March 26, 2009

1. The Moral Challenge of Urbanization in Less Developed CountriesChloe Schwenke, Ph.D.web: chloemaryland.net March 26, 2009

2. Urban Dynamics morality? LDC Context: Widespread poverty Resource scarcity Weak institutions Inadequate infrastructure Shallow democracy Corruption Environment under stress Unmanaged land use Poor or no planning

3. Why “Morality”? • A way of thinking about development ~ moving beyond Codes of Ethics • Qualitative focus ~ pursued through moral theories and moral intuition • Development for what? For whom? • “Development” meaning what? • How much is enough? • Who is responsible? To whom? Why? • What about trade-offs? And the losers?

4. Cities as “Moral Context” • In less developed countries, cities concentrate both wealth and poverty • Greatest human flourishing vs. the most crushing human poverty • Cities depend on social order ~ and social order comes from: • social contract ~ an agreement to “behave” • power and coercion (and sometimes tyranny) • cooperation and caring • competition ~ with rules and tradeoffs

5. Moral Considerations Human Dignity Human Flourishing and “Development” Justice, Fairness, Equity, Rights Compassion & Care The Common Good Safety and Security Participation, Inclusion, Identity

6. Human Dignity ? • what to do in urban environments hostile to the concept of human dignity ~ cities in the South? • severe poverty • deprivation of opportunities • loss of hope, limited options • loss of “voice”, lack of power • is respect for universal human dignity an important goal of development that ought to be attended to?

7. Human Flourishing/Well-being • successful execution of a rational plan of life, by which the person determines the good for himself or herself • John Rawls • “That human persons are flourishing means that their lives are good, or worthwhile, in the broadest sense.” • Thomas Pogge

8. The Common Good ~ 1 • policies and actions that best serve to promote the essential components of human well-being or flourishing for all • going for the best net score of individual interests within the community (utilitarian) • i.e. sacrifices some people’s interests to further that of others

9. The Common Good ~ 2 • What is the “common good”? • subject to moral disagreements • agreed upon only through a participatory and deliberative democratic process of reasoning together ~ respectfully • How does local/municipal governance facilitate the articulation of a community’s common good?

10. The Common Good ~ 3 • trade-offs • “A moral justification must be provided to justify this sacrifice of perceived self-interest, and not simply the weight of majority interests.” • Richard Flathman • measuring the impact of trade-offs ~ a decision-maker’s role • “advocate” or “expert”? • legitimacy?

11. Safety and Security • conditions of stability, order, predictability, and freedom from bodily harm • environment ~ to live within a city without becoming ill • economic security • access to employment and/or other forms of welfare

12. Participation ~ Who Governs? Why? How? • power and wealth concentrated at the center ~ national governments & elites • weak accountability to non-elite urban residents • inefficiency of central command & control ~ subsidiarity principle • urban governments generally fail to: • lead or provide advocacy • generate governance policies • perform effective strategic planning • facilitate local participation

13. Participation and Inclusion ~ 1 • who ought to decide: • what “good” development and “good” governance mean • what the obligations of good governance impose, and when must they be met • what should be done when they “good governance” values clash with other values • where’s the balance? • popular participation in governance vs. representative democratic institutions of government • “participation” hijacking the agenda

14. Participation and Inclusion ~ 2 • is popular participation a realistic expectation within poor cities? • expensive, prolonged, subject to failure • who identifies the “stakeholders”? on what basis? who is excluded? why? • does stakeholder participation ever reflect demographic and power realities within the city?

15. Participation and Inclusion ~ 3 • “deliberative democracy” an ideal, not a practical objective • “careful structuring” of the participatory process: • consider different views of means and ends of development and good governance

16. Moral Demands who owes what to whom and when? how much? why?

17. The Challenge to Urban Governance • what ought decision-makers do to respect and respond to the moral demands that recognition of basic human dignity entails? • what about: • social justice? • human flourishing? • the common good? • participation and inclusion? • safety and security? • a caring society?

