“Integral Human Development” (IHD) is a term coined by Louis-Joseph Lebret OP and then used by Paul VI in his encyclical Populorum Progressio in 1967. It is, in a way, the Catholic approach to human development and has been adopted by Catholic Relief Services. Pope Francis has emphasized the idea with the creation of a special dicastery of which Cardinal Czerny is the new Prefect. Similar to Enacting Catholic Social Teaching, the book emphasizes practice and examples without being a simple “how-to” book.
Table of Contents:
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
“Integral Human Development”: An Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
PART I: A DIGNITY-CENTERED APPROACH . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1. Enacting Human Dignity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Three Negative Approaches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Three Areas of Concern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2. Dignity Needs and the Desire for a Full Human Life . . . . . . 30
Beyond Basic Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Interiority and the Imagination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3. On Respecting a Person. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
The Complexity of Respect and the Simplicity of a Single Imperative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
An Exercise in Deconstruction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4. Learning from the Unique: Microtheories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
The Idea of Constructing Microtheories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
“Poverty-Eradicating Innovation”: A Microtheory. . . . . . . . . . 58
PART II: INTEGRAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, DIGNITY, AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS. . . . . . . . 69
5. Transforming Lives: Development Projects and the Challenges of Dignity-Centered Change. . . . . . . . . . 79
Different Notions of Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
The Dynamics of Social Change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Development Protology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6. Ethical Aspects of Project Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Dignity-Centered Project Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
A Culture of Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7. Doing Justice to a Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Local Epistemic Justice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
The Necessity and Fragility of Planning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
8. The Moral Biography of Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
The Value Basis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Moral Challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
PART III: COMMON GOOD-ORIENTED POLICIES. . . . . . . . . . 131
9. Moral Relevance of Policies and Political Decisions. . . . . . . . 139
A Case Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Laws, Culture, and Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
10. Big Questions: The Point of Policies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Freedom or Dignity?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Dignity and Inequality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
11. Epistemic Justice and Policy Making. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
The Ethics of Policy Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
The Enduring Need for Judgment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
12. Institutionalizing Integral Human Development. . . . . . . . . . 173
Building Dignity-Sensitive Institutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Three Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
A Final Note on Accompaniment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Epilogue: Beyond Development Ethics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
About the Author :
Clemens Sedmak is professor of social ethics and interim director, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, University of Notre Dame. His recent books include The Capacity to Be Displaced: Resilience, Mission, and Inner Strength (Brill, 2017), and Enacting Catholic Social Teaching (Orbis, 2022).
Review :
“I applaud Prof. Sedmak’s deep and far-reaching treatment of ‘integral human development.’ Reading his exploration of the bedrock concept of human dignity will richly reward both the researchers and the practitioners who seek to advance human development.” –Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
“Enacting Integral Human Development is an excellent book. It is at once remarkably accessible with clear examples and conceptually rigorous. Sedmak provides a rich understanding of Integral Human Development as an analytic lens useful in promoting the development of every person and the whole person by respecting the dignity of each person as a whole and contextualized person.” –Lori Keleher, New Mexico State University
“Integral Human Development, grounded in the pursuit of human dignity and the common good, is such an inspiring and capacious concept that it naturally draws a wide audience. The danger is that this embrace is seldom matched by action or accountability. Sedmak, in Enacting Integral Human Development, directly addresses this challenge by providing clear and grounded definitions, explicit markers for assessing projects and policies, rich illuminations of authentic implementation, and examples of false steps and embedded biases. This is an invaluable companion for all scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers who stand on Integral Human Development as their guiding framework.” –Carolyn Woo, former President and CEO, Catholic Relief Services
