Many faith‐based organisations engaging in development are contesting not only the practical implications of reductionist development policies, but also questioning the very political and ideological assumptions behind them.
Human flourishing is one alternative reimagining of development, put forward by some faith‐based organisations, which seeks to shed light on the limitations of existing mainstream development paradigms that fail to take into account relational dimensions of wellbeing and its non‐material aspects. However, knowledge of faith‐inspired reimaginings of development is still marginal, and the dynamics behind this have as much to do with the positionality and standpoint of the actors as with the very substance of the agenda being put forward, whether in terms of alternative visions or critiques to existing ones.
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This article comes from the IDS Bulletin 42.5 (2011) The Faith Factor in Reimagining Development
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