Guest editorial

Citation

Anand, P.B. and Gasper, D. (2007), "Guest editorial", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 34 No. 1/2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijse.2007.00634aaa.001

Guest editorial

This set of papers derives from a joint workshop of two study groups of the Development Studies Association of the UK and Ireland – the Group on Development Ethics and its sister on Environment and Sustainable Development – which was held at St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge, on 26-28 March 2006. It is the first of two sets of papers from the meeting. The second set will appear in the Journal of International Development later in 2007.

The two study groups had long seen strong connections between their core interests and are very satisfied by the outcome of the cooperation. A call for proposals brought a large response, from which a selection was made with reference both to inherent promise and to the interconnections between the two groups' concerns. This led to a workshop programme with 20 papers under four headings:

1. 1.

   goods, rights and well-being;

2. 2.

   security and insecurity;

3. 3.

   public goods and the millennium development goals; and

4. 4.

   governance.

All papers had relevance to at least one other of these headings, which contributed to rewarding discussions at the workshop and in the follow-up.

In this set the papers respond singly and collectively to the challenge identified in the title: “Living in common and deliberating in common – foundational issues for sustainable human development and human security”. The opening paper, “Goods and persons, reasons and responsibilities” draws out the main themes and lines of argument.

We gratefully acknowledge the warm hospitality and contribution in organising the workshop from Flavio Comim and Angels Varea of the Capability and Sustainability Centre, St Edmund's College. We also acknowledge with thanks the contributions of all those who participated in the workshop and the financial sponsorship of the Development Studies Association.

P.B. AnandBradford Centre for International Development, University of Bradford, UK, and Des GasperInstitute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands