Trends in the Relationship Between Business and Society: Understanding the Past and Preparing for the Future

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiaan Luca ◽  
Marjolijn Vencken ◽  
Katinka van Cranenburgh ◽  
Juan Diego Borbor ◽  
Anthony Tchilinguirian
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Business And Society ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
The Public ◽  
Societal Pressure ◽  
Social License ◽  
Voluntary Guidelines

Abstract How can a business develop sustainable societal relationships in a world that is often described as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous? While public expectations of companies are complicated and continuously changing, there are clear underlying trends in modern society that shape this relationship. Understanding these trends allows a company to develop the capability of proactively managing societal relationships. The findings of the study are especially relevant for industries that visibly operate in the public space and should anticipate societal resistance. This paper first describes the societal trends that shaped the way people and organizations have interacted since the Second World War. In this period increasing environmental and social awareness and assertiveness developed along three evolutionary paths: –active public discourse that continuously pushes the boundaries of what is deemed acceptable and desirable, with increasing focus on human values and space for the individual;–industry sectors and international organizations that try to preempt new societal expectations with voluntary guidelines and self-regulation; and–governments that formalize important and matured parts of the public discourse and voluntary guidelines in laws and regulations. Secondly, the authors adopt a practical model to describe how companies have struggled to keep up with this continuously evolving and dynamic societal landscape due to lack of adaptation. An increasingly defensive and reactive business approach to societal pressure has led to a low point in trust from stakeholders. To regain trust and their social license to operate companies need to take a more proactive approach to societal relationships, which require both organizational and cultural change. Finally, the authors take the example from the safety journey, where the oil and gas industry has been very successful in demonstrating that excellence in safety is both a moral obligation and good for the bottom line. The same applies to excellence in societal relationships. Using the evolutionary model of safety culture with its maturity ladder as analogue, the authors provide a practical and value-driven framework to guide companies on their organizational and cultural change journey towards effective societal relationship management.

scholarly journals UNDERSTANDING LAW AND RELIGION AS CULTURE: MAKING ROOM FOR MEANING IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (1, 2 & 3) ◽  
pp. 2006
Author(s):  
Benjamin L. Berger
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
Important Relationship ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between law and religion in contemporary civil society has been a topic of increasing social interest and importance in Canada in the past many years. We have seen the practices and commitments of religious groups and individuals become highly salient on many issues of public policy, including the nature of the institution of marriage, the content of public education, and the uses of public space, to name just a few. As the vehicle for this discussion, I want to ask a straightforward question: When we listen to our public discourse, what is the story that we hear about the relationship between law and religion? How does this topic tend to be spoken about in law and politics – what is our idiom around this issue – and does this story serve us well? Though straightforward, this question has gone all but unanswered in our political and academic discussions. We take for granted our approach to speaking about – and, therefore, our way of thinking about – the relationship between law and religion. In my view, this is most unfortunate because this taken-for-grantedness is the source of our failure to properly understand the critically important relationship between law and religion.

scholarly journals ISLAM, AGAMA TOLERANSI DAN CINTA DAMAI : (TELAAH ATAS NOVEL AYAT-AYAT CINTA KARYA HABIBURRAHMAN EL SHIRAZY)

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-89
Author(s):  
Ahmad Yasid ◽  
Moh Juhdi
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Legal Rule ◽  
The Public ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Middle Way ◽  
History Of ◽  
Data Collection Technique ◽  
Role Of Religion

Abstract   Islam, religion of tolerance and love of peace is one of Habiburrahman El Shirazy’s, it is a study indicating the values ​​of love and tolerance of Islam in the modern public space area. This study used the underlying theory of the values ​​of love and tolerance as well as the role of Islam in modern times that has been developing in the public discourse that in the history of human civilization there are several things that must be understood that humans have the sense to differentiate between humans and other creatures. From this reason humans can do something to explore and explain things that are not known by others. The method that is used in data collection technique is documentation technique, because this study is descriptive qualitative. This study examines several things including the values of love and tolerance because accepting differences is a distinct pleasure for each particular societies in other words, not seeing other people as deviants or enemies but as partner to complement each other by having an equal position and equally valid and valuable as a way of managing life and living life both individually and collectively. Acceptance of differences demands changes in the legal rule in people's lives so that the role of religion in the modern public space area becomes a middle way to build diversity and a nature that must both appreciate and respect one another, this diversity is seen in the portrait of everyday life which then creates peace, and harmony in interacting with all elements of society.    

