Corporate Soulcraft in the Age of Brutal Markets

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 109-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmer W. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Economic Organization ◽  
Efficient Production ◽  
Free Markets ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Church And Community ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Do So

The economic and political arguments for the market principle over alternative forms of economic organization are to my mind irrefutable. It is on the moral level that the perplexing concerns about capitalism center, concerns that have been raised from the beginnings of the industrial era down to the present time. This essay focuses on one major aspect of the ongoing moral test of capitalism: the test of whether our major corporations can both succeed in their profit-making efforts and also serve as one of society’s chief mediating structures that stand, like family, church and community, between the individual and the state. Should the corporation serve not simply as a utilitarian arrangement for the efficient production of high quality goods and services, but also as a moral community that shapes human character and behavior? How can it do so in this age of brutal markets?James Q. Wilson, professor of management at UCLA, has no doubt about the answer. In an article last year, he said: “The problem of imbuing large-scale enterprise with a decent moral life is fundamental.” Corporations “are systems of human action that cannot for long command the loyalty of their members if their standards of collective action are materially lower than those of their individual members.” Capitalists should recognize, he concluded, “that, while free markets will ruthlessly eliminate inefficient firms, the moral sentiments of man will only gradually and uncertainly penalize immoral ones. But, while the quick destruction of inefficient corporations threatens only individual firms, the slow anger at immoral ones threatens capitalism, and thus freedom itself.”

Political Responsiveness in a Patronage Democracy

2019 ◽  
pp. 38-70
Author(s):  
Jennifer Bussell
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Local Politicians ◽  
Village Council ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Citizen Interactions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Level

This chapter draws on accounts from sustained, in-depth shadowing of Indian politicians, as well as large-scale politician surveys, to characterize the nature of politicians’ engagement with their constituents. It highlights the importance these politicians place on making time for citizen interactions and responding to requests—to the extent that high-level politicians spend, on average, a quarter of their time interacting with individual citizens. Critically, the primary focus of these contacts is requests for assistance with the same types of goods and services that are typically also requested of local politicians such as village council presidents, providing preliminary evidence that demands may at least partially originate from individuals’ failure to acquire these benefits at the local level—a topic to which the book later turns. Chapter 2 also shows that the individual benefits directly provided to citizens by high-level politicians are substantial.

Land Use Change and Commodity Frontiers

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Cáceres ◽  
Esteban Tapella ◽  
Diego A. Cabrol ◽  
Lucrecia Estigarribia
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Fast Pace ◽  
Forest Use ◽  
The Government ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Management Recommendations

Argentina is experiencing an expansion of soya and maize cultivation that is pushing the agricultural frontier over areas formerly occupied by native Chaco forest. Subsistance farmers use this dry forest to raise goats and cattle and to obtain a broad range of goods and services. Thus, two very different and non-compatible land uses are in dispute. On the one hand subsistance farmers fostering an extensive and diversified forest use, on the other hand, large-scale producers who need to clear out the forest to sow annual crops in order to appropriate soil fertility. First, the paper looks at how these social actors perceive Chaco forest, what their interests are, and what kind of values they attach to it. Second, we analyze the social-environmental conflicts that arise among actors in order to appropriate forest’s benefits. Special attention is paid to the role played by the government in relation to: (a) how does it respond to the demands of the different sectors; and (b) how it deals with the management recommendations produced by scientists carrying out social and ecological research. To put these ideas at test we focus on a case study located in Western Córdoba (Argentina), where industrial agriculture is expanding at a fast pace, and where social actors’ interests are generating a series of disputes and conflicts. Drawing upon field work, the paper shows how power alliances between economic and political powers, use the institutional framework of the State in their own benefit, disregarding wider environmental and social costs. 

