Ethics of Quantification and Randomised Control Trials in International Development: A Decolonial Analysis

Emily Cook-Lundgren () and Emanuela Girei ()
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Emily Cook-Lundgren: Independent Researcher
Emanuela Girei: Liverpool John Moores University

Journal of Business Ethics, 2025, vol. 196, issue 2, No 1, 254 pages

Abstract: Abstract In this article, we examine the ethical implications of randomised control trials (RCTs) as a practice of quantification in international development. Often referred to as the “gold standard” for the evaluation of development interventions, RCTs are lauded for their ability to generate supposedly objective, unbiased, and rigorous evidence to inform policy decisions for poverty alleviation. At the same time, critiques of quantification within and beyond development challenge claims of objectivity and neutrality, raising epistemological and ethical questions regarding the role of quantitative research, the numbers they produce, and the processes triggered by practices of quantification. Building on these critiques, this study develops a decolonial analysis of the RCT methodology. We argue that RCTs, by enacting the coloniality of being, knowledge, and power, serve to perpetuate global coloniality, and its core organising principle, namely colonial difference. The study contributes to ongoing conversations addressing the ethical stakes of knowledge production and (de)coloniality.

Keywords: Ethics of quantification; Randomised control trials (RCTs); Coloniality/modernity; Decolonial thinking; International development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-024-05684-1

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