The words 'development' and 'philanthropy' have slipped with great ease into the lexicon of 21st century societies. Despite being billion dollar global industries, the underlying premises of these practices—for instance altruism and the will to improve—remain to be fully theorized. Focusing on the ethics of development and charity workers, volunteers and agencies, this conference will consider the contingent, complex and contradictory ethical frameworks that guide agents of philanthropy and development in the enactment of improvement. Attention will be paid to the ways that abstract ethical principles, such as utopian discourses of salvation, liberation, empowerment, humanism, and freedom, must contend with the often messy pragmatics of administering aid and charity, as well as alternative visions of help and need from aid and charity recipients.

Speakers are also encouraged to consider how the normative processes and technical procedures of charity and aid come to constitute realms of ethics in their own right: whereby means supplant ends and where doing charity and aid right, rather than doing right through charity and aid, can become the moral impetus for action.

The transformation of ethical rationalities through practice is thus a key theme of this conference. Speakers are invited to discuss issues pertaining to the 'ethics of improvement,' which could include the following questions:

What vests these twin practices - development and philanthropy - with such moral power in today's world?

What initial moral rationalities guide these agents in their choice of work?

How does the experience of affecting improvement modify and challenge the ethical frameworks of aid and charity agents?

What is the relationship between technical rationalities and ethics within aid and charity spheres?

In situating these ethical frameworks within realms of practice, how might we develop more subtle theories to account for the motivations of development and philanthropy agents?