Moral Agenda Research Articles

Farm Animal Welfare: A New Repertoire of Nature‐Society Relations or Modernism Re‐embedded ?

AbstractWithin society, farm animal welfare is moving up the policy and moral agenda as many of the industrial processes associated with animal farming are now being called into question. In the academy, there is growing intellectual interest in the relationship of humanity to animality and the porosity or otherwise of the biologically and socially constructed boundaries between them. This paper uses the farm animal welfare debate to explore changes in society animal relations by looking in turn at the farm, at farm animals and at the notion of farm animal welfare itself. The paper explores the paradox that for as long as society eats and kills animals for food, we are necessarily bound up in a persistent modernist and essentialist conceptualisation of animals and nature. However, alternative approaches are investigated as part of what might be described as a more postmodern approach to animalian difference.

The secular salvation story of the digital divide

Despite much discussion of the digital divide, little academic work has directly analyzed the specific political and policy contexts in which the concept is being developed and deployed. This paper undertakes an analysis of one such initiative, the activity of the supranational Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force). The analysis provides a critical discursive analysis of the final report of the DOT Force, together with thick description of the processes by which it was produced. The resolution of numerous antagonisms between the participants in the narrative of the final report reflects the field of power in which the DOT Force operates. The issue of the digital divide can be best understood as providing a generative resource through which the various political interests represented in the DOT Force process can normatively reconfigure the conceptual and ethical possibilities it signifies to renew a dominant, singular `secular salvation story' of the global. The specific closure, articulation and legitimation of the digital divide instantiates an action-oriented temporality and a transformed moral agenda, from a concern with inequality to a pressing inclusionary imperative to connect with the promise of technology and development.

Innocence Without Naivete, Uprightness Without Stupidity: The Pedagogical Kavannah of Emmanuel Levinas

While it is impossible to transfigurephilosophical and Judaic thought of EmmanuelLevinas into a moral agenda for education orthe programmatic regularities of a pedagogicalmethodology, this paper argues for theimportance of his work for re-openingeducational questions. These questions engagethe problem of what it could mean to livehistorically, to live within an uprightattentiveness to traces of those who haveinhabited times and places other than one'sown. In this sense, I address the problem ofremembrance as a question of and for history,as a force of inhabitation, as an inheritance weare obligated to live within, that intertwineswith our sense of limits and possibilities,hopes and fears, identities and distinctions.Substantively, this problem is manifest in howone attends to the experiences of others: howone reads, how one views, and how one listens,always historically specific normalizedpractices that in any given epoch are ingrainedin what it means to live in consort withothers, to live as though the lives of otherpeople mattered. The paper seeks to display thefecundity of the thought of Levinas forre-thinking such issues.

Societal marketing and morality

Societal marketing emerged in the early 1970s, promising a more socially responsible and ethical model for marketing. While the societal marketing concept has attracted its adherents and critics, the literature on societal marketing has remained sketchy and underdeveloped, particularly with respect to its underlying (and largely implicit) moral agenda. By making the moral basis of societal marketing more explicit, this article primarily seeks to offer a moral critique of the societal marketing concept. By situating discussion within notions of psychological and ethical egoism, argues that, in moral terms at least, the societal marketing concept is clearly an extension of the marketing concept, rather than a fundamental reconstruction of marketing theory. While acknowledging the use of the societal marketing concept in practice, this use is problematized with respect to a number of critical moral issues. In particular, the question of who should and can decide what is in the public’s best interests, and elucidate the moral deficiencies of the rational‐instrumental process upon which marketing decisions are frequently rationalised. Suggests that attention should be refocused away from prescribing what “moral” or “societal” marketing should be, and towards developing an understanding of the structures, meanings and discourses which shape and explain marketing and consumption decision making and sustain its positive and negative impacts on society.

Human rights in the biotechnology era 1.

BackgoundThe concept of Human Rights has become the modern civilising standard to which all should aspire and indeed attain.DiscussionIn an era characterised by widening disparities in health and human rights across the world and spectacular advances in biotechnology it is necessary to reflect on the extent to which human rights considerations are selectively applied for the benefit of the most privileged people. Attention is drawn particularly to sub-Saharan Africa as a marginalised region at risk of further marginalisation if the power associated with the new biotechnology is not used more wisely than power has been used in the past. To rectify such deficiencies it is proposed that the moral agenda should be broadened and at the very least the concept of rights should be more closely integrated with dutiesSummaryNew forms of power being unleashed by biotechnology will have to be harnessed and used with greater wisdom than power has been used in the past. Widening disparities in the world are unlikely to be diminished merely by appealing to human rights. We recommend that a deeper understanding is required of the underlying causes of such disparities and that the moral discourse should be extended beyond human rights language.

