Dignity of Severely and Terminally Ill Persons at the End of Life. Theoretical Framework for Empirical Research

The content of the concept of dignity and its application in empirical health research is widely debated and there is no consensus on the issue. The aim of this article is to provide a theoretical framework for empirical research on the assessment of the dignity of people with severe and incurable diseases at the end of their lives. Although the results of qualitative research in various countries show that the concept of dignity significantly correlates with indicators of autonomy, we argue that even if a relational autonomy approach that, compared with the classic concept of authonomy, is more reliable, still it addresses individual self-determination as a core element. So, the relational autonomy perspective disregards individuals who have lost rational thinking skills. Therefore, in research on the dignity of people with severe and incurable diseases, autonomy can be considered as a necessary but not sufficient component of operationalization of the concept of dignity. In our view, the relational authonomy approach could be supplemented with the care ethic approach. It leads to de-universalization of care needs, takes into account sociocultural context, individual situatedness, etc. We argue that the relational perspective which integrates the care ethic approach enables researchers to reveal multivocality of dignity which must become a central premise of dignity research.

Vulnerability as a Virtue: An Attempt to Transpose the Care Ethic in International Law

The utilisation of the concept of vulnerability in international law has risen exponentially. This contribution intends to analyse the issues underlying this phenomenon. Vulnerability is frequently used in a functional manner in order to enhance the protection of individuals. Therefore, even if vulnerability has been initially developed as a non-legal concept, it has now become integrated into legal discourse. As it inevitably supposes the contributions of other disciplines such as moral philosophy and legal sociology, vulnerability reshapes the ways in which individuals are protected by law. Hence, the reconsideration of several concepts, especially individual autonomy and international responsibility, paves the way for better protection of individuals.

Compassion in the Garden: Radical Homemakers or Just More Women’s Work?

Compassion is key to Australian women’s garden stories and return-to-the-home environmentalism. These stories highlight the gendered power implications of women’s work. Questions about who is suffering and who is caring are paramount. Women’s garden narratives are hopeful: they capture the interconnection between the local and global and the ethics of care promoted by ecofeminists. Yet when women gardeners embrace a care ethic which sees their own domestic workload skyrocket in order to alleviate environmental suffering, their compassion stories risk becoming what Lauren Berlant terms ‘collective norms of obligation’. Through aural storytelling in Pip permaculture magazine podcasts, women gardeners consider how the responsibility of ordinary, caring garden work fits within their already numerous, significant, and everyday caring responsibilities. Their collaboration reveals innovative solutions to this conundrum. Their compassionate garden work becomes a domestic practice of time, effort, and joy.

Feminist reflections on discourses of (power) + (sharing) in power-sharing theory

A recent call by some feminist conflict mediation practitioners proposes to rename power-sharing: either by prioritizing sharing over power or by replacing ‘power’ with the word ‘responsibility’. The purpose of these discursive reformulations is to move beyond just adding women to power-sharing institutions; instead, these proposals signal a desire to promote inclusion through a feminist emphasis on sharing in power-sharing systems above a masculinist emphasis on power. Inspired by these proposals and reflecting on the experiences of gender mediation experts, I work through critical feminist theories of intersectionality and feminist empowerment to show how power-sharing theory can be reimagined so that power is not just understood as coercive or as a finite resource that can only be divided between a limited number of privileged groups; rather, power can also be productive, as well as a central feature of all hierarchical relationships. I also explore how a feminist care ethic can offer alternative ways of conceiving of sharing in governance. My objective is to demonstrate how feminist approaches can provide a new language of both power and sharing to illuminate pathways through the ‘exclusion amid inclusion’ dilemma in power-sharing theory.

The role of accounting in mediating empathic care for the “other”

Purpose This paper hypothesizes that a system of accounting underpinned by attributions of harm has the capacity, more than conventional accounting, to elicit empathic concern among managers, by becoming the mediating link between organisational responsibility and concern for the “other”. Design/methodology/approach The literature-inspired reflections presented in this paper stem from the theoretical perspective of care-ethics supported by the notions of empathy and proximity to highlight how the propensity to empathise is mediated by attributions of harm and responsibility. Findings The proposed “new” accounting, coined “connected accounting” is proposed because of its potential to make visible the neglected and marginalised segments of society that presently lie hidden in conventional accounting. Accounting for the effects of organisational practice on people and society is expected to strengthen the care-ethic relationship between key actors – managers, accountants and stakeholders. Research limitations/implications The paper is limited by the assumptions that underpin the conceptualised notion of “Connected Accounting”. Originality/value This essay introduces to the accounting ethics literature the role of emotion and empathic care in accounting, including sociological aspects of accounting reflecting the ongoing quest for understanding the processes and consequences of accounting as a social practice.

Navigating Moral Reasoning in Mediation

This chapter examines the importance of understanding of moral reasoning processes in individuals involved in mediation. It discusses Lawrence Kohlberg's model of moral reasoning and applies it to a case study of a workplace dispute. The chapter also discusses the care ethic versus justice ethic debate put forth by feminist psychologists challenging mainstream theories of moral reasoning. The chapter concludes by examining the impact of moral reasoning processes on mediation and how it might lead to re-imagining the skill set needed mediate conflict effectively (i.e., skills that involve emotional intelligence).

Care Ethics and Obligations to Future Generations

A dominant area of inquiry within intergenerational ethics concerns how goods (and bads) ought to be justly distributed between noncontemporaries. Contractualist theories of justice that have broached these discussions have often centered on the concepts of mutual advantage and (indirect) reciprocal cooperation between rational, self‐interested beings. However, another prominent reason that many in the present feel that they have obligations toward future generations is not due to self‐interested reciprocity, but simply because they care about what happens to them. Care ethics promises to be conceptually well‐suited for articulating this latter reason: given that future generations are in a perpetual condition of dependency on present‐day people's actions, this is precisely the kind of relational structure that care theorists should be interested in morally evaluating. Unfortunately, the care literature has been largely silent on intergenerational ethics. This article aims to advance this literature, offering the blueprints of what a care ethic concerning future generations—a “future care ethic”—should look like. The resultant ethic defends a sufficientarian theory of obligation: people in the present ought to ensure the conditions needed to encourage and sustain a world that enables good caring relations to flourish.