualistic and compatible with visions of self-fulfilment through unlimited consumption and exploitation of nature. The emphases required—on human solidarity, stability and prioritization; prudence and enlightened self-interest; sources of richer quality of life, felt security and fulfilment; and ecological interconnection that demands careful stewardship—seem to be more fully present in human security thinking. It can be one of the languages of transition.
Special arrangements were made by the European Union for decision-making on the possible accession of Romania and Bulgaria. A regime of extra procedures was added to the arrangements used for the Eastern European countries which joined... more
Special arrangements were made by the European Union for decision-making on the possible accession of Romania and Bulgaria. A regime of extra procedures was added to the arrangements used for the Eastern European countries which joined the Union in 2004. This paper examines how the process worked out in the Romanian justice sector, which had been identified as a key area for reform to meet minimum EU requirements. We examine the discourses at policy and program levels and in three selected projects, including at design stage, interim report stage, and final report stage. Our discourse analysis of project documents pays special attention to the key structuring
device used in the EU’s project and program planning: the ‘logical framework’ or ‘project matrix’. Intended as a key discipline on project design, implementation and evaluation, its inherent limitations and typical biases in usage can lead to major divergences between project and design. A technocratic language of planning can then in various ways serve as a cover
that justifies whatever happened. We examine the language use and associated behaviour, as a contribution to the understanding both of Romanian accession in the face of sceptical European public opinion and of a methodology in worldwide use.
Keywords
Romania EU accession; European Union 5th enlargement; justice sector reform; logical framework approach; project cycle management; interpretive policy analysis
device used in the EU’s project and program planning: the ‘logical framework’ or ‘project matrix’. Intended as a key discipline on project design, implementation and evaluation, its inherent limitations and typical biases in usage can lead to major divergences between project and design. A technocratic language of planning can then in various ways serve as a cover
that justifies whatever happened. We examine the language use and associated behaviour, as a contribution to the understanding both of Romanian accession in the face of sceptical European public opinion and of a methodology in worldwide use.
Keywords
Romania EU accession; European Union 5th enlargement; justice sector reform; logical framework approach; project cycle management; interpretive policy analysis
This article presents a framework for analysis of discourses on ethical cosmopolitanism, and applies it to Martha Nussbaum's Frontiers of Justice (2006), with comparisons to the views of other authors. After outlining the book's form of... more
This article presents a framework for analysis of discourses on ethical cosmopolitanism, and applies it to Martha Nussbaum's Frontiers of Justice (2006), with comparisons to the views of other authors. After outlining the book's form of ethical cosmopolitanism, the article considers the psychological, philosophical and sociological presumptions, the methodology of abstraction, the implicit audiences, and the programmatic targets and implied strategy of social change. It links and comments on sister papers by Giri, McCloskey, Murphy, Nederveen Pieterse and Truong.
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Discussions of global ethics—about the types of normative claim made on individuals and groups, not only states, by individuals and groups around the world—have had to move beyond the categories inherited in the International Relations... more
Discussions of global ethics—about the types of normative claim made on individuals and groups, not only states, by individuals and groups around the world—have had to move beyond the categories inherited in the International Relations discipline. Many important positions are not captured by a framework developed for discussion of inter-state relations. The blindspots seem to reflect an outmoded expectation that (i) giving low normative weight to national boundaries correlates strongly with (ii) giving more normative weight to people beyond one's national boundaries, and vice versa; in other words that these two dimensions in practice reduce to one. The paper develops an enriched categorization. We need to recognize the separate importance of the two dimensions, and thus distinguish various types of 'cosmopolitan' position, including many varieties of libertarian position which give neither national boundaries nor pan-human obligations much (if any) importance.
