PART III: CASE STUDIES AND APPLICATIONS
Introduction to Part III
© 2022 Book Editors, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0290.11
Aim of Part III
This third part introduces some applications of a common good approach to development, either as a framework to analyse a situation, or as a metric. The different chapters highlight the different possibilities opened by a matrix of common good dynamics. Helen Alford’s chapter gives a general introduction into the prospects of the approach and shows how they can be applied to good business practice. Then Patrick Riordan uses the model to analyse the peace process in Mindanao, while Valente Tallabs and Mathias Nebel analyse common good dynamics in the rural town of Atlixco (Mexico), identifying proxies for the five key drivers. Finally, Simona Beretta shows how a common good approach may help understand the dynamic of prison programmes aiming to reinsert inmates into society. These ‘case studies’ are not meant to be a rigorous application of the approach, but rather to illustrate how it may apply to a highly diverse set of realities, proving to be as much an analytical tool as a potential metric.
To Whom Is It of Interest?
This third part will mainly be of interest to politicians and development planners. To the first group it may appeal as a source of a different kind of politics, one based on promoting common good dynamics. To the second, it will open up new ways to draft policies and plan interventions. Both may find that the approach procures a new way of seeing reality. To focus on basic commons and the network existing between them; to pay attention to the way these common goods interacts and how they are built into a dynamic system of commons highlights aspects of social processes seldom seen otherwise. Indeed, our approach helps individuals to grasp the complexity of social interactions through a united and flexible framework, making sense of a complex social process. It associates the ethical dimension of development with a framework which is sensitive to the complexity and specificities of practical situations. As such, this part shows the many potentialities of our approach.
Why Does It Matter?
Many development practices lack a sound theoretical background. Duflo, Banerjee and Kremer famously argued that the complexity of reality was irreducible to theories and that we should ground development practice mainly in experience. We do not share this view. It is ultimately a fantasy about ‘pure’ experience where ‘facts’ talk for themselves and somehow add up to form a body of knowledge ‘untainted’ by presuppositions. Rather, we think that public policies as well as development programmes are dependent on the theoretical background that they explicitly or implicitly assume. This is normal and good. To make sense out of reality you need some sort of theoretical framework. But, then, theoretical frameworks are futile if they do not translate into action. By addressing both theory and practice, by bridging the two, this book avoids this trap. Part I, the theoretical part, lays the ground for Part III, dedicated to practice, while the case studies illustrate and enrich the theoretical framework.