The government vs. erotica: the siege of Adam & Eve

In 1986, a small mail-order company was invaded by 37 armed law enforcement agents who instantly shut down all operations, herded the employees into a warehouse, and then systematically interrogated everyone, allowing them to leave only after subpoenas were distributed. Although this episode may sound like a police action in the former East Germany, in fact it was implemented by the U.S. Justice Department, then headed by Edwin Meese, against Adam & Eve, a North Carolina business that sells contraceptives, sex toys, and adult videos.Owner Phil Harvey's first-hand account of this David-and-Goliath battle goes to the heart of our national debate over First Amendment freedom of expression versus government attempts to limit the availability of erotic materials. Harvey not only writes a personal memoir of his harrowing struggle against the strong-arm tactics of the Justice Department; he also raises important questions about federal abuse of power, the slow erosion of First Amendment rights through government intimidation, the effects of pornography, archaic laws that attempt to regulate sexuality between consenting adults, the class-war implications of this battle, and the interplay between sex and religion. In the end the courts ruled against the Justice Department's actions, but only because Harvey chose to resist an eight-year siege by a government bent on imposing its moral agenda by force. This fascinating story is a wake-up call for all who would be complacent about First Amendment rights.

Estimating the World Illicit Drug Situation--reality and the seven deadly political sins

The reality of the situation with regard to illicit drugs is that it is obscured by politics and we have very little true knowledge about what is happening regarding drug consumption in the world. Sometimes this obfuscation is deliberate and related to drugs, sometimes it is related to decisions to prioritize other problems and sometimes it is the foreign policy of one country that determines that the drug situation, including drug production, trafficking and corruption, is not in its interests to pursue, and even that it should be overlooked. Even where figures are produced these do not always represent the best 'guesstimate' of that country, because some countries greatly exaggerate the amount of drug abuse in order to attract or maintain foreign aid, or other countries will completely underplay the extent of the drug problem through fear that in opening the doors to foreign aid it would open the doors to interference with a profitable drug trade, or more broadly to interference in internal issues. But governments also have their own political agendas, so the drug problem will be exaggerated by those who have something to gain, usually in terms of resources, or a particular moral agenda, and diminished by those who do not think that the resources are available to deal with the situation, or by those who simply do not want to acknowledge that the situation is as it is, and that if ignored it will simply go away. Because politicians demand figures, figures are produced but these often have very little to do with reality. At best they represent an overestimation or underestimation of the true position, at worst a complete fiction. It is only when studies are done to establish the true pattern of drug taking, including the cultural and social context, that any idea of what is really happening can be established.

‘Not Without Dust and Heat’: The Moral Bases of the ‘New’ Academic Professionalism

This paper challenges the view that academic professionalism resides in the professional ‘autonomy’ of the academic, the ‘self-regulation’ of academics as an occupational group, and the differential ‘status’ of academic workers. This still influential (though residual) notion of academic professionalism, it is argued, leads to institutional stasis. What is required is greater reflexivity by academics in respect of their underlying professional values. In particular the piece challenges the academic community (of which the author is a member) to re-think academic freedom – the bedrock of professional identity within that community – in terms of increased inclusivity: ‘freedom for all’ rather than ‘freedom for academics’ The paper touches on issues relating to practice and organisational structure, but focuses primarily on the need for academics to shift the moral bases of their claim to professionalism. In so doing, it also challenges the post-Dearing consensus that the debate on academic professionalism can be adequately conducted in terms of ‘standards’ and ‘outcomes’. A prime purpose of the paper is to promote debate and discussion by setting a different kind of agenda (a moral agenda) and by couching that agenda within a different kind of discourse (one that invites and admits moral speculation).

What feminism can do for bioethics.

Feminist criticism of health care and of bioethics has become increasingly rich and sophisticated in the last years of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, this body of work remains quite marginalized. I believe that there are (at least) two reasons for this. First, many people are still confused about feminism. Second, many people are unconvinced that significant sexism still exists and are therefore unreceptive to arguments that it should be remedied if there is no larger benefit. In this essay I argue for a thin, "core" conception of feminism that is easy to understand and difficult to reject. Core feminism would render debate within feminism more fruitful, clear the way for appropriate recognition of differences among women and their circumstances, provide intellectually compelling reasons for current non-feminists to adopt a feminist outlook, and facilitate mutually beneficial cooperation between feminism and other progressive social movements. This conception of feminism also makes it clear that feminism is part of a larger egalitarian moral and political agenda, and adopting it would help bioethics focus on the most urgent moral priorities. In addition, integrating core feminism into bioethics would open a gateway to the more speculative parts of feminist work where a wealth of creative thinking is occurring. Engaging with this feminist work would challenge and strengthen mainstream approaches: it should also motivate mainstream bioethicists to explore other currently marginalized parts of bioethics.

Mortality and World Hunger

Why does world hunger hold an inferior place on the contemporary moral agenda? Proposed answer: because it is a political, not a moral problem. It is not a moral problem, because morality needs two conditions fulfilled: that those be in some way close to the agent unto whom that agent is doing something that is to be morally assessed; and that the relevant good or bad states or events can be clearly credited to some particular agent or agents. Neither condition is fulfilled in the case of world hunger. This explains morality's failure to come to grips with it. Yet, while lacking morality's endorsement, the abolition of world hunger may still be a political goal.

