Report R5.5 Role of Science and Methodology in Development Studies Seminar Leader: Greg Demirchyan, University of California, Berkeley, USA gdemi[at]berkeley.edu The field of development studies currently projects a notion of development that is more than solely economic development (for more information on this field, see Sumner, 2006, p. 644). It is a young field of inquiry that is characterised by a great diversity of approaches put forward, disciplines involved, and problems to be solved. However, in development studies, there exists little consensus on any core theory of development. The “theories” that exists can be better described as sets of ideas rather than well-defined and testable scientific theories. What can be done to make the field more rigorous? How can we think more systematically about development? According to Greg Demirchyan, methodological reflections might point us towards possible answers. Thinking about development requires us to think about the objectives of development. Even though identifying objectives remains essentially a normative issue, methodological thinking can help in two ways: (a) it can help in strengthening the conceptual basis of these objectives, and (b) it can help in relating the objectives to their practical consequences. These two possibilities are discussed below. (a) Referring to the theory of justice by philosopher John Rawls, Demirchyan describes various methods that enable us to better define the objectives of development by systematically examining them. One such method is called reflective equilibrium, which holds that people have certain strong judgments as opposed to weak judgments. Whereas a theory of development must conform with all our strong judgments, i.e., ideas that are usually thought through and that we are not willing to give up, it need not to conform with all our weak judgments, which are preferences that we can give up if a good theory rejects them. Another method is to ensure internal consistency among the objectives. Next to this, objectives must in principle also be achievable within a certain amount of time. Utopian goals such as “everyone will be a millionaire” must be rejected. Assuming a continuous scarcity of resources, the goals must also be prioritised, depending on the urgency experienced in the context. In addition to this, the objectives must also be externally consistent. It is important because an internally consistent set of objectives may in fact achieve results which are inconsistent or in conflict with the realities obtained in the context. (b) Thinking about relating the objectives to their practical consequences, one could think of demanding that the objectives be amenable to some type of measurement. Also negative externalities of the objectives must be taken into account. Next, to ensure the achievability of the objectives, one needs to get feedback from the field on their experiences in achieving the objectives. Demirchyan stresses that the explanation of failed projects is one of the most important issues for development studies, in order to prevent repeating the mistakes. Usually no explanation is given at all and, even if reasons for failure are given, these are usually not subject to peer review that could weed out the wrong explanations. Certain rules of thumb can be devised to find potential explanations. One can think of paying close attention to social and cultural norms, looking for special vulnerabilities, and the workings of the institutions carrying out the project. In the end, of course, explanations of why certain projects were successful are equally important, providing information that will allow replicating the success. Even though methods like the ones mentioned above can help in defining objectives, this essentially remains a normative issue. In the end, science cannot entirely determine the objectives of development. The theory of development is not a description of the world but a statement on how we want the world to be, a perspective on what we ought to do. Reaching a global consensus on the objectives of development is problematic. Take for example the objective of making people literate. At first glance, this may seem to be a safe choice. However, as was promptly countered during the seminar, achieving literacy may simultaneously mean a loss of indigenous and non-literate forms of communication, knowledge, and culture. In certain cases this leads to uprooting persons from their communities and alienating them from their cultures. Although Demirchyan emphasised universal values such as “human dignity” and appeared rather optimistic about building a development theory upon such foundations, the discussions brought back echoes of scepticism. Can the notion of development be generalised enough to accept a set of basic universal values as its building blocks? The discussions seemed to suggest otherwise. No matter which generalisations one adopts, there will always be fieldworkers who can counter-argue: “This is all very well, but it doesn’t apply to the Bongo-Bongo” (Douglas, 1970, p. xxxvii). This problem will be encountered as long as one insists on global objectives for development action. There will always be local exceptions to the global rule. Normative issues, methodologically slippery as they are, may even backfire on the task of formulating objectives itself. If one is not able to define clear normative objectives, how could one start development at all? Should we drop the demand for rigorous general objectives at all? Luckily it does not seem likely that development studies, or development work itself for that matter, would stop if there are no globally shared normative objectives. But, of course, this neither means that we should give up the effort and stop asking ethical and methodological questions about this discord between universalism and particularism vis-à-vis the development of development studies. References Douglas, M. (1970). Natural symbols: Explorations in cosmology. London & New York: Routledge. Sumner, A. (2006). What is development studies? Development in Practice, 16(6), 644-650.
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