Cases of famine, governmental overreach, political abuse and neglect persist even in today’s globalised world. Corporate malfeasance, disregard of the environment, and blatant ignorance of the instigators of disasters large and small also continue to register high human costs. In trying to address this, theorists have attempted to elucidate a global ethics that would prescribe courses of actions even when individual and direct causal agency cannot be identified.
Following in this tradition, Eddy M. Souffrant explores the concept of a global development ethics, taking in topics including famine, immigration, capitalism, race, and technology. He demonstrates that defining the constituents of a global development ethics depends on a successful analysis of the theoretical and practical structures that cause such global and seemingly intractable conditions. He challenges existing conceptions of global justice and argues for a theory of global ethics that relies on our commonality, such that enables us to welcome the `other’, thereby fuelling our recognition of the inequalities that motivate prospective development projects. Ideal for advanced-level students in global ethics, global justice and development studies, this text articulates a vital new ethics of human development.
Introduction / 1. Recognition and the 'Other' / 2. Hospitality and the Immigrant / 3. Famine and Development / 4. Liberal Democracy and Race / 5. Capitalism and Transparency / 6. Technology and Development / 7. The Ontology of Global and Cosmopolitan Ethics / 8. Ethics of Development / 9. Global Ethics / Bibliography / Index
Eddy M. Souffrant is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the author of A Future without Borders?: Theories and Practices of Cosmopolitan Peacebuilding (2016), Identity, Political Freedom, and Collective Responsibility: The Pillars and Foundations of Global Ethics (2013) Formal Transgression: John Stuart Mill's Philosophy of International Affairs (2000) and co-editor (with Danielle Poe) of Parceling the Globe: Philosophical Explorations in Globalization, Global Behavior, and Peace (2008).
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3 Reviews
Though Global Development Ethics has to do with economic theory, Souffrant (Univ. of North Carolina, Charlotte) is a philosopher, and this book is effectively a reexamination of the philosophy of development, based on the interconnectedness of all peoples. In response to the failed relief efforts after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the author argues that relief efforts must not only respond to the acute needs of communities, but also address the conditions that made those needs as dire as they were. In the first six of the book's nine chapters Soufrant discusses the relationship between the self and other; the exclusionary nature of national identity; the various philosophies of development; how liberal democracy, as an alternative to the economic model, exacerbates the problem of exclusion; moral capitalism in economic development projects; and the overall need for capitalist development projects to change their ethical basis. The next two chapters expand the discussion of global development ethics and consider the rationale for the use of technology as a development tool. In the final chapter Souffrant lays out a proposal for a more holistic approach to development.
Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.
Eddy Souffrant’s Global Development Ethics exceeds the critique of global capitalism signaled by its subtitle. Galvanized by the contradictions between human rights and arbitrary aid following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Souffrant poses and examines global ethical questions of identity, recognition, equality of opportunity, rights, and inclusion. This erudite and deeply reflective text should inform future development law and policy.
Eddy Souffrant’s writing returns continental thought to the sphere of development ethics, restoring approaches neglected since the departure of Denis Goulet. Souffrant’s relational approach, his focus upon race, and his case study of recent international efforts and their failures in Haiti are all welcome contributions to ethical discussions of global justice.
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