Policy Press
One Ethics, equity and community development: mapping the terrain
Abstract
This book is part of the Rethinking Community Development series. As such, it offers a range of critical perspectives, both cross-disciplinary and international, on the place and meaning of ethics and the nature of ethical practice in community development work. The first two books in the series, Politics, power and community development (Meade et al, 2016) and Class, inequality and community development (Shaw and Mayo, 2016), had a primary focus on the structural context in which community development operates. Ethics, equity and community development takes account of context, but its focal point is the ‘micro-ethics’ of daily practice, often neglected in the literature which focuses on the broader political climate and how to develop equitable social policy to tackle disadvantage and inequity. In this book we are concerned with the ethical agency of the people practising community development, and the dilemmas and difficulties they face in their everyday work as they strive towards ethical practice and equitable outcomes. We are also interested in how micro-level or ‘everyday ethics’ interacts with the macro-level ethics of social and institutional policies in the community development field (see Banks, 2016 for the concept of ‘everyday ethics’; Truog et al, 2015, for ‘micro- and macro-ethics’).
To illustrate what is meant by ‘everyday ethics’, I will give an example from Chapter Five of the book. Here we are given an account of an ethically challenging situation faced by practitioners working for an NGO in India with a focus on participatory practice. In evaluating the effectiveness of interventions aiming to empower sex worker collectives, some of the sex workers felt the collective had made major achievements in ending false arrests and harassment by the police.
Abstract
This book is part of the Rethinking Community Development series. As such, it offers a range of critical perspectives, both cross-disciplinary and international, on the place and meaning of ethics and the nature of ethical practice in community development work. The first two books in the series, Politics, power and community development (Meade et al, 2016) and Class, inequality and community development (Shaw and Mayo, 2016), had a primary focus on the structural context in which community development operates. Ethics, equity and community development takes account of context, but its focal point is the ‘micro-ethics’ of daily practice, often neglected in the literature which focuses on the broader political climate and how to develop equitable social policy to tackle disadvantage and inequity. In this book we are concerned with the ethical agency of the people practising community development, and the dilemmas and difficulties they face in their everyday work as they strive towards ethical practice and equitable outcomes. We are also interested in how micro-level or ‘everyday ethics’ interacts with the macro-level ethics of social and institutional policies in the community development field (see Banks, 2016 for the concept of ‘everyday ethics’; Truog et al, 2015, for ‘micro- and macro-ethics’).
To illustrate what is meant by ‘everyday ethics’, I will give an example from Chapter Five of the book. Here we are given an account of an ethically challenging situation faced by practitioners working for an NGO in India with a focus on participatory practice. In evaluating the effectiveness of interventions aiming to empower sex worker collectives, some of the sex workers felt the collective had made major achievements in ending false arrests and harassment by the police.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Rethinking Community Development ix
- Acknowledgements xi
- Notes on contributors xiii
-
The ethico-political context
- Ethics, equity and community development: mapping the terrain 3
- Community development in an unequal world: challenging neo-liberal values 37
-
Everyday ethics in community development practice
- Negotiating roles and boundaries: ethical challenges in community work 59
- Negotiating consent in neighbourhood-based community development work 83
- Whose ethics counts? Ethical issues in community development and action research with communities facing stigmatisation 103
- Koorliny birniny, ni, quoppa katatjin respect and ethics in working with Indigenous Australian communities 123
- Corporate social responsibility and community development in a mining region in India: issues of power, control and co-option 143
-
Envisioning an ethical space for community development
- Relational ethics and transformative community organising in the neo-liberal US context 167
- A Community Economies perspective for ethical community development 189
- Concluding reflections: philosophical perspectives on community and community development 209
- Index 221
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Rethinking Community Development ix
- Acknowledgements xi
- Notes on contributors xiii
-
The ethico-political context
- Ethics, equity and community development: mapping the terrain 3
- Community development in an unequal world: challenging neo-liberal values 37
-
Everyday ethics in community development practice
- Negotiating roles and boundaries: ethical challenges in community work 59
- Negotiating consent in neighbourhood-based community development work 83
- Whose ethics counts? Ethical issues in community development and action research with communities facing stigmatisation 103
- Koorliny birniny, ni, quoppa katatjin respect and ethics in working with Indigenous Australian communities 123
- Corporate social responsibility and community development in a mining region in India: issues of power, control and co-option 143
-
Envisioning an ethical space for community development
- Relational ethics and transformative community organising in the neo-liberal US context 167
- A Community Economies perspective for ethical community development 189
- Concluding reflections: philosophical perspectives on community and community development 209
- Index 221
