Culture, Spirituality and Economic Development: Opening a dialogue

This book explores culture, development, and spirituality from the perspective of social work. This framework serves as foundation and guides analytical deliberation through the use of case studies from around the world. With emerging trends in development, synchronistic synthesis between the inner self and interventions, it is anticipated to contribute to advancing well-being of all people. The book reflects global experiences from both the social work professions and development practitioner’s perspectives, as it pertains to economic and social development. The book serves as a guide to those who want to better understand and incorporate spirituality into successful social work interventions, practice, and research. It examines social development in the daily lives of children and families by looking at larger national and international phenomenon that can affect the well-being of communities. The book further discusses natural disasters, poverty, war, migration, human trafficking, war, violence and other factors with suggestions of innovative global interventions that have been utilized to assist diverse marginalized groups and communities.

Looking beyond the materialistic boundary of the conventional development paradigm, this book identifies our spiritual underdevelopment which is being reflected as self-centeredness and greed, as the root cause of conventional development's failure to alleviate poverty and inequality, achieve sustainability and deliver happiness to humanity.

The theory of modernization basically reduces the meaning of development to economic growth often measured by Growth Domestic Product of the country or overall purchase power parity of the nation. This approach ignores the variety of perspectives on development, hence excludes the role of culture, identity, and spirituality as social determinants of good development. More importantly, modernization theory which informs the mainstream view on development ignores the structural causes of underdevelopment, including colonial heritage or the current unbridled capitalism in many societies. Against reductionist views of development, fundamental questions are raised about the theory and programming of development. From what perspective is the conception of development perceived? Who should decide and depict development goals? What kind of development could result in desirable changes? Is it morally desirable to dictate an exclusively Western understanding of development to others? Is there any link between development and a right of nations to self-determination? Who is morally accountable for global inequality or ‘bad development’? The novelty of this book lies in its multidisciplinary approach in exploring the role of ethics and spirituality as the curing alternates for the gamut of ills which originate in global inequality. All authors are academics based in a variety of countries and specialize in questions concerning development and spirituality.

Development is a key concept for thinking about the global relations between nations, in particular between North and South. But what exactly does it entail and in which forms do development practices manifest themselves? Are we dealing with aid or with co-operation, or perhaps with encounter? And which motives, philosophies of life and ideas about the course of nations and other human communities are lurking behind the programs of actual development? Why has the concept become so popular, that it seems to have become a substitute for the concept of history? Could it be that development programs which are usually rationally conceived, evaluated and managed, betray hegemonic practices, despite the good intentions of donor nations and development agencies? Or are development programs aiming at integration of the South into a global market? If so, could it be that the belief in development is some kind of a secular, quasi-religious view on the ways nations and people must develop? We know after all that religion often is a motivating source for many people involved in development practices. These questions are addressed in short essays by eminent experts in the fields of development studies, cultural anthropology, development policy and social philosophy. They critically analyse the discourses used in development practices. The ultimate focus of the essays is on the ways in which political and development agencies deal with morality, religion and spirituality. The authors come from Great Britain, India, Indonesia and the Netherlands. This volume will be attractive to those working in the fields of development cooperation, missionary work and faith-based international solidarity. Book jacket.