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The paper offers some practical suggestions for social researchers trying to create ideas and yet also focus and integrate their investigation and ensure their ideas are adequately tested. It undertakes two main tasks. First, it connects... more
The paper offers some practical suggestions for social researchers trying to create ideas and yet also focus and integrate their investigation and ensure their ideas are adequately tested. It undertakes two main tasks. First, it connects discussions of creative research to broader work on effective creative thinking, especially here by Edward de Bono but also from several other writers on innovative thinking for policy and projects. Second, it presents intensive text analysis as an introductory discourse analysis approach that provides a relatively simple route for trying to enter other people’s minds more fully. The paper outlines a widely accessible method for text analysis and argumentation analysis that adds value to the widely used variant used by Wayne Booth and others for structuring research projects.
Review essay on: Amitava K. Dutt & Kenneth P. Jameson (eds.), 2001, 'Crossing the Mainstream – Ethical and Methodological Issues in Economics', Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. A slightly different version appeared in 2006... more
Review essay on: Amitava K. Dutt & Kenneth P. Jameson (eds.), 2001, 'Crossing the Mainstream – Ethical and Methodological Issues in Economics', Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. A slightly different version appeared in 2006 in Review of Radical Political Economics, 38(3), 469-473.
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CONTENTS 1 INVESTIGATING IDEAS, IDEOLOGIES AND PRACTICES................1 2 ETHNOGRAPHIES OF AID: ON DISTANCES, (NON-) RELATIONSHIPS, AND CHOICES...........................................................3 3 INVESTIGATING OBJECTIVES... more
CONTENTS
1 INVESTIGATING IDEAS, IDEOLOGIES AND PRACTICES................1
2 ETHNOGRAPHIES OF AID: ON DISTANCES, (NON-) RELATIONSHIPS, AND CHOICES...........................................................3
3 INVESTIGATING OBJECTIVES AND LOGIC – LOGFRAMES AND PROGRAM DESIGN......................................,.............................................9
4 INVESTIGATING MEANINGS AND STRUCTURES IN ARGUMENTATION.................................................,................................18
5 EPILOGUE: THE RANGE OF METHODS..........................................24
ANNEX 1: ADVICE ON ANALYSING THE COMMONWEALTH SECRETARIAT TEXT ON CORRUPTION..............................................26
ANNEX 2: ANALYSIS OF A FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW TEXT ON DEBT RELIEF................................................,,..........................28
1 INVESTIGATING IDEAS, IDEOLOGIES AND PRACTICES................1
2 ETHNOGRAPHIES OF AID: ON DISTANCES, (NON-) RELATIONSHIPS, AND CHOICES...........................................................3
3 INVESTIGATING OBJECTIVES AND LOGIC – LOGFRAMES AND PROGRAM DESIGN......................................,.............................................9
4 INVESTIGATING MEANINGS AND STRUCTURES IN ARGUMENTATION.................................................,................................18
5 EPILOGUE: THE RANGE OF METHODS..........................................24
ANNEX 1: ADVICE ON ANALYSING THE COMMONWEALTH SECRETARIAT TEXT ON CORRUPTION..............................................26
ANNEX 2: ANALYSIS OF A FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW TEXT ON DEBT RELIEF................................................,,..........................28
The paper discusses the relevance of the human development and capability approach for development project planning, management and evaluation. With reference to the set of five other studies that it introduces, it suggests in which areas... more
The paper discusses the relevance of the human development and capability approach for development project planning, management and evaluation. With reference to the set of five other studies that it introduces, it suggests in which areas insights from human development-and-capability thinking offer advances and in which areas such thinking needs to link with and be complemented or corrected by thinking from other sources and traditions. The paper aims at capturing the learning from recent experiences and studies, both for project planning and for the human capabilities perspective.
