Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the practices and discourses of building professionals in urban Ethiopia. It shows how professional ethics and development-oriented entrepreneurship have provided building professionals with a moral leverage, while enabling them to disengage from addressing social inequalities.

Paper long abstract:

Notions of professional ethics, corporate responsibility and the rule of law have gained currency in shaping business practices among professional elites in urban Africa. Equity, legality, inclusive growth and quality service provision have entered the jargon of urban Africa's corporate and government institutions. This increasing emphasis on morality and ethics in business, however, has not necessarily resulted in a wider concern with questioning social inequalities and political authoritarianism. One might act morally and yet being complicit with the reproduction of inequalities and political authoritarianism. This paper examines the practices and discourses of building professionals, such as architects, urban planners and contractors, in a booming African metropolis, Addis Ababa. It shows how the increasing relevance of professional ethics, development-oriented business practices and quality management have provided building professionals with a moral leverage, while, however, enabling them to be disengaged from addressing social inequalities and political authoritarianism. For building professionals, inequalities are structural and inevitable and, by default, are no one's responsibility.