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This chapter explores the vital connection between ethics and community development, underlining the fundamental role of ethical considerations in shaping fair, just, and sustainable communities. It begins by emphasizing that community development is inherently ethical and delves into the concept of ethics, examining ethical theories like consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics in the context of community development. Real-world case studies from diverse countries, such as South Africa, Australia, and India, are interwoven throughout the chapter to provide practical insights. These case studies illustrate the complexities of ethical implementation in community development, from navigating power dynamics to addressing conflicts of interest and balancing immediate needs with long-term sustainability. The chapter also explores macro-level considerations, highlighting the need for systemic change to create a more just and equitable society. It guides practitioners on integrating ethics into their work, establishing a strong moral framework for community development. Continuous learning, reflective practice, and adaptability are underscored as essential in responding to evolving societal contexts, norms, and challenges.

When radical new approaches to entrepreneurship are sought, they almost invariably return to the origin point of conventional firms. This chapter, however, will show that radical entrepreneurship, far from being the purview of capitalist enterprises, can be found in abundance in the cooperative sector. Cooperatives, which are democratic economic enterprises owned by members on a one person, one-vote basis, are a hotbed of new economic thinking. The ways in which cooperatives use advances in technology to create more democratic, decentralized, and egalitarian economic relationships stands in stark contrast to the monopolizing and centralizing tendencies of conventional firms. This chapter will show that cooperatives are both a worthy adversary, and potential ally of, conventional capitalist businesses in moving the field of entrepreneurship into areas that will be of greatest benefit to humanity.

This chapter falls into two parts. The first offers a theoretical overview of three actor perspectives on issues of development intervention: (a) activity theory, (b) actor-network theory and (c) actor-oriented interface analysis. The second provides an illustrated discussion of the usefulness of actor perspectives for understanding the encounters that take place between ‘development experts’ (local and foreign) and so-called ‘beneficiaries’. The argument draws upon ethnographic data relating to issues of development interface, actor identities, networks and discourse.

This chapter compares and discusses the 10 sustainability-oriented food supply chain innovations described in the previous chapters. Our purpose is to address and reflect on the questions and challenges introduced in the first chapter.

The cases are first analyzed in terms of the extent to which the innovations were motivated and impacted the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainability. The various sustainable food supply chain practices adopted are compared. The third section explores the innovation strategies used in the cases, including the type of strategy, the breadth and level of innovativeness of the strategy, the governance approach, and the extent of capability development required. The final section presents our conclusions.

The results suggest that to become truly sustainable, companies need to adopt a broad set of practices that address all three dimensions of sustainability, and develop strategies to make the sustainability-oriented innovation economically viable. The more radical and systemic the innovation, the more difficult it is to generate these outcomes.

Inclusive practices are supported and increasingly being implemented in Malawi. Transition to inclusion requires partnerships in which parents, educators, policymakers, and community leaders come together to build an understanding of disability which values inclusion and promotes the use of innovative, contextualized strategies to facilitate inclusive perspectives and practices. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight how one agency, the Parents of Disabled Children Association of Malawi (PODCAM), is working with parents, educators, and community members to build more inclusive schools and communities for students with disability.

This chapter introduces gender-related issues in the context of the South Pacific and agricultural development and research for development initiatives. National governments and donor organisations commonly invest in improving rural livelihoods by addressing agriculture and food security issues, and increasingly prioritise and even mandate gender integration/mainstreaming objectives within such initiatives. Despite substantial investments, there are few accounts of how integrating gender and gender mainstreaming in agriculture has been approached in practice in the South Pacific. Additionally, there is scarce attention to the benefits that a gender perspective has secured for women and men.

We outline the ways in which agriculture continues to underpin South Pacific economies and livelihoods; discuss gender mainstreaming/integration in agricultural development activities and debates that define its theory and practice; and highlight how the concepts of custom and intersectionality are important considerations in this field. The final part of the chapter provides an overview of the book structure which includes two introductory and contextualising chapters, six case study chapters, and a synthesis chapter of the key learnings, commonalities and challenges identified across the six case studies.