Ethical Enterprise Research Articles

Fostering Medical Students’ Commitment to Beneficence in Ethics Education

Fostering Medical Students’ Commitment to Beneficence in Ethics Education

Thinking Medium: A Design-based Critique of Nudge Theory

Mainstream economic thought rests on a picture of human actors as rational, calculating, and selfish. Since the 1980’s, the sub-discipline of behavioral economics has challenged mainstream economic thought by revealing limitations in the ordinary person’s ability to reason as orthodox theory predicts. People’s choices are influenced by the manner in which options are presented. And since many of the choices people make involve basic dimensions of moral life, including the chooser’s autonomy and general welfare, the structuring of choice situations is an irreducibly ethical enterprise. These topics are explored in “nudge theory,” which represents an attempt to understand the implications of behavioral economics for people involved in the shaping of others’ decisions. Nudge theory proposes that professional designers should structure choice situations on behalf of others in a paternalistic way: leveraging the designers’ expertise and superior knowledge to promote outcomes that serve choosers’ long-term interests. In this paper, the co-authors agree that paternalism can be a valid approach to ethical design practice in a limited range of cases. But in general, the program of “libertarian paternalism” advocated by nudge theorists represents a failure of imagination that arbitrarily forecloses opportunities for collective decision-making and reinforces unhealthy social divisions. Instead, a greater sensitivity to the potential of design thinking, specifically its capacity to incorporate a wide range of heterogeneous factors and perspectives, is a key to the ethical deployment of nudges. Design itself is the best answer to the question: how can economic thought register the results of the behavioral sciences in a thoughtful, creative, and defensible way? Through a series of examples drawn from the literature, the co-authors present a design-based critique of nudge theory, illustrating the interdisciplinary potential of design and aspects of the role design thinking may play in creating more harmonious and unified societies.

Galvanising Youth Engagement in Fair Trade: Lessons from the FTIS 2023 workshop

Abstract This article reflects on the outcomes of a workshop at the Fair Trade International Symposium in June 2023 which explored some of the ways young people are engaging in Fair Trade. Campaigners recognize the importance of giving leadership responsibilities to young people with fresh ideas and social connections to help expand the Fair Trade movement. There are opportunities to engage young people through the connections between Fair Trade and the environmental and social issues that young people are passionate about today. The workshop showcased three such initiatives: a climate and food security debate; an ethical enterprise project; and Fairtrade Fortnight events at the University of Leeds. Through these initiatives young people learned about trade (in)justice and gained a deeper understanding of the root causes of sustainability issues, whilst gaining transferable skills and building competencies to work collaboratively and creatively. Engaging with Fair Trade can provide young people with experiential learning opportunities that forward the goals of the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) agenda and promote the relevance of the Fair Trade movement to a younger generation.

Whose voices are being heard? A scoping review of research on school experiences among persons with autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

ABSTRACT The purpose of this scoping review is to critically examine empirical research that draws on first-person experiences of schooling among students with autism or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as to map whose voices are heard in research and where the current knowledge gaps are. The review examined key characteristics of this body of research in relation to the publication context and research methodology. Studies were identified through a systematic scoping review of research published between January 2000 and December 2021 in four electronic databases and a subsequent ancestry search. Fifty-eight articles met the inclusion criteria. The results show an increased research interest in first-person accounts of schooling from 2016 onwards. The autism voice dominated over ADHD and was strongly skewed towards the academically able group. There was an overrepresentation of boys and secondary school children across the studies. Characteristics such as the child’s social class, ethnicity and socioeconomic background were largely neglected, with details associated with the diagnosis being foregrounded. Interviewing was the main method used, and student perspectives were often accompanied by other data sources. The article concludes with a discussion on the silencing of already marginalised sub-groups and the importance of approaching research as an ethical enterprise.

HIV HGM biobank as a research platform for paediatric infectious diseases and COVID-19 pandemic

AimThe initial cases of COVID-19 appeared in December 2019 and Spain was one of the most affected countries during the first wave (March to June). Since then, HIV HGM BioBank has been restructured as an established Paediatrics and Adults HIV_COVID-19 BioBank that aims at the long-term storage of samples obtained from not only HIV-1, but also from COVID-19 patients and HIV-1_COVID-19 coinfected patients.MethodsHIV HGM BioBank holds high quality biological samples from newborns, children, adolescents and adults with their associated clinical data. Research groups trying to establish large networks focused on research on specific clinical problems in epidemiology, biology, routes of transmission and therapies, are potential users of the clinical samples and of associated data of HIV-1_COVID-19 HGM BioBank.ResultsThe HIV HGM BioBank is an academic and ethical enterprise complying with all the legal regulatory rules to provide service to the society. HIV_COVID-19 HGM BioBank has been repurposed to offer an important resource for global research of COVID-19 in newborns, children, adolescents, adults and elders to study the biological effect of the pandemic.ConclusionHerein, we present a description of how HIV HGM BioBank has rapidly become an indispensable structure in modern biomedical research, including COVID-19 research.

