Deepening Development Ethics: From Economism to Human Development to Human Security

Development ethics as practice-oriented thought has arisen at an intersection of theorising about norms and values with various streams of experience. New ethical questions are now triggered by changes that accompany the process of globalisation. The latter has tended to erode national boundaries, create new spaces and practices, and generate simultaneously new opportunities and forms of suffering. These emerging ethical questions require a corresponding social analysis and additional sources of ethical thought. In this paper, we will trace the progress of development ethics and suggest that the field would benefit from linkages to ethical traditions that emphasise the transformation of consciousness and attitudes in service of human security as a higher goal. We show the value of the addition to the human development discourse of ‘human security’, particularly its motivational basis and focus on right. But both human development and human security discourses require a further consolidation by way of grea...