Ethical issues in community development: setting the scene

Abstract

AbstractThis article introduces a special issue of the Community Development Journal designed to explore aspects of community development through an explicitly ethical lens. Arguing for a broad understanding of ethics as inextricably linked to practice and politics, it introduces the concept of ‘ethics work’ to capture the cognitive and emotional efforts community development workers expend to identify and handle matters of responsibilities, rights, harms, and benefits. Drawing inspiration and illustrations from contributions to the special issue, the article identifies ethical questions and concerns at three inter-related levels: micro (everyday relationships and interactions), meso (strategies for community development engagement and action), and macro (distribution of power and resources). After examining case examples of micro- and meso-ethical encounters, the article moves to consideration of macro-ethical questions linked to the political context of community development as a movement or project. The importance of interrogating the contradictory ideologies underpinning community development is stressed, ensuring the ethical lens is broad and versatile enough for practitioners to view their work reflexively with reference to postcolonial, postmodern, and posthuman perspectives. The article concludes with a call for a situated ethics of eco-social justice, seeing ethics as embedded in everyday practice while located in political and ecological contexts.