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This paper presents a ground-up conceptualisation of 'dignity' that is rooted in the voices, experiences and relationships of those whose dignity development programs often seek to enhance. It presents a framework based on relationality, and the negotiation for recognition and autonomy within that.
Dignity is a key political value and goal, central to various constitutions, international agreements, laws, projects and professional standards. However, rarely have there been efforts to define and understand dignity, especially in the voices of vulnerable and marginalised populations. As a result, dignity either remains as an ephemeral principle, or a paternalistic top-down form of social work, policy and practice. Based on over two years of ethnographic and qualitative research with urban slum dwellers in India, I aim to create an operational framework to understand and analyse dignity as a combination of recognition, relationality and autonomy. This framework, based in the voices, experiences and relationships of those whose dignity policy seeks to ‘enhance’, aims to inform more robust and relational social work and policy practice.