EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Development Within a Religious Ontology? The Argument from Islamic Dharma

Fernande W. Pool ()
Additional contact information
Fernande W. Pool: Institute of Social Studies

The European Journal of Development Research, 2020, vol. 32, issue 4, No 10, 1038-1056

Abstract: Abstract Drawing on long-term ethnographic research with Muslims in India, this article suggests that religion should not (only) be understood as a sub-category of development but as an integral part of the meta-ontology based on which one should engage with development initially. Value-driven development implies a normative view of society, and a ‘more human’ society is at the core of worthwhile development. For the research participants, their ontological conceptions (notions of what being human means) and the ethical autonomy to deliberate on a normative view of life and society are embedded in the Islamic dharma. To approach religion as only a sub-category in an otherwise secular development framework marginalises these, and probably many other, religious life experiences and ontological notions from the outset. Instead, secular and religious ontologies should be considered at par in an inclusive dialogue on worthwhile development.

Keywords: Religion; Development ethics; Human development; Secularism; Islam; South Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41287-019-00252-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:32:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1057_s41287-019-00252-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/41287/PS2

DOI: 10.1057/s41287-019-00252-0

Access Statistics for this article

The European Journal of Development Research is currently edited by Spencer Henson and Natalia Lorenzoni

More articles in The European Journal of Development Research from Palgrave Macmillan, European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:32:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1057_s41287-019-00252-0