Keywords: project planning; project evaluation; capability approach; participatory planning; human agency; human rights
Keywords: project planning; project evaluation; capability approach; participatory planning; human agency; human rights
This article calls for a new focus in the design, implementation and evaluation of projects, moving away from an abstract conception of ‘the project’ and the goods it is intended to deliver to a more meaningful concept of people as agents... more
This article calls for a new focus in the design, implementation and evaluation of projects, moving away from an abstract conception of ‘the project’ and the goods it is intended to deliver to a more meaningful concept of people as agents of change. Participation in a project leads to empowerment when people are self-motivated and involved in processes they value that achieve outcomes they value. The article proposes a ‘human autonomy effectiveness’ (HAE) criterion relevant for sustainable human development; and then develops an analytical approach to assess a project’s influence on human autonomy, by reference to changes in the determinants of autonomy (agency powers, access to resources, and socio-structural contexts) and to relevant decision-making practices during the project.
Keywords: Human development, autonomy, development effectiveness, project aid, project evaluation.
Keywords: Human development, autonomy, development effectiveness, project aid, project evaluation.
In this paper, we describe and evaluate a teaching project embedded within a core policy analysis course which allows students to engage with a major public policy issue—in our case environmental policy—without a corresponding cost in... more
In this paper, we describe and evaluate a teaching project embedded within a core policy analysis course which allows students to engage with a major public policy issue—in our case environmental policy—without a corresponding cost in terms of reducing curricular space for developing general policy analysis skills. We think that a win-win arrangement is attainable: a fairly intense immersion into a key thematic area of public policy and a correspondingly more vivid, realistic and integrated treatment of general policy analysis. The project has the potential to allow teachers and students to explore in-depth and develop the skills and appreciation required for practice in any major policy area, even in tightly-packed graduate policy programs.
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Lead author: Mirtha Muñiz Castillo. Working Paper 2009-6, School of Governance, University of Maastricht. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17964/
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Fashion, Learning and Values in Public Management: Reflections on South African and international experience
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Sen's entitlements approach has attracted much attention and imitation, including attempted extensions beyond its original context in the explanation of famines. It has evolved in various ways as it is applied to new regions, purposes and... more
Sen's entitlements approach has attracted much attention and imitation, including attempted extensions beyond its original context in the explanation of famines. It has evolved in various ways as it is applied to new regions, purposes and subjects – beyond South Asia, to policy design and to matters of routine hunger, environment, gender and overall intra-societal distribution. For analysis of famines, the approach provides a valuable set of concepts and questions in explanation and policy design; but it gives a general frame rather than a comprehensive theory or detailed explanatory model. For wider subjects, this general approach – a socially disaggregated, institutionally aware analysis of effective command over specific necessities – is again valuable. However, difficulties may arise with its concept of ‘entitlement relations’, and with confusions related to the label and the referent of the ‘entitlement’ concept, and to the original ‘exchange entitlement’ label. Sen's concepts and labels reflected, naturally enough, the purposes in his study of the 1940s Bengal famine and its specific conditions. A modified set of concepts and labels may be more helpful, together with an underlining of the variety of contexts and of the limits to any one theoretical frame.
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A Rural Service Centre which provided all basic infrastructure, had a strong residential component and offered a wide range of services would automatically attract rural non-farm activities. This is the term applied to the whole range of... more
A Rural Service Centre which provided all basic infrastructure, had a strong residential component and offered a wide range of services would automatically attract rural non-farm activities. This is the term applied to the whole range of activities connected with trading, manufacturing, construction, transport and government and other services. improved infrastructure is the key to more rural manufacturing. The deficiency in manufacturing may therefore be expected to right itself if given the necessary Government support through the provision of infrastructure. (Whitsun Foundation, 1980: 60–1; emphases added).Rural Service Centres ‘do not offer any major form of non-agricultural employment other than trade and certain jobs connected with the provision of services for agricultural communities’. (Hanratty and Heath, 1984:27)
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A restatement and also amendment of Albert Hirschman's theory of 'The Hiding Hand' -- whereby people are drawn in by overoptimism to attempt undertakings that they would never have started if they correctly envisaged the difficulties... more
A restatement and also amendment of Albert Hirschman's theory of 'The Hiding Hand' -- whereby people are drawn in by overoptimism to attempt undertakings that they would never have started if they correctly envisaged the difficulties involved, but through which they may learn and grow -- to take into account wider considerations, including from the work of Bernard Schaffer, and a wider range of cases.