Public Engagement and Policy Entrepreneurship on Social Media in the Time of Anti-Vaccination Movements

2020 ◽  
pp. 60-80
Author(s):  
Melodie Yunju Song
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Competing Values ◽  
Mmr Vaccine ◽  
The Public ◽  
Coverage Rates

North America has experienced a resurgence of measles outbreak due to unprecedentedly low Mumps-Measles and Rubella vaccination coverage rates facilitated by the anti-vaccination movement. The objective of this chapter is to explore the new online public space and public discourse using Web 2.0 in the public health arena to answer the question, ‘What is driving public acceptance of or hesitancy towards the MMR vaccine?' More specifically, typologies of online public engagement will be examined using MMR vaccine hesitancy as a case study to illustrate the different approaches used by pro- and anti-vaccine groups to inform, consult with, and engage the public on a public health issue that has been the subject of long-standing public debate and confusion. This chapter provides an overview of the cyclical discourse of anti-vaccination movements. The authors hypothesize that anti-vaccination, vaccine hesitant, and pro-vaccination representations on the online public sphere are reflective of competing values (e.g., modernism, post-modernism) in contemporary society.

Fear Control in Media Discourse

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-219
Author(s):  
Davor Marko
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Public Language ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
And Control

This article deals with how fear is misused in media discourse. Pursuing the claim that it is impossible to eliminate fear from the public sphere, this paper argues that fear control is a technique widely used by certain interest groups to generate and spread uncertainty among people in order to create an atmosphere in which their goals are easily reachable. This paper will discuss the concepts of discourse, hegemony, and power relations in order to show how public language (both written and spoken) in media discourse reflects, creates, and maintains power relations. In this sense, fear, which is a crucial “energizing fuel” of such public language, could be considered and further elaborated as both a contextual variable and as a tool for facilitating power relations by applying various techniques. Aiming to show how media use and control the nature and level of fear in public discourse, I will discuss two techniques – the commercialization of fear and the method of “othering.” While commercialization implies the mass (re)production and (re)appropriation of fear in a public space, “othering” has been applied when the object of reporting is an out-group individual or community and self-group is using the media as a tool for their negative portrayal, thus creating boundaries and provoking discrimination and violence. The case of Serbia will be used to indicate how techniques of “othering,” linked with the regime’s propaganda, may contribute to the creation of an atmosphere of fear, and make a people seek protection and become easy prey for manipulation.

scholarly journals The 2015 nationwide referendum in Poland memes

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-42
Author(s):  
Maria Marczewska
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Specific Problem ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Broad Sense ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
Financial Costs ◽  
The Media

The aim of the article is to analyze memes associated with the nationwide referendum of 6 September 2015 in Poland. The memes are treated as part of the media discourse. Media discourse encompasses part of public discourse. In the broad sense, we are dealing with a collection of statements functioning in the public space and concerning a specific problem or its scope. There will be analyzed memes connected such issues as the reason/reasons for ordering the referendum, referendum questions, the financial costs incurred, and the referendum turnout. The article is divided into two parts: 1) theoretical consists of mem and referendum definition; 2) practical consists of the 6 September 2015 referendum in Poland in memes analyse. In the course of the research such questions will be answered: whether the memes became part of the general overtone of the discourse; whether they presented the main themes of the discourse and how they did this; which elements of the discourse were emphasized in the memes and which were omitted. In the research process the main themes of the discourse were distinguished, which were reflected in the memes.

Synthetic Biology between Self-Regulation and Public Discourse: Ethical Issues and the Many Roles of the Ethicist

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
GARDAR ARNASON
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
The Public ◽  
Biology I ◽  
Technical Issues ◽  
The Many

Abstract:This article discusses the roles of ethicists in the governance of synthetic biology. I am particularly concerned with the idea of self-regulation of bioscience and its relationship to public discourse about ethical issues in bioscience. I will look at the role of philosophical ethicists at different levels and loci, from the “embedded ethicist” in the laboratory or research project, to ethicists’ impact on policy and public discourse. In a democratic society, the development of governance frameworks for emerging technologies, such as synthetic biology, needs to be guided by a well-informed public discourse. In the case of synthetic biology, the public discourse has to go further than merely considering technical issues of biosafety and biosecurity, or risk management, to consider more philosophical issues concerning the meaning and value of “life” between the natural and the synthetic. I argue that ethicists have moral expertise to bring to the public arena, which consists not only in guiding the debate but also in evaluating arguments and moral positions and making normative judgments. When ethicists make normative claims or moral judgments, they must be transparent about their theoretical positions and basic moral standpoints.

scholarly journals The Individual and the Nation in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s Early Writing

Ars Aeterna ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
Simona Hevešiová
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Colonial Discourse ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Roots ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Postcolonial Writers

