scholarly journals Implementing University Social Responsibility in the Caribbean: Perspectives of Internal Stakeholders

Author(s):  
Lina M. Gomez ◽  
Yanitzary Alvarado Naveira ◽  
Aileen Pujols Bernabel

University Social Responsibility (USR) is the ethical and transparent management of the administrative, educational, cognitive and social processes carried out by a higher education institution. More and more universities are practicing USR not only in Latin America but also in the United States and Europe, in order to reduce the negative impacts their daily operations can have on different stakeholders and on a macro level on society, the economy, and the environment. However, despite existing knowledge in the implementation of USR in Latin America and the Caribbean, there are few empirical studies that analyze the positions of diverse internal stakeholders regarding USR practices mainly in the Caribbean. Therefore, this study analyzes the perspectives of the internal stakeholders in social responsibility initiatives and processes at a private university in Puerto Rico. A total of 533 participants (356 students, 99 administrative staff, and 78 faculty members) were interviewed and were given a questionnaire, which evaluated the following areas: responsible campus, professional and citizenship education, social knowledge management, and social participation. Overall, the internal stakeholders’ perceptions were consistent among the three groups. It can be observed that the various internal stakeholders are aware of what it means—in theory, and in practice—, to be a socially-responsible university, although they also recognize opportunities for improvement and future challenges regarding USR. The results of this study contribute to the literature, to the application of conceptual models—mainly from the perspectives of internal stakeholders—and to the importance of evaluating USR practices.

Author(s):  
Ricardo Gaete Quezada

Latin American higher education in recent decades has experienced the main world trends, relative to the massification of student access, insufficient state funding, increase of private institutions in the tertiary education system, as well as a regional debate on its consideration as a good public guaranteed by the State, increasing the relevance of the university mission in solving global needs. Through the comparative method developed through a documentary analysis, the influence in Latin America of the Supranational Policy on social responsibility of UNESCO higher education institutions is analyzed. The results show this influence in the Region, through the Declarations of the UNESCO World Conferences on Higher Education, materialized in the actions developed by the International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC), such as the holding of the Regional Conferences on Higher Education or the creation of the Regional Observatory of Social Responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean (ORSALC). In addition, there is an academic debate between the concept of university social responsibility, established in the Region since the beginning of the new Millennium, related to managing the impacts of university work on its stakeholders, evolving towards the recognition of higher education as a good public and a human right as an expression of a territorial social responsibility, effectively contributing to the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. It is concluded that the analyzed Supranational Policy must consolidate its influence in the Region in the long term, by implementing some actions key strategies, such as strengthening the Latin American Higher Education Area or research on the contributions that Latin American universities must make to effectively guarantee higher education as a common good in the Region. 


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 177-196
Author(s):  
Monica Hirst

As is the case with other regions, in Latin America and the Caribbean, multilateral peace missions are subordinated to norms and expectations of specific mandates. Yet, post-Cold War peace missions in Latin America and the Caribbean share circumstances that are unique to this region. This article seeks to offer a sequenced overview of three scenarios – Central America, Haiti and Colombia – to show how these circumstances interplay as shaping factors in regional peace missions. Three circumstances are highlighted: i) the strategic irrelevance of the region; ii) the preeminence of the United States in Latin America and the Caribbean; iii) the response capacity of Latin American governments. These three are addressed as the core cast of determinants in post-conflict contexts in Latin America and Caribbean. This article explores how these circumstances have adapted in time producing reiterative dynamics attuned to international and regional changing landscapes. Even though the Colombian experience should be considered “an open case”, its inclusion contributes to enrich this argument. Final reflections raise the question if these circumstances explain as well the failures and reversed expectations of regional peace processes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 67-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Mikołajek-Gocejna

Socially responsible investment (SRI) has experienced strong growth in recent years. In 2012, $1 out of every $9 US assets under professional management was invested in some form of sustainable investment. Global sustainable investment assets have expanded dramatically, rising from $13.3 trillion at the outset of 2012 to reach a total of $21.4 trillion at the start of 2014. Most of the SRI assets are in Europe (63.7 percent), but the relative contribution of the United States has increased from 28.2 percent in 2012 to 30.8 percent in 2014, and over this two-year period, the fastest growing region has been the United States, followed by Canada and Europe. These three regions are also the largest regions in terms of assets, accounting for 99 percent of global SRI.With this growth one most important issues is whether it pays for organizations to concern themselves with social responsibility, and whether there are any tradeoffs to sustainable investing. Much of the present research on this question is based on the views of Friedman and Freeman. But changes in economic development, national and local security, and the growing expectations of stakeholders influence how social performance is defined, and thus corporate performance as well.The aim of this article is to examine correlations between CSR and financial corporate performance, based on empirical studies conducted by other authors in different countries. In total, the analysis comprises 53 studies and the results obtained for 16,119 companies.


Author(s):  
Carlos Oliva Campos ◽  
Gary Prevost

The uniting core of all the Cuban revolutionary government’s unfolding politics toward Latin American and Caribbean countries has been based on three foundational tenets: the staunch defense of a unified perspective that spans national to regional; the recovery of the historic principles of regional integration defended by Simón Bolívar and José Martí, and the unalterable anti-imperialist position of its international relations. Unlike the enormous negative impacts that the demise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Eastern-European socialism caused Cuba, the new political and geo-economic scene of the post–Cold War turned out to be very favorable for a Cuban government that shifted to redefine its relationships with Latin America and the Caribbean. This was strengthened by the victory of progressive and leftist governments in influential countries such as Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela. The new regional circumstances have been the most propitious for the development of the integrationist vision historically supported by the Cuban Revolution.


Subject Growing remittances to Latin America. Significance Family remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have been growing strongly in a year when immigration has become a central and controversial election issue in the United States. Impacts Strong remittance growth will have a positive impact on millions of low-income families in the region. A Trump presidency could lead to reduced LAC-US migration and a tax on remittances, probably slowing growth in 2017-18. LAC migrants and their families are set to benefit further from an expected continuing fall in sending costs.


1965 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 714-727
Author(s):  
Bryce Wood ◽  
Minerva Morales M.

When the governments of the Latin American states were taking part in the negotiations leading to the founding of the UN, they could hardly have done so with nostalgic memories of the League of Nations. The League had provided no protection to the Caribbean countries from interventions by the United States, and, largely because of United States protests, it did not consider the Tacna-Arica and Costa Rica-Panama disputes in the early 1920's. Furthermore, Mexico had not been invited to join; Brazil withdrew in 1926; and Argentina and Peru took little part in League affairs. The organization was regarded as being run mainly for the benefit of European states with the aid of what Latin Americans called an “international bureaucracy,” in which citizens from the southern hemisphere played minor roles. The United States was, of course, not a member, and both the reference to the Monroe Doctrine by name in Article 21 of the Covenant and the organization's practice of shunning any attempt to interfere in inter-American affairs against the wishes of the United States made the League in its first decade a remote and inefficacious institution to countries that were seriously concerned about domination by Washington.


1998 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria da Gloria Miotto Wright ◽  
Charles Godue ◽  
Maricel Manfredi ◽  
Denise M. Korniewicz

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