Communicating moral reasoning in medicine as an expression of respect for patients and integrity among professionals

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauris Christopher Kaldjian
Keyword(s):  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Moral Reasons ◽  
Moral Pluralism ◽  
Moral Integrity ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Moral Framework ◽  
Beliefs And Values ◽  
Moral Frameworks ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Do So

The communication of moral reasoning in medicine can be understood as a means of showing respect for patients and colleagues through the giving of moral reasons for actions. This communication is especially important when disagreements arise. While moral reasoning should strive for impartiality, it also needs to acknowledge the individual moral beliefs and values that distinguish each person (moral particularity) and give rise to the challenge of contrasting moral frameworks (moral pluralism). Efforts to communicate moral reasoning should move beyond common approaches to principles-based reasoning in medical ethics by addressing the underlying beliefs and values that define our moral frameworks and guide our interpretations and applications of principles. Communicating about underlying beliefs and values requires a willingness to grapple with challenges of accessibility (the degree to which particular beliefs and values are intelligible between persons) and translatability (the degree to which particular beliefs and values can be transposed from one moral framework to another) as words and concepts are used to communicate beliefs and values. Moral dialogues between professionals and patients and among professionals themselves need to be handled carefully, and sometimes these dialogues invite reference to underlying beliefs and values. When professionals choose to articulate such beliefs and values, they can do so as an expression of respectful patient care and collaboration and as a means of promoting their own moral integrity by signalling the need for consistency between their own beliefs, words and actions.

Models, Practices and Methods of Reading: Evolution in Time and Space

2009 ◽  
pp. 59-64
Author(s):  
Yulia P. Melentyeva
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
National Program ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
The Individual

In recent years as public in general and specialist have been showing big interest to the matters of reading. According to discussion and launch of the “Support and Development of Reading National Program”, many Russian libraries are organizing the large-scale events like marathons, lecture cycles, bibliographic trainings etc. which should draw attention of different social groups to reading. The individual forms of attraction to reading are used much rare. To author’s mind the main reason of such an issue has to be the lack of information about forms and methods of attraction to reading.

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its Sulphate (DHEAS) in Alzheimer’s Disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dubravka S. Strac ◽  
Marcela Konjevod ◽  
Matea N. Perkovic ◽  
Lucija Tudor ◽  
Gordana N. Erjavec ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Therapeutic Potential ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Brain Functions ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
And Behavior

Background: Neurosteroids Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulphate (DHEAS) are involved in many important brain functions, including neuronal plasticity and survival, cognition and behavior, demonstrating preventive and therapeutic potential in different neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. Objective: The aim of the article was to provide a comprehensive overview of the literature on the involvement of DHEA and DHEAS in Alzheimer’s disease. Method: PubMed and MEDLINE databases were searched for relevant literature. The articles were selected considering their titles and abstracts. In the selected full texts, lists of references were searched manually for additional articles. Results: We performed a systematic review of the studies investigating the role of DHEA and DHEAS in various in vitro and animal models, as well as in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and provided a comprehensive discussion on their potential preventive and therapeutic applications. Conclusion: Despite mixed results, the findings of various preclinical studies are generally supportive of the involvement of DHEA and DHEAS in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease, showing some promise for potential benefits of these neurosteroids in the prevention and treatment. However, so far small clinical trials brought little evidence to support their therapy in AD. Therefore, large-scale human studies are needed to elucidate the specific effects of DHEA and DHEAS and their mechanisms of action, prior to their applications in clinical practice.

Conclusions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff Moore
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Organizational Ethics ◽  
Stakeholder Approach ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Do So

The purpose of the concluding chapter is to review and draw some conclusions from all that has been covered in previous chapters. To do so, it first summarizes the MacIntyrean virtue ethics approach, particularly at the individual level. It then reconsiders the organizational and managerial implications, drawing out some of the themes which have emerged from the various studies which have been explored particularly in Chapters 8 and 9. In doing so, the chapter considers a question which has been implicit in the discussions to this point: how feasible is all of this, particularly for organizations? In the light of that, it revisits the earlier critique of current approaches to organizational ethics (Corporate Social Responsibility and the stakeholder approach), before concluding.