This is the full text of a valedictory lecture presented at the International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, October 31, 2019. The shorter, spoken version of the lecture, together with accompanying Powerpoint slides, can be... more
This is the full text of a valedictory lecture presented at the International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, October 31, 2019.
The shorter, spoken version of the lecture, together with accompanying Powerpoint slides, can be seen at: https://www.iss.nl/en/news/critical-development-studies-valedictory-des-gasper .
The lecture includes:
• A diagnosis of some requirements of and for critical development studies; and of challenges and problems in doing so.
• An overview of some relevant approaches which I have tried to teach during the past 30 years, highlighting some of those that have proved to be relatively accessible and helpful for development studies audiences:-
• Structured text- and argumentation- analysis, as a basis for investigation of rhetorics of persuasion
• Content analysis, as a basis for investigation of intellectual frames
• Rhetoric, as a synthesizing framework.
• Plus concluding reflections on where such tools fit in a bigger toolkit for critical development studies.
The shorter, spoken version of the lecture, together with accompanying Powerpoint slides, can be seen at: https://www.iss.nl/en/news/critical-development-studies-valedictory-des-gasper .
The lecture includes:
• A diagnosis of some requirements of and for critical development studies; and of challenges and problems in doing so.
• An overview of some relevant approaches which I have tried to teach during the past 30 years, highlighting some of those that have proved to be relatively accessible and helpful for development studies audiences:-
• Structured text- and argumentation- analysis, as a basis for investigation of rhetorics of persuasion
• Content analysis, as a basis for investigation of intellectual frames
• Rhetoric, as a synthesizing framework.
• Plus concluding reflections on where such tools fit in a bigger toolkit for critical development studies.
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"Social policy impact is partly determined by how policy is articulated and advocated, including which values are highlighted and how. In this paper, we examine the influence of policy framing and reframing on outcomes, with particular... more
"Social policy impact is partly determined by how policy is articulated and advocated, including which values are highlighted and how. In this paper, we examine the influence of policy framing and reframing on outcomes, with particular reference to the policies of the Delhi state government in India that target the practices of female feticide, infanticide and neglect that underlie the ‘daughter deficit’. Using Snow and Benford’s categories for understanding reframing processes, the paper outlines and applies a ‘model’ of reframing disputed issues derived from looking at two famous campaigns – Gandhi’s 1930 Salt March in the struggle for Indian freedom from British rule and the African-American civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. It argues that ‘carrot and stick’ policy measures, such as financial incentives and legal prohibitions, to counteract the ‘daughter deficit’ must be complemented by well crafted discursive
interventions.
Keywords: policy framing and re-framing; policy tools; ‘daughter deficit’ in India; Gandhi Salt March; Martin Luther King"
interventions.
Keywords: policy framing and re-framing; policy tools; ‘daughter deficit’ in India; Gandhi Salt March; Martin Luther King"
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A 1989 study. A slightly updated version appeared as pp. 7-50 in The Limits of Decentralization in Zimbabwe, A.H.J. Helmsing et al., (ISS, The Hague) 1991.
