From action to transaction: some implications of pragmatism and its concept of agency for development research and practice
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_ried/ijds.363Keywords:
pragmatism, agency, philosophical ontology, developmentAbstract
Development suggests the notion of «good change» and its research and practice are about bringing it to fruition. Perhaps, because of this emphasis on application, relatively less attention has been given to philosophical issues, although shedding more light on the latter can contribute to the former. Positivism and, to a lesser extent, constructivism, with their advantages and disadvantages, have dominated the field. Against this conventional dichotomy, this article argues in favour of philosophical classic pragmatism as an alternative and does so employing philosophical ontology. From this perspective, pragmatism adheres to mind-world monism and phenomenalism. As such, it demands healthy awareness and criticism of preferences and biases, whether personal or contextual, in the self and in the subjects of interest. It entails a call for plurality, to harness practical reason to solve practical problems, turning indeterminate situations into determinate ones, thereby generating warranted assertions.
Downloads
References
ALKIRE S (2009). Concepts and measures of agency. In: Basu K, Kanbur R (eds.). Arguments for a Better World, Essays in Honor of Amartya Sen, vol. I. Oxford University Press, New York (US), pp. 455-474.
ALKIRE S (2010). Human Development: Definitions, Critiques and Related Concepts. Human Development Research Paper 2010/01.
BACON M (2012). Pragmatism, an Introduction. Polity, Cambridge (UK).
BALDWIN J (1988). Habit, Emotion, and Self-Conscious Action. Sociological Perspectives 31(1): 35-57.
BERNSTEIN R (1983). Beyond Objectivism and Realism: Science Hermeneutics and Praxis. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia (US).
BHASKAR R (1975). A Realist Theory of Science. Verso, London (UK).
BHASKAR R (1998). The Possibility of Naturalism. Routledge, London (UK).
BLUMER H (2004). George Herbert Mead and Human Conduct. Altamira Press, New York (US).
CALDWELL B (1994). Beyond Positivism. Economic Methodology in the Twentieth Century. Routledge, New York (US).
CARLE S (2005). Theorizing Agency. American University Law Review 55(2):307-387.
CHAMBERS R (2004). Ideas for Development. IDS working paper 238. Sussex (UK).
CHERNOFF F (2007). Theory and Metatheory in International Relations: Concepts and Contending Accounts. Palgrave, New York (US).
CHERNOFF F (2009). The ontological fallacy: A rejoinder on the status of scientific realism in International Relations. Review of International Studies 35(2):371-395.
CURRIE-ADLER B (2016). The state of development studies: origins, evolution and prospects. Canadian Journal of Development Studies 37(1):5-26.
DELLA PORTA D, KEATING M (2008). How many approaches in the social sciences? An epistemological introduction. In: Della Porta D, Keating M (eds.). Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences. A Pluralist Perspective, Cambridge University Press, London (UK), pp. 19-39.
DEWEY J (1930). Human Nature and Conduct. Henry Holt and Company, New Jersey (US).
DEWEY J (1931). Philosophy and Civilization. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York (US).
DEWEY J (1938). Logic: The Theory of Inquiry. Henry Holt and Company, New York (US).
DEWEY J (1958). Experience and Nature. Dover Publications, New York (US).
DEWEY J (1985). The Middle Works of John Dewey 1899-1924, vol. 12. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale (US).
DEWEY J (2001). Democracy and Education. Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania (US).
GARCÉS P (2016). Neither «Mind» nor «Things» but Acting: Some Philosophical Implications of Pragmatism for International Relations Inquiry. Analecta política 6(11):227-248.
GARCÉS P (in press). Form follows function in evidence-based public policy: the pragmatist alternative to the positivist orthodoxy. Iberoamerican Journal of Development Studies.
GASPER D (2000). Development as Freedom: taking economics beyond commodities – the cautious boldness of Amartya Sen. Journal of International Development 12(7):989-1001.
GORSKY P (2013). What is Critical Realism? And why should you care? Contemporary Sociology 42(5):658-670.
HARDY M (2016). «I know what I like and I like what I know»: Epistemology in practice and theory and practice again. Qualitative Social Work 15(5-6):762-778.
HARRISS J (2002). The case for cross-disciplinary approaches in international development. World Development 30(12):487-496.
HILDEBRAND D (2003). Beyond Realism and Anti-Realism: Dewey and the Neopragmatists. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville (US).
HILDEBRAND D (2008). Dewey: A Beginner’s Guide. Oneworld Publications, Oxford (UK).