A CSR Perspective to Drive Employee Creativity in the Hospitality Sector: A Moderated Mediation Mechanism of Inclusive Leadership and Polychronicity

The hospitality sector, especially the hotel business, is at a crossroads. Dynamic business environments, rivalries, and isomorphisms in service operations are significant challenges for hotel enterprises. Fostering employee creativity is undoubtedly something that can well position a hotel in the face of competition. Research shows that corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions of employees for an enterprise can motivate them to be engaged in creativity. At the same time, it has also been mentioned that corporate leaders could significantly influence the behavior of employees. Nevertheless, employee creativity in a CSR framework has not been well-explored in a hospitality context. Moreover, the role of leadership, especially inclusive leadership styles, has been less discussed to spur employee creativity from a CSR perspective. To bridge the above knowledge gaps, this study investigates the relationship between CSR and employee creativity with the mediating effect of inclusive leadership in the hotel industry of a developing economy. Moreover, the conditional indirect effect of employee polychronicity was also tested in the proposed mediated relationship. For data collection, an adapted questionnaire was taken into consideration by employing a paper–pencil method (n = 427). A hypothetical model was refined and validated through structural equation modeling (SEM). The results confirmed that CSR can drive employee creativity significantly, and inclusive leadership partially mediates this relationship. It was also realized that polychronicity has a significant conditional indirect effect on the above-mediated relationship. These outcomes contribute to improvements in the hotel management, as well-designed CSR activities both improve the hotel’s image as an ethical enterprise and increase creativity among employees.

Fidelity to participants when researching multilingual language teachers: A systematic review

AbstractThe research field of multilingualism in education has grown exponentially over the last two decades, with more and more studies published every year on the need for teachers to validate the whole linguistic repertoire of their students and help them draw on their multilingualism as a resource. What has, conversely, not been accorded sufficient attention by researchers is the multilingualism of the teachers tasked with realising this. This oversight, as it were, raises ethical issues for researchers that go beyond macro ethical considerations like the need to ensure participant anonymity, their protection from harm, and data confidentiality. Education is itself a complex, ethical enterprise, where engagement with teachers and students requires greater faithfulness, exactitude, and respect on the part of researchers. The need for such engagement, from an ethical standpoint, has been magnified as governments globally implement multilingual initiatives in schools and universities that encourage teachers to harness the growing linguistic and cultural diversity that surrounds them (and of which they are a part). Based on a systematic review of 59 published works between 2016 and 2021, this article discusses the importance of adopting a fidelity‐to‐participants approach when researching multilingual language teachers. Such an approach has been missing from most studies, yet it would benefit researchers and their participants, as well as policymakers and educators in several ways.

Trust, acceptance, and power: a person-centered client case study

ABSTRACT This case study examines the author’s therapeutic experience with one client presenting with anxiety, whilst working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, this work shows the interrelation between theory, practice, and research in the author’s counseling psychology training with a person-centered/experiential approach. Firstly, the beginning of therapy contextualizes the work with a formulation and presents the initial phase of the therapeutic relationship. Secondly, the development of therapy explores how empathic understanding was fostered with a focus on the themes of trust, acceptance, and power to illustrate the client’s process of change and the therapeutic alliance. Thirdly, a prospective ending is outlined as therapy was still ongoing at the time of writing. Finally, the therapeutic experience is evaluated within an understanding of counseling psychology practice as an ethical enterprise.

A Foucauldian ethics of positivity in initial teacher education

This article explores ways pre-service teachers learn to work upon their positive emotional conduct during an initial teacher education course. The article argues that education practice today promotes the acting out of positive emotions, creating conditions within which pre-service teachers ethically shape their emotional conduct. Utilising Foucault’s four-part ethical framework, the article draws on longitudinal research of pre-service teachers in Western Australia to analyse the crafting of emotional conduct through techniques of the self. The techniques the participants came to employ during their course learning aligned with a telos of the resourceful, positive, and professional teacher. The article argues that this ethical enterprise relies on a certain model of teacher subjectivity which is inseparably linked with normalising governmental power. Such disciplining of emotions, however, is neither one-dimensional nor deterministic; rather, work at the intersection of the government of others and of oneself. We argue this allows pre-service teachers the freedom to care for the self as they seek to foster their own ethical practices as teachers.