Abstract In its essence, postcolonial literature evolved as an opposition to colonial discourse and ideological representation of the colonized subject inherent in colonial narratives. Springing out of the need to reconceptualize and reconstitute their communities, postcolonial writers often addressed the pressing historical and political issues of that time in their writing. In its early stages, postcolonial literature was therefore often marked by a strong sense of nationalism, interweaving fictional stories with the public narrative of pre-independence ideology. The paper seeks to explore the border between the public and the private in the early novels of the Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. Just as his contemporaries in other colonized countries, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o tends to utilize literature as a powerful tool for raising national awareness. The pre-independence period, in which Ngũgĩ’s novels are set, is marked by a certain degree of romanticism and idealism, yet there is also an underlying sense of doom. Drawing on the cultural roots and mythology of his community, the writer steers his narrative in the direction of a larger, public discourse, suggesting that “the individual finds the fullest development of his personality when he is working in and for the community as a whole”. Therefore, the public/private dichotomy stands at the very centre of his writing, proving the rootedness of the individual in the public space.

scholarly journals What does “language” mean for its users? Constructing a theoretical model of a notion of language in the public space

2016 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Vuk Vukotić
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
Public Debates

Research into language ideologies is a fast growing field of research, especially within its critical paradigm, highlighting reproductions of dominant and often repressive ideologies about language (racism, sexism, nationalism, etc.). On the other hand, the other, cognitive paradigm has contributed to the field of language ideology by way of closer insights into the world of the speaker, providing a more subtle understanding of the cognitive processes at work behind attitudes to language and ideologies of language. Some of the studies employing the cognitive approach have also looked to how “language” is conceptualised in public discourse. In spite of the differences in the material and the foci in these studies, re-occurring patterns have begun to emerge. This paper offers a systematic review of these studies in order to answer the question “What elements of notions of language have been identified in the research on public debates about language?”. The aim of this review is to create a theoretical model of the “public notions of language”, which would explain differences in understanding of language in public debates. A total of 12 studies examining public notions of language have been collected, analysed and their findings synthesized into a model of a public notion of language. Three key elements construct the notion of language: (1) the function of language, (2) the identification of linguistic expertise, or who the bearer of true/good language is and (3) the identification of language variety which is representative of the language users.

scholarly journals INTERDISCURSIVITY, INTERTEXTUALITY AND PRECEDENT TEXTS IN THE WEBSITE FORUM MEDIALECT

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-78
Author(s):  
Oksana CHERVENKO ◽  
Snezhan VELIKOVA
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Communicative Behavior ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
The Public ◽  
Internet Media ◽  
Linguistic Behavior

is article analyzes the phenomena of interdiscursivity, intertextuality, precedent texts and their functions in the websites forum medialect, which could be described as an online space, where specific language usage related to internet communication is manifested. The main purpose is, firstly, to comment on these functions and, secondly, to analyze their relationship to participants’ linguistic behavior established around a specific news media in the public discourse. By presenting specific solutions, the article discusses the categories of intertextuality, interdiscursivity, precedent texts, and medialect. The illustrations for the analysis are taken from predominantly news-oriented online journalistic websites, and the article analyzes the speech behavior of the participants in the comment section medialect. Based on specific examples, the article draws conclusions about the role of the internet media in the use of the three phenomena and of the manifestations of the cooperative and masking functions performed by intertextuality, interdiscursivity and precedent texts included in the linguistic range of the commentators. The roles of the three categories in the formation of thecommunicative act and its outcome are commented in terms of topics that are sensitive for both journalists and the commentators of their articles. These are mainly topics that attract multiple comments due to their significance for a group of users or for the whole society, such as ethnic minorities, migration, corruption, political practices, political actors, etc. Furthermore, they manage to provoke the activity, dexterity, originality of the ones taking part in the communicative acts and thus to create favorable conditions to observe web specific linguistic practices; to track specific language usage and the communicative behavior of the addressers in the public space, observable in the internet media.

scholarly journals Symbolic Functions of Graffiti in Padang City of Indonesia: Critical Linguistic Landscape Studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Yendra Yendra ◽  
Ketut Artawa ◽  
I Nyoman Suparwa ◽  
Made Sri Satyawati
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
The Public ◽  
Landscape Studies ◽  
Qualitative Approaches ◽  
Written Form

This study concerned with language in written form that is visible as graffiti in the Padang city, Indonesia landscape. The mushroomed of graffiti in Padang city landscapes increasingly has been a growing problem in society. Even local government as the official authority has created some task to prohibit graffiti, but a new graffiti has always been emerging in public space. Therefore graffiti has been considered a crime. It is interesting to explore graffiti in Padang city landscapes from other perspectives, particularly the symbolic functions of graffiti. The study uses qualitative approaches by applying Critical Discourse Analysis. The result shows that graffiti in Padang city landscapes accomplished two principal symbolic functions; first graffiti as a medium of demonstration in which providing space for marginalized expression with the opportunity to voice controversial ideas publically; second graffiti as social critics in which providing input into the public discourse that is not concerned by other conventional media.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document