ABSTRACT
The subject of the ethics of "development", understood as one of the major forms of contemporary social change, is, if not yet mainstream in development studies, at least an accepted part of the field. The same cannot, however, be said of what should perhaps be its partner in the humanizing of development theory, policy and practice notably development aesthetics. The cultivation of aesthetic appreciation is in principle one means of not simply practicing self-cultivation, but a way of seeing the world such that its own depth and beauty become central to the individual's project of being-in-the-world. Awareness rather than the possession of things, then becomes the dominant mode of cultural practice. Aesthetic deprivation, ignored as a factor or imposed actively by the ugliness of much development practice, is as much a violation of human rights as the deprivation of physical liberty, and conversely the presence of aesthetic qualities in the environment is a source of fundamental satisfactions.