18. Moral Vocabulary? • the myth of value-neutrality • “us” and “them” • North and South • experts/managers and “beneficiaries” • “When we speak of ethics in planning, we refer to a capacity to argue about what to do, to a capacity to think about, evaluate, and judge alternative courses of action.” Krumholz and Forester

19. Moral Visibility • illustrative moral and ethical dimensions: • freedoms and opportunities ~ who enjoys? • land ownership rights ~ who controls? • environmental and ecological integrity • inequitable distribution ~ “trickle down” • rights of vulnerable minorities • democracy, deliberation, and participation • gender concerns • reducing corruption and promoting integrity • mitigating/preventing conflict • caring about people and the environment

20. Development For What? • ideals of human and social well-being • the “decent society” ~ honor in equal measure = universal human dignity • Avishai Margalit • respecting human nature • Rousseau, Kant

21. Ideals ~ 1 • social justice • fair, even-handed treatment of all individuals and groups within a society • prerequisite for the achievement of human flourishing • Rasmussen • the “caring relationship” between self and others • Carol Gilligan

22. Ideals ~ 2 • distributive justice • how major social institutions should distribute burdens and benefits • John Rawls • civic virtue • Aristotle • human rights and freedoms • Amartya Sen

23. Ideals ~ 3 The Livable City • the ideal of the “livable city” is at least a set of morally relevant standards by which citizens and others may evaluate their city in terms that speak to their own quality-of-life aspirations and concerns. • as such, the articulated “livable city” ideal can qualitatively influence development strategies and provide the essential motivation for beneficial change

24. Reality Check • “Survival takes priority over dignity” • Margalit • political leadership in many cities and towns in the South is top-down or even autocratic – neither accountable to nor inclusive of the residents • very few cities in the North, and exceptionally few in the South, have engaged in a representative participatory process leading to the outcome of a comprehensive urban development strategy

25. Objections and Responses core methodology of normative analysis

26. Five Objections 1)moral issues are largely arbitrary and subjective in nature, changing in scope and intensity 2)seeking common ground on moral concerns risks upsetting the status quo 3)the quality of a moral dialogue on substantive issues depends upon uncommon tolerance, reflection, mutual respect, and a deliberative ethos ~ rare in participatory processes 4)moral values and systems are largely unreliable in policy making ~ universalism vs. relativism 5)moral values are extremely difficult to measure, monitor and evaluate

27. Response to #1 • moral issues are largely arbitrary and subjective in nature, changing in scope and intensity • morality is not arbitrary • ethics ~ the systematic and critical study of moral beliefs, values and concerns • in ethics, our values and beliefs are organized into various (and to some extent, competing) systems, each of which exhibits coherence and matches our considered judgments and deeply felt beliefs

28. Response to #2 • seeking common ground on moral concerns risks upsetting the status quo • yes ~ attending to moral concerns risks upsetting the status quo by challenging the existing economic and power relationships within any given society • the existence of widespread poverty, corruption, injustice, and the lack of universal respect for human dignity demand such a challenge

29. Response to #3 • the quality of a moral dialogue on substantive issues depends upon uncommon tolerance, reflection, mutual respect, and a deliberative ethos • if this claim were accepted, it would be difficult to imagine a society’s moral progress over time • leadership of morally virtuous persons is not a necessary condition to progress • the application of an ethical framework to the participatory process may facilitate a moral dialogue of substance and quality

30. Response to #4 • moral values and systems are largely unreliable in policy making • certain values are universal and fundamental to human nature • local culture, tradition, and context ought significantly to influence and shape the implementation of development initiatives responsive to these universal values

31. Response to #5 • moral values are extremely difficult to measure, monitor and evaluate • empirical data can say a great deal about the changes in achieving morally desirable goals • birth weight of babies ~ a good proxy for measuring the shortcomings in the quality of life of people and the need for better nutrition and health care • qualitative factors in the experience of poverty, the enjoyment of basic freedoms and opportunities, and the prevalence of respect for human dignity are all subject to meaningful evaluation through a variety of techniques, from focus groups to surveys