Constructing Moral Autonomy

This study analyzes how local development leaders in Uganda navigate and evaluate the moral ambiguities of their work, as they are situated between the demands of donor-driven development systems and their communities’ growing mistrust of foreign aid. Using 54 context-rich interviews with development professionals in the central region of the country, I analyze the reflexive-constructive moral work they engage in to describe their activity; and I show how they construct a sense of their own moral autonomy by working across institutional sectors, diversifying funding sources, and framing their activities in personal and relational terms. I also show how specific characteristics of the four main arenas where they operate—the local government, NGO, religious, and business sectors—produce certain advantages and disadvantages in this process and shape their moral constructions. The study therefore speaks to the cultural impacts of international development aid, and how local actors find ways to challenge, adapt, and expand the moral cultures of “development” work.