MEARCSTAPA: Ten Years of Teratology

MEARCSTAPA: Ten Years of Teratology

Recentering Christian Ethics as Comparative Religious Ethics

AbstractThe filial relationship between Christian ethics and Comparative Religious Ethics (CRE) need not be perniciously distortive and can be salutary for comparative work. I suggest that the suspicions about CRE as a disguised form of a “Christian ethical enterprise” are overstated and that we can appreciate the value of the legacy of Christian ethics for comparative work in the focal themes of emancipatory criticism and common morality. Both of these themes, even if influenced by Christian ethics, reflect more universal social‐moral problems that can be discerned in cross‐cultural contexts.

Consumers’ values and behaviour in the Brazilian coffee-in-capsules market: promoting circular economy

Coffee consumption is changing. Monodose, flavoured coffee capsules provide new experiences beyond the traditional custom of brewing coffee. These pods allow access to a selection of premium coffee worldwide but create huge quantities of plastic-aluminium packaging waste. The paper examines the novelty of coffee capsule consumption in Brazil in terms of consumers’ perspectives about ethical enterprise and environmental stewardship. We argue for ‘waste to resource’ management and applying reverse logistics to the coffee production supply chain. Based on circular economy principles and fuelled by the ‘green’ awareness of Brazilian coffee consumers, we propose a conceptual framework to support business decision-making by adopting a systemic intervention from the consumer viewpoint. To structure the situation, we conducted over 40 interviews, using purposive sampling. Analytic hierarchy process, value focused thinking and Rich Picture technique informed our problem structuring approach. Findings illustrate that reverse logistics supply chain in coffee capsule manufacturing presents real challenges to achieving circular practice. Yet, the eco-values of Brazilian coffee enthusiasts may be partly considered a ‘wealth of information flow’ and a potential driving force for change. This paper should be of interest to researchers/practitioners exploring how consumers may contribute to behavioural change, towards more circular business.

The Constituting Value of a European Democratic Experimentalism

John Dewey conceived democracy as a cooperative problem-solving practice in which actors try out provisional solutions by means of social communication. His notion of experimental democracy as a specific form of life and an ethical enterprise rather than simply a form of government implies the constitution of a polity as a practical and complex process of exchanging and sharing experiences. The aim of this paper is to test the feasibility of using a Deweyan theoretical basis for democracy to assess the potential for a European process of political integration. The historical-conceptual presuppositions of the European Union’s institutional project preclude both a narrow local perspective and an illusory globalist scheme. To redirect Europe’s democratic vocation, a process of political and institutional communication must be developed that transcends the existing national paradigm.

Empiricism as an ethical enterprise. On the work of Erhard Blankenburg

Empiricism as an ethical enterprise. On the work of Erhard Blankenburg

Practices, Narratives, and the Telos of Educative Teaching

Maclntyre's concept of practice when combined withhis notions of narratives and tradition provide a view of educativeteaching which should enable practitioners, present and future, togive a full account of their life's work. Teaching of this kind can beunderstood as an ethical enterprise, founded on principle, with arich tradition in which the narrative is not merely someone else'sstory but one in which the practitioner can see oneself playing ameaningful part. This combination of clear conceptual frameworkand strong ethical ends and the intertwining of these ends andtheir particular means with the acceptance of personal narrativewithin that of the tradition of the practice should allow us to defendthe enterprise of educative teaching against those who would seekto reduce schooling to mere socializing to present needs, orpreparation for corporate employment and allow it to flourish in thefuture.

How Jane Addams Expands Our View of Education as an Ethical Enterprise

ABSTRACTJane Addams's Democracy and Social Ethics is more than a historical artifact describing the work of a prominent social reformer. It is also a significant contribution to philosophy, especially in the area of social ethics. Moreover, though less widely acknowledged, Addams's work is essential for anyone who seeks an ethical vision for education. Here, we examine these claims through three interrelated questions. First, Addams argues for a social ethics that goes beyond individual virtues, such as honesty. Yet, she situates and builds that ethics on concrete, situated personal relations. How can an all‐encompassing social ethics develop from localized individual relations? Second, Addams worked to address specific problems faced by immigrants. However, her social ethics explicitly denies that material conditions justify contentious struggle. How does a theory of social ethics relate to material conditions, especially in terms of inequities of race, class, or gender? Third, Addams always focuses on immediate problems, even engaging deeply with the situation of specific individuals. How can such local, interpersonal action be integrated with large‐scale political action? A close examination of these questions shows that Addams's work offers powerful insights into the mutually constitutive practice of engaging in pragmatist philosophy and reflective, ethically guided education, a practice that has never been more important than it is today.