The Nature of Time

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald C. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Dimensional Manifold ◽  
Nature Of Time ◽  
Manifold Theory ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Theoretical Cost ◽  
Do So

This chapter provides a fuller treatment of the pure manifold theory with an expanded discussion of competing doctrines. It is argued that competing doctrines fail to account for the extensive and/or transitory aspect(s) of time, or they do so at great theoretical cost. The pure manifold theory accounts for the extensive aspect of time because it admits a four-dimensional manifold and it accounts for the transitory aspect of time because it hypothesizes that the increase of entropy is the thing that is ‘felt’ in veridical cases of felt passage. A four-dimensionalist theory of time travel is outlined, along with a sketch of large-scale cosmological traits of the universe.

Temporal Focus

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abbie J. Shipp
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Psychology Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
The Future ◽  
Behavior Based ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Temporal Focus

Temporal focus is the individual tendency to characteristically think more or less about the past, present, and future. Although originally rooted in early work from psychology, research on temporal focus has been steadily growing in a number of research areas, particularly since Zimbardo and Boyd’s (1999) influential article on the topic. This chapter will review temporal focus research from the past to the present, including how temporal focus has been conceptualized and measured, and which correlates and outcomes have been tested in terms of well-being and behavior. Based on this review, an agenda for research is created to direct temporal focus research in the future.

Individual Uniqueness in the Neonatal Functional Connectome

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiushi Wang ◽  
Yuehua Xu ◽  
Tengda Zhao ◽  
Zhilei Xu ◽  
Yong He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Individual Identification ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Functional Connectome ◽  
Middle Range ◽  
Human Connectome Project ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Identification Analysis ◽  
The Brain

Abstract The functional connectome is highly distinctive in adults and adolescents, underlying individual differences in cognition and behavior. However, it remains unknown whether the individual uniqueness of the functional connectome is present in neonates, who are far from mature. Here, we utilized the multiband resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 40 healthy neonates from the Developing Human Connectome Project and a split-half analysis approach to characterize the uniqueness of the functional connectome in the neonatal brain. Through functional connectome-based individual identification analysis, we found that all the neonates were correctly identified, with the most discriminative regions predominantly confined to the higher-order cortices (e.g., prefrontal and parietal regions). The connectivities with the highest contributions to individual uniqueness were primarily located between different functional systems, and the short- (0–30 mm) and middle-range (30–60 mm) connectivities were more distinctive than the long-range (>60 mm) connectivities. Interestingly, we found that functional data with a scanning length longer than 3.5 min were able to capture the individual uniqueness in the functional connectome. Our results highlight that individual uniqueness is present in the functional connectome of neonates and provide insights into the brain mechanisms underlying individual differences in cognition and behavior later in life.

A Case Study Demonstrating the Utility of Surveillance Video in Assessing Gait Dynamics and Behavior During a Slip and Fall

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 550-554
Author(s):  
Leah S. Hartman ◽  
Stephanie A. Whetsel Borzendowski ◽  
Alan O. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Human Factors ◽  
Gait Pattern ◽  
Personal Injury ◽  
Objective Data ◽  
Surveillance Video ◽  
Gait Dynamics ◽  
Fall Incident ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Behavior

As the use of surveillance video at commercial properties becomes more prevalent, it is more likely an incident involving a personal injury will be captured on film. This provides a unique opportunity for Human Factors practitioners involved in forensic investigations to analyze the behavior of the individual prior to, during, and after the event in question. It also provides an opportunity to gather unique and objective data. The present work describes a case study of a slip and fall where surveillance video and onsite measurements were combined and analyzed to quantify a plaintiff’s gait pattern. Using this type of analysis, we were able to determine that the plaintiff was likely aware that the floor was slippery and adjusted her gait and behavior prior to the slip and fall incident.

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