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After Zimbabwean independence in 1980, growth points -- ie, regional centers of various size -- were conceived as a way to correct the imbalances caused by colonial partitioning of the country into European & native areas. These centers... more
After Zimbabwean independence in 1980, growth points -- ie, regional centers of various size -- were conceived as a way to correct the imbalances caused by colonial partitioning of the country into European & native areas. These centers are examined in the context of a series of policy stances in the literature on Zimbabwe, from settler labor-reserves policy through the current cautious & selective infrastructure investment. The physical construction of Rural settlements is intended to discourage Rural-to-Urban migration & to provide government with a visible product of direct action. Analysis of the government's use of development programs as a strategy of legitimation, through an exercise in "discourse-mapping", helps to clarify the way different assumptions imply different regional policies. [Based on: A. Waters, Social Services Abstracts]
Two authors who have been leaders of the social quality approach that emerged in European social policy circles in the 1990s, and two authors who have worked with the human development and human security approaches that emerged in... more
Two authors who have been leaders of the social quality approach that emerged in European social policy circles in the 1990s, and two authors who have worked with the human development and human security approaches that emerged in international development policy circles in the 1980s and 90s, collaborate in this paper in order to outline and compare the two traditions. The human development tradition has focused on the quality of individual human lives, understood as influenced by interconnections that transcend conventional disciplinary boundaries; its human security branch goes deeper into study of human vulnerability and the textures of daily life. The social quality tradition tries to understand individual lives as lived within a societal fabric, to identify and measure key elements of that fabric, and to develop a correspondingly grounded public policy approach. The paper is a step towards assessing the possible complementarity, in theorising and practical application, of these two streams of work.
Abstract: This paper presents a structured comparison of the social quality approach with the UNDP-led ‘human development’ approach and the sister work (especially in the UN system and Japan) on ‘human security’. Through clarification of... more
Abstract: This paper presents a structured comparison of the social quality approach with the UNDP-led ‘human development’ approach and the sister work (especially in the UN system and Japan) on ‘human security’. Through clarification of their respective foci and roles and underlying theoretical and value assumptions, the paper suggests that partnership of the social quality approach with these ‘human’ approaches appears possible and relevant for each side.
The concepts of well-being and quality of life concern evaluative judgements. There is insufficient understanding in current literature that these judgements are made variously due to the use of not only differing values and differing... more
The concepts of well-being and quality of life concern evaluative judgements. There is insufficient understanding in current literature that these judgements are made variously due to the use of not only differing values and differing research instruments but also differing standpoints, differing purposes, and differing theoretical views and ontological presuppositions. The paper elucidates these sources of differences and how they underlie the wide diversity of current conceptions.
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The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) respond to humanity’s challenge to live humanely, justly, sustainably and in peace on our interconnected globe. Pursuit of the Agenda is inevitably subject to forces that ‘shake... more
The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) respond to humanity’s challenge to live humanely, justly, sustainably and in peace on our interconnected globe. Pursuit of the Agenda is inevitably subject to forces that ‘shake and stir’ it. Correspondingly, our analytical frameworks need to be shaken and stirred too, to be more perceptive and responsive to emergent objective threats, subjective fears, and their impacts. A human security perspective offers an essential complement to the thinking and action underway for the SDGs, because insecurities arise in diverse and fluctuating forms in the daily lives of most people, produced by local, national, international and global forces. The worldwide ‘shake and stir’ triggered by COVID-19 is a reminder of how serious and all-encompassing such disruption can be. A human security perspective should be added in and/or to SDGs planning and implementation, at country level and in multilateral arenas. The perspective can draw together many available tools and stimulate their use focused on recognising and managing threats in people’s daily lives, not least by increasing human resilience. This paper presents the approach’s rationale, certain components, and its relevance to the SDGs Agenda, then gives two extended case studies: first, from almost 20 years of experience with human security-related thinking and practice in Latvia, and, second, from the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting crises. It concludes with suggestions for UN organizations, governments, and policy researchers.
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The Institute of Social Studies is Europe's longest-established centre of higher education and research in development studies. Post-graduate teaching programmes range from six-week diploma courses to the PhD programme. Research at... more
The Institute of Social Studies is Europe's longest-established centre of higher education and research in development studies. Post-graduate teaching programmes range from six-week diploma courses to the PhD programme. Research at ISS is fundamental in the sense of ...