The accidental enterprise: Ethical consumption as commerce

Ethical consumption is routinely promoted as a form of individualised responsibility taking whereby citizen-consumers consciously engage in morally/politically directed purchasing decisions. This has been heavily critiqued as a neoliberal reduction of civic engagement to market choice. It has also been contested by way of a shift to problematizing the consumer as moral agent; where attention is drawn instead to networks of agential entities - advocacy organisations, certifying bodies, marketing discourses, retail spaces, packages, household routines, and so on - that configure consumption alternatives as practice and performance. In reflecting on these concerns, this paper qualitatively explores the enterprising (rather than consumer enactment) of the ethical. Drawing on a multifaceted, three-year study of alternative consumption in Australia, the paper attends to the framing of ethical enterprise through business language, to the often ambivalent deployment of various commercial models and marketing strategies in the doing of ethical business, and to how a contestatory commerce is being imagined, especially in terms of its relations to a politics of social and economic change and to a commercial mainstream. Informed by work on markets as pragmatically assembled and on the economy as multiple, emphasis is placed throughout this article on ethical enterprise as a space of political ambiguity and as a gesture towards an alternative commerce that displaces an understanding of ethical consumption as resting on the actions of the virtuous consumer.

Sustaining the life-chance divide? Education for sustainable development and the global biopolitical regime

ABSTRACTWhat is being sustained in education for sustainable development (ESD)? Drawing on biopolitical theory, this article puts forth the hypothesis that it is in fact the very life-chance gulf that separates wealthy ‘sustainable’ mass consumers from poor ‘sustainable’ subsistence-level populations. Hence, in sharp contrast to the cosmopolitan buzz that characterizes the international policy discourse on ESD, it is argued that ESD feeds into the global life-chance divide as it prepares different populations for entirely different lives and lifestyles. In previous research that has dealt with global aspects of ESD, a dividing line can be drawn between scholars who emphasize tendencies towards neoliberal homogenization and those who highlight contingency, local re-articulations and spaces of contestation. This paper offers a third theoretical position that while sharing a deep unease with global neoliberal government is primarily concerned with its ‘will to divide’. As a corollary of this biopolitical perspective, the paper makes a case for critical empirical research that can lay bare the cracks and contradictions in the grand narrative of ESD as a cosmopolitan ethical enterprise.

Material semiotics, ontological politics and im/mobilities of bomb-spoons in Laos

Theoretical concepts from Actor-Network Theory can be applied to practical mobilities’ approach resulting in a multi-layered analytical framework for studying spatially and conceptually disparate social phenomena. This article introduces findings from war and tourism–mobilities on The Plain of Jars in the Lao P.D.R., a post-conflict landscape and emerging tourism destination. Discourses centred on war–scrap architecture and artisan traditions, like war–scrap spoon making as well as the involvement of an American ethical fashion social enterprise are used to discuss how the two selected ANT concepts of im/material semiotics and ontological politics can be combined with mobilities’ concepts of the mobilities of people, things and ideas. This study shows how such an analysis based on especially on flat ontologies is intensifying mobilities, how disparate items and ideas “can be caught or not caught” and how these become materially embedded in different places, markets and agendas. It is discussed how this might find practical application for development cooperation.

Playing with Others

Scholars of hermeneutics have recently taken up the task of elucidating Gadamer’s ethics by studying his work on the structure of understanding and human experience. This article seeks to contribute to that scholarship through an examination of Gadamer’s aesthetics. I suggest that Gadamer’s notions of play and aesthetic non-differentiation provide further resources for understanding Gadamer’s hermeneutic ethics as an ethics of non-differentiation, i.e., a unification of theory and practice (understanding and application). For Gadamer, an understanding of the good is its enactment in the context of the dialogical play we find ourselves engaged in with others. Furthermore, Gadamer’s identification of aesthetic non-differentiation with play reveals that his ethics aims not only to unify theory and practice but also to unite participants in the ethical play as intersubjective elements of a shared experience. Retrieving the ethical import of Gadamer’s aesthetics also helps to unfold Gadamer’s suggestion that hermeneutics itself is an ethical enterprise.