Climbing Together: Relational Morality and Meaningful Action in Intercultural Community Engagement

Anna Taft (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

232 Seiten

2024
Brill (Verlag)
978-90-04-70732-0 (ISBN)

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Drawing on philosophical insights and narrative accounts from many people who have experienced both the dark side and the promise of so-called development work, this book demonstrates that organizations can enrich intercultural collaboration with relational morality and meaningful action.

Scholars and commentators have noted the frequent inefficacy of “development,” and criticized the power relations it entrenches. Aware of these problems, some North Americans choose to disengage from transnational work. But the reality is that we cannot avoid participating in global networks that affect people in many countries, and there are vast inequalities in access to resources that need to be addressed. Through philosophical insights, narrative accounts, and testimony from community members, we can discover a path between development and disengagement, through which relational morality and meaningful action can enrich intercultural collaboration and yield many fruits.

Anna Taft is Founding Director of The Tandana Foundation. As such, she has led the organization in its partnership with communities in Mali and Ecuador for over seventeen years. She holds a B.A. from Whitman College and a M.A.L.S. from Skidmore College.

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

1 Introduction: Between Development and Disengagement

2 Dangers of Traditional Approaches to Development

1 The View from Above

1.1 Alienation

1.2 Control

1.3 Anonymity

1.4 Development

2 Overuse of the Mode of Fabrication

2.1 Three Modes of Human Activity

2.2 Hazards of Applying the Mode of Fabrication to Human Affairs

3 An Alternative Approach

1 An Example

2 A Personal Orientation

3 Relational Morality

3.1 Experiential Moral Obligations

3.2 Respect

3.3 Responsibility

3.4 Inequality and Mutuality

4 Opportunities of Action

4.1 Containing Instrumentality within an Enduring Space for Action

4.2 Strengthening and Instituting Spaces for Action

4.3 Opportunities of the Mode of Action in Community Engagement

5 Balancing Personal and Detached Perspectives

5.1 Personal and Anonymous Care

5.2 Group-Level Relationships

5.3 Universality and Context-Specificity

5.4 Imagining Extended Communities

4 Fruits of Engagement

1 Unpredictability

2 A Note on Volunteerism

3 Reaping the Fruits

3.1 Communities Improve on Their Own Terms

3.2 Communities Gain Sources of Pride and Respect

3.3 Communities Strengthen Desired Aspects of Their Cultures and Choose to Change Others

3.4 People Enhance and Experience Their Effectiveness

3.5 People Grow in Awareness

3.6 Friendship

5 Conclusion: Messiness, Mistakes, and Meaning

Bibliography

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	27.02.2025
Reihe/Serie	Philosophy of Peace ; 397
Verlagsort	Leiden
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Gewicht	511 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Sozialpädagogik
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	90-04-70732-8 / 9004707328
ISBN-13	978-90-04-70732-0 / 9789004707320
Zustand	Neuware