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Three recent reports from the United Nations Development Programme reconsider human development thinking and revive UN human security thinking: the 2020 Human Development Report (HDR 2020); the 2022 Special Report (SR 2022) on human... more
Three recent reports from the United Nations Development Programme reconsider human development thinking and revive UN human security thinking: the 2020 Human Development Report (HDR 2020); the 2022 Special Report (SR 2022) on human security; and the 2021/2022 Human Development Report (HDR 2022). The trilogy marks an overdue return to human security thinking. HDR 2020 builds a sense of common human fate, employing the notion of the Anthropocene. SR 2022 adds a diagnostic stress on growing subjective insecurities and a prescriptive stress on solidarity. HDR 2022 explores the escalating felt insecurities, their drivers, and possible responses. It attempts to integrate and extend the other two reports; most of HDR 2020's components and themes recur, but in more mature forms and enriched by perspectives and tools from SR 2022. The present article lays a basis for reconsideration of similarities, differences, and possible complementarities between human development and human security...
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The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) respond to humanity’s challenge to live humanely, justly, sustainably and in peace on our interconnected globe. Pursuit of the Agenda is inevitably subject to forces that ‘shake... more
The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) respond to humanity’s challenge to live humanely, justly, sustainably and in peace on our interconnected globe. Pursuit of the Agenda is inevitably subject to forces that ‘shake and stir’ it. Correspondingly, our analytical frameworks need to be shaken and stirred too, to be more perceptive and responsive to emergent objective threats, subjective fears, and their impacts. A human security perspective offers an essential complement to the thinking and action underway for the SDGs, because insecurities arise in diverse and fluctuating forms in the daily lives of most people, produced by local, national, international and global forces. The worldwide ‘shake and stir’ triggered by COVID-19 is a reminder of how serious and all-encompassing such disruption can be. A human security perspective should be added in and/or to SDGs planning and implementation, at country level and in multilateral arenas. The perspective can draw toget...
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The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) respond to humanity’s challenge to live humanely, justly, sustainably and in peace on our interconnected globe. Pursuit of the Agenda is inevitably subject to forces that ‘shake... more
The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) respond to humanity’s challenge to live humanely, justly, sustainably and in peace on our interconnected globe. Pursuit of the Agenda is inevitably subject to forces that ‘shake and stir’ it. Correspondingly, our analytical frameworks need to be shaken and stirred too, to be more perceptive and responsive to emergent objective threats, subjective fears, and their impacts. A human security perspective offers an essential complement to the thinking and action underway for the SDGs, because insecurities arise in diverse and fluctuating forms in the daily lives of most people, produced by local, national, international and global forces. The worldwide ‘shake and stir’ triggered by COVID-19 is a reminder of how serious and all-encompassing such disruption can be. A human security perspective should be added in and/or to SDGs planning and implementation, at country level and in multilateral arenas. The perspective can draw toget...
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The past generation has seen a switch to restrictive policies and language in the governance of migrants living in the Netherlands. Beginning in 2010, a new government with right-wing populist backing went further, declaring the... more
The past generation has seen a switch to restrictive policies and language in the governance of migrants living in the Netherlands. Beginning in 2010, a new government with right-wing populist backing went further, declaring the centrality of proposed characteristic historic Dutch values. In this article, we investigate a key policy document to characterize and understand this policy change. Discourse analysis as an exploration of language choices, including use of ideas from rhetoric, helps us apply and test ideas from governmentality studies of migration and from discourse studies as social theorizing. We trace the chosen problem formulation; the delineation, naming, and predication of population categories; the understanding of citizenship, community, and integration; and the overall rhetoric, including chosen metaphors and nuancing of emphases, that links the elements into a meaning-rich world picture. A “neoliberal communitarian” conception of citizenship has emerged that could...
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Two authors who have been leaders of the Â'social quality approachÂ' that emerged in European social policy circles in the 1990s, and two authors who have worked with the Â'human developmentÂ' and Â'human... more
Two authors who have been leaders of the Â'social quality approachÂ' that emerged in European social policy circles in the 1990s, and two authors who have worked with the Â'human developmentÂ' and Â'human securityÂ' approaches that emerged in international ...
