Description
Scholars have commonly defined INGOs by their ‘ascribed’ moral quality deriving from the noble causes they advocate. Nevertheless, this has been questioned due to growing INGOs professionalization exemplified in recruiting professionals and prioritising the relationship between their donors and beneficiaries whilst neglecting wider publics, whether card-carrying or unaffiliated supporters whose altruistic virtue represents the ‘moral backbone’ of any organizations relying on donations, volunteers and media image. This oversight risks perpetuating power-relations which sideline ‘wider publics’ as passive actors in guiding INGOs’ working vision and undermines their moral quality. Meanwhile, the ‘practice turn’ in IR unearthed pragmatism as a method of inquiry, emphasising the role of individuals’ moral conditions as guarantors of institutional processes by tracing the social conditions that permeate their social experiences, namely habituated and reflexive forms of action in imagining their practical implications. This questions how pragmatism can rediscover INGOs’ moral quality. By unpacking Dewey’s pragmatism, this paper argues that pragmatism can inform INGOs’ moral quality by mapping individuals’ social experiences of ethical development. Against revelations of normalised workplace abuse, malpractice and exclusion, it becomes paramount to apply pragmatism to integrate ‘wider publics’ when seeking to define INGOs’ moral quality and their broader normative role in international relations.
