Cook-Lundgren, E and Girei, E (2024) Ethics of Quantification and Randomised Control Trials in International Development: A Decolonial Analysis. Journal of Business Ethics. ISSN 0167-4544

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Abstract

In this article, we examine the ethical implications of randomised control trials (RCTs) as a practice of quantification in international development. Often referred to as the “gold standard” for the evaluation of development interventions, RCTs are lauded for their ability to generate supposedly objective, unbiased, and rigorous evidence to inform policy decisions for poverty alleviation. At the same time, critiques of quantification within and beyond development challenge claims of objectivity and neutrality, raising epistemological and ethical questions regarding the role of quantitative research, the numbers they produce, and the processes triggered by practices of quantification. Building on these critiques, this study develops a decolonial analysis of the RCT methodology. We argue that RCTs, by enacting the coloniality of being, knowledge, and power, serve to perpetuate global coloniality, and its core organising principle, namely colonial difference. The study contributes to ongoing conversations addressing the ethical stakes of knowledge production and (de)coloniality.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Ethics of Quantification; Randomised Control Trials; Coloniality/Modernity; Decolonial Thinking; International Development; 1503 Business and Management; 1505 Marketing; 2201 Applied Ethics; Applied Ethics
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics
Divisions:	Liverpool Business School
Publisher:	Springer
SWORD Depositor:	A Symplectic
Date Deposited:	11 Jun 2024 15:10
Last Modified:	11 Jun 2024 15:10
DOI or ID number:	10.1007/s10551-024-05684-1
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/23305

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