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By D. Gasper; Nussbaum's capabilities approach in perspective: purposes, methods and sources for an ethics of human development.
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Terms like ‘human security’ try to catch the attention of an audience and to catch the user’s own attention; in other words they aim to stimulate and motivate. Having caught attention they try to organize it: they link to a perspective, a... more
Terms like ‘human security’ try to catch the attention of an audience and to catch the user’s own attention; in other words they aim to stimulate and motivate. Having caught attention they try to organize it: they link to a perspective, a direction for and way of looking. Having caught and organized attention, they aspire to influence or even to
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Exploring human autonomy effectiveness: Project logic and its effects on individual autonomy
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Pre-final version of an essay which appeared in Feminist Economics, 2007, vol. 13, no. 1, pages 67-85.
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Responding to climate change needs a global perspective that combines emphases on the dignity and worth of all people and co-membership in a finite, breakable socio-ecology. A philosophy that defends the victims of climate change must... more
Responding to climate change needs a global perspective that combines emphases on the dignity and worth of all people and co-membership in a finite, breakable socio-ecology. A philosophy that defends the victims of climate change must help counteract some major mirages: first, the nest of national identity conceived in such a way that we see ourselves as separate from, even immune and indifferent to, the misfortunes elsewhere in the world; second, the dream of endless growth, economic and technological, that will enable ‘us’—whether conceived as particular national islands or particular affluent groups and persons—to avoid shared planetary boundaries and the dangers of breaching them; and, third, our ability to screen out unpalatable information or questions, including about the fate of ‘marginal’ groups. Theorizing sustainable human development requires therefore more than the language of capabilities and freedoms to which human development analysis is sometimes reduced. It needs human rights ethical principles and a human security frame. The former asserts the value of each person and the wrongness of harm to others caused by careless production and heedless luxury consumption. Human security thinking directs attention to limits, interconnectedness, vulnerabilities and possible threats, and how what is ‘human’ includes dependence on each other and on a global ecology. Together they provide routes into reflecting on and counteracting toxic forms of nationalism, exclusivist group identity, consumerism and their drivers.
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This paper explores kidney sellers’ perspectives and the process of decision-making in some villages of Bangladesh. We examine the organ sellers’ degree of freedom in relation to what they value to achieve, identify its limits, and see... more
This paper explores kidney sellers’ perspectives and the process of decision-making in some villages of Bangladesh. We examine the organ sellers’ degree of freedom in relation to what they value to achieve, identify its limits, and see how those lead them to the choice of organ-selling. Selling decisions are made in a context where some people lack adequate material and social resources to secure a livelihood, face a never-ending quest for means to manage and transform their lives, and are enmeshed in constraining relationships within social and economic power systems. These conditions have contributed to the institutionalization of kidney-selling, a form of bodily self-exploitation, as a now routine practice amongst the poorest groups in some areas. Consistent with most other findings, we find in these locations that while kidney sale is based on hope of resources to confront the precariousness of livelihoods, it is frequently experienced as a nightmare of life-long disaster, that ...
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This paper assesses whether an individual’s impact on the lives and health of other people through anthropogenic climate change is ethically significant. Using a methodology different to Nolt (2011), it estimates the impact on health harm... more
This paper assesses whether an individual’s impact on the lives and health of other people through anthropogenic climate change is ethically significant. Using a methodology different to Nolt (2011), it estimates the impact on health harm for humans, in terms of DALYs lost due to a lifetime of greenhouse gas emissions. By adopting conservative (meaning minimalist) assumptions, the analysis confirms that individually attributable impact on health—which is only one part of total harmful impact—is clearly not negligible, in extent and ethical significance. It thereby refutes a common defence of inaction by or in relation to high-emissions individuals.