HOLLIS M (2010). The Self in Action. In: Peters RS (ed.). John Dewey Reconsidered. Routledge, New York (US).
HUMPHREYS A (2013). Applying Jackson’s Methodological Ideal-Types: Problems of Differentiation and Classification. Millennium: Journal of International Studies 41(2):290-308.
JACKSON P (2011). The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations, Philosophy of Science and its Implications for the Study of World Politics. Routledge, New York (US).
JOAS H (1996). The Creativity of Action. Polity Press, New York (US).
JOHNSON D, SHIFFLETT P (1981). George Herbert Who? A Critique of the Objectivist Reading of Mead. Symbolic Interaction 4(2):143-155.
KILPINEN E (2012). Human Beings as creatures of habit. In: Warde A, Southerton D (eds.). COLLeGIUM: Studies across Disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences: The Habits of Consumption, vol. 12. Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Helsinki, Finland, pp. 45-69.
KLOPPENBERG J (1999). Pragmatism: an old name for some new ways of thinking? In: Dickstein M (ed.). The Revival of Pragmatism: New Essays on Social Thought, Law and Culture. Duke University Press, London (UK), pp. 83-127.
KRATOCHWIL F (2011). Ten points to ponder about Pragmatism. In: Bauer H, Brighi E (eds.). Pragmatism in International Relations. Routledge, New York (US), pp. 11-25.
MEAD G (1972). Mind, Self and Society. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago (US).
MEHTA L, HAUG R, HADDAD L (2006). Reinventing development research. Forum for Development Studies 33(1):1-6.
MENAND L (1997). Pragmatism: A Reader. Vintage Books, New York (US).
MISAK C (ed.) (2007). New Pragmatists. Oxford University Press, New York (US).
MOLTEBERG E, BERGSTRØM C (2000). Our Common Discourse: Diversity and Paradigms in Development Studies, Centre for International Environment and Development Studies, Agricultural University of Norway (NORAGRIC) Working Paper Number 20. Ås (Norway).
MOSES J, KNUTSEN T (2012). Ways of Knowing: Competing Methodologies in Social and Political Research. Palgrave Macmillan, New York (US).
PATOMÄKI H, WIGHT C (2000). After Postpositivism. The Promises of Critical Realism. International Studies Quarterly 44(2):213-237.
PEIRCE C (1878). How to Make our Ideas Clear. Popular Science Monthly 12:286-302.
PIHLSTRÖM S (2013). Neopragmatism. In: Runehov A, Oviedo L. Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions. Springer, Dordrecht (Germany), pp. 1455-1465.
PUTNAM H (2002) The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy and Other Essays. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (US).
QUINTON A (2010). Inquiry, thought and action: John Dewey’s theory of knowledge. In: Peters RS (ed.). John Dewey Reconsidered. Routledge, New York (US), pp. 1-11.
SEN A (1985). Well-Being, Agency and Freedom: The Dewey Lectures 1984, The Journal of Philosophy 82(4):169-221.
SEN A (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford University Press, New York (US).
SIDORSKY D (1977). John Dewey: The Essential Writings. Harper Torchbooks, New York (US).
SMITH J (2004). Dewey on inquiry and language. In: Khalil E (ed.). Dewey, Pragmatism, and Economic Methodology. Routledge, New York (US), pp. 133-152.
SUMNER A (2006). What is development studies? Development in Practice 16(6):644-650.
SUMNER A, TRIBE M (2008a). International Development Studies: Theories and Methods in Research and Practice. Sage Publications, London (UK).
SUMNER A, TRIBE M (2008b). What could development studies be? Development in Practice 18(6):755-766.
TALISSE R, AIKIN S (2011). Introduction. In: Talisse R, Aikin S (eds.). The Pragmatism Reader. Princeton University Press, New Jersey (US), pp. 4-11.
TAYLOR C (1995). Philosophical arguments. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (US).
TAYLOR C (1985). Human Agency and Language, Philosophical Papers 1. Cambridge University Press, London (UK).
WIGHT C (2006). Agents, Structures and International Relations: Politics as Ontology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (US).
WILEY N (2008). The Pragmatists’ theory of the self. Studies in Symbolic Interaction 31:7-29.
WOOLCOCK M (2007). Higher education, policy schools, and Development Studies: what should masters degree students be taught? Journal of International Development 19(1):55-73.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Pablo Garcés-Velástegui
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
