Towards a Post-Structuralist Development Ethics? Alterity or the same?

The validity of development has been cast into doubt by postmodern critiques that have highlighted its failings. Attempts to rehabilitate the idea of development have brought ethics into play. This paper examines attempts to identify a viable basis for development based on post-structuralist ethical theories developed by analysts such as Levinas and Derrida that privilege the concept of alterity, or respect for the other. This approach is contrasted with Badiou's influential critique of an alterity-based ethics, critically examining his alternative of an ethics of the same. The article concludes by incorporating some of Badiou's insights into a reformulated ethics of alterity.