Migration is both a quest for security, and an act that exposes one to new kinds of insecurity, especially for international migrants. We argue that a human security approach to researching migration issues can provide additional... more
Migration is both a quest for security, and an act that exposes one to new kinds of insecurity, especially for international migrants. We argue that a human security approach to researching migration issues can provide additional insights. It is migrant-centered and person-centered, systematically investigating the opportunities and vulnerabilities of complex persons. Human security adds an ontology that better grounds the work of explanation, evaluation and policy analysis. A literature review of the two areas (human security and migration studies) aids in revealing the issues at hand. The paper addresses gaps and weaknesses in the gender component of migration studies. A human security framework is not viewed as essential to the research, but may broach relevant, valuable and distinctive elements relating to theme of common security.
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Muchas de las discusiones acerca de la interdisciplinariedad muestran uno o más de los siguientes defectos: 1. Confusión conceptual – falta de un conjunto refinado y consistente de términos para analizar la interdisciplinariedad y sus... more
Muchas de las discusiones acerca de la interdisciplinariedad muestran uno o más de los siguientes defectos: 1. Confusión conceptual – falta de un conjunto refinado y consistente de términos para analizar la interdisciplinariedad y sus variantes; 2. Utopianismo – falta de realismo acerca de las restricciones que existen en la organización social de las ciencias; 3. Monismo –respaldo a un sólo modelo organizacional simple y no a un modelo heterogéneo complejo con múltiples nichos, nodos y formas de interacción. El artículo ofrece un enfoque de la interdisciplinariedad más refinado, realista y pluralista. Lo hace con referencia especial a los estudios del desarrollo, cuyo interés en el cambio a largo plazo y la combinación común de enfoque de casos y orientación de políticas, los guían fuertemente hacia la interdisciplinariedad y a problemas que surgen debido a lo anterior por la concepción frecuente de la economía como una disciplina de por sí con un status superior. El artículo conce...
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markdownabstract__Abstract__ Human security analysis considers the intersection of deprivation and vulnerability, and is an essential part, or partner, of human development thinking, giving special attention to risks and forces of... more
markdownabstract__Abstract__ Human security analysis considers the intersection of deprivation and vulnerability, and is an essential part, or partner, of human development thinking, giving special attention to risks and forces of disruption and destruction. This paper highlights six strands or styles in such work since 1994: violent conflict, and its prevention and resolution; crime and ‘citizen security’; psychological insecurity; environmental change; comprehensive identification and comparison of all major threats; and study of selected priority threats in a particular time and place. The main attention in the paper goes to the first, second and fifth of these topics. The 1994 Human Development Report’s list of seven categories of frequently threatened values was not intended to promote consideration of each in isolation, for threats interconnect, their relative importance changes, and comparisons are required. The flexibility required runs counter to vested interests and established patterns of inclusion/exclusion; security is too often equated to familiar means instead of related to the changing agenda of threats. In each context, the paper advises regular alternation of broad-horizon studies to identify priority areas and their linkages, with narrower horizon studies that explore in depth the threats and alternatives within pre-selected priority fields.
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markdownabstractThe difference between learning to copy and learning to think For senior managers, the difference between learning by rote and learning to think independently is central. In rote learning we learn how to exactly reproduce... more
markdownabstractThe difference between learning to copy and learning to think For senior managers, the difference between learning by rote and learning to think independently is central. In rote learning we learn how to exactly reproduce something, we copy. This is fine for some purposes: we need to know exactly where the keys on the keyboard are, otherwise we produce nonsense or type very slowly; and we must reproduce our signature consistently otherwise our cheques or credit card payments may be rejected. But for most purposes in senior management we need to make intelligent judgments about cases that consist of a unique new set of circumstances, not completely the same as anything we saw before. We have to think critically, to judge how far previous examples or various general management ideas are relevant to the new case. By ‘critically’ I mean relying on evidence, good logic and considered values, not automatic opposition. A good film critic gives both praise and criticism, according to when they seem due. Automatic opposition is uncritical; so is automatically following fashion.