That Stubborn ‘doing good?’ question: Ethical/Epistemological concerns in the study of NGOs

Abstract

A ‘practice’ approach to the professionalization of Latin American feminist NGOs is applied to the study of one NGO in Medellín, Colombia. Instead of asking whether such NGOs are ‘doing good,’ I suggest an approach emphasizing the political economic context and negotiated, constructed quality of women's lived experience of shifting NGO strategies. I explore ethical and epistemological difficulties with the ‘doing good?’ question.

Keywords:

• NGOs
• development
• feminism
• Latin America