The uncertain future of bilateralism or, ‘it takes two fingers to kill a louse’

Economic and political accounts of events often exist as distinct texts which can obscure the political economy of the subject under discussion. In the analysis of bilateral relations this is particularly evident in the new orthodoxy which takes as given that there is a necessary accommodation which must be made with the requirements of ‘modern’ globalisation to ensure international competitiveness. This has caused many economic policy issues to be regarded as a closed box, as a given, not open to discussion. Debates about them have disappeared from view. As a consequence, it is possible for bilateral development finance organisations to maintain a political and, more importantly, moral agenda of poverty reduction, human rights, good governance and a crusade against corruption without questions of political economy or the more specifically economic relationships between states impinging on considerations of the ‘donor’ state's behaviour. This article argues that the radical agenda of Britain's Department for International Development (DfID) and the political interventions of international NGOs are often undermined in practice (whatever their good intentions) by bilateral economic and trade relations which are in desperate need of regulation and reform. If there were some concept of international solidarity and true co‐operation, it might be possible to shape the reforms required. Instead, international fora ‐ generally characterised by a democratic deficit themselves ‐ become immersed in a quagmire of hypothetical, even arbitrary, ‘good practice’ codes while developing a blindspot concerning the underlying inequities of bilateral economic relations between North and South.

Morality as Identity: the Missionary Moral Agenda in Buganda,1877–1945

This article advances three arguments. First, that prior to European intrusion in the mid‐1800s, “Buganda” and “Mugandaness” were continually contested ideologies whose meanings were not given but discursively constructed and reconstructed in conditions of historical specificity. Second, that “Baganda” as an identity, was first constructed in the early travellers’ journals. Later on missionaries and Buganda’s leading chiefs appropriated the construct “Buganda” and actively participated in its elaboration and refinement as it was later to be used and popularized in the twentieth century. Third, that Buganda identity was constructed through the active silencing of the disruptive relations of ethnicity, of gender, and of class. In the celebration of an ethnic identity, inequalities and oppression were glossed over. Out of a confrontation with the “other,” Buganda identity was carefully and powerfully articulated by the Christian middle‐class men who, from 1900, dominated the newly created ruling council of Buganda, called the Lukiiko. These men claimed to speak for the Buganda “nation” and on behalf of others. Their search for a secure identity was built on their assertion of their superiority over the “decadent” sub‐nationalities; over all non‐royal females and over all others who were not Christians, male and middle class. In examining the historical dynamics of identity, it is important to look beyond the illusion of a Buganda “Christian nation” to investigate articulations and manipulations of class, gender, ethnicity, and nationality.

On the Hegemony of Liberal Individualism: A Reply to Williams

Rhys Williams has provided us a fascinating account of alternative conceptions of the public good, and the religious roots of these competing perspectives. His panoramic description of the rhetorical frameworks within which American politics (broadly construed) are contested is extraordinarily useful, and provides a valuable intellectual resource for many future analysts of the public roles of religion in democratic politics. To the extent that I take issue with Williams's account, I would emphasize that the three traditions of public discourse do not compete equally in contemporary American political discourse. Williams, of course, acknowledges that his stewardship model does not enjoy the same level of support as his covenental or contractual models, and he convincingly demonstrates that even the most radical individualism has deep religious roots. Nevertheless, I would suggest that, at the end of the twentieth century in the United States, the contractual model, without explicit acknowledgment of its theological origins, has become the dominant mode of discourse. Further, insights or values derived from other traditions are accredited forms of public discussion to the extent that they can be translated into the language of liberal individualism. Perhaps the most telling evidence for this proposition can be found in the changing fortunes of the contemporary Christian Right. At least since the formation of the Moral Majority in 1979, the political mobilization of doctrinally conservative Christians has been an important aspect of American electoral politics, and evangelicals have become an essential component of the Republican Party (see especially Kellstedt and Noll 1990). However, the Christian Right has experienced varying degrees of success, which are in part based on the translation of the NCR's moral agenda into the language of individual rights. In its earliest manifestation, Moral Majority and its leader, Jerry Falwell, made explicit use of covenantal language in its public rhetoric. For example, in Falwell's initial book, Listen, America!, Falwell makes explicit use of a covenant metaphor derived from the Hebrew Scriptures:

Therapy as Theory and as Civics

The conventional wisdom is that the therapeutic enterprise is `value-neutral', not impelled by any moral agenda, and intended chiefly to render its beneficiaries more successful in attaining what they desire. I argue in the present article that, were this the case, there could be nothing therapeutic in the undertaking; further, that one should be assisted in attaining what should be desirable, but what may not, in the given case, be desired. The form of life that realizes the most authentic aspects of our humanity is of an essentially civic nature, and it is fitness for this form of life that should guide therapeutic endeavors.

Women and the Family in the British Welfare State: The Thatcher/Major Legacy

This paper reviews the moral agenda of Thatcherism, in terms of maintaining traditional family structures, family roles and family responsibilities for economic support and personal care of family members. It asks to what extent and in what ways this agenda was promoted during the eighteen years of Conservative rule; to what extent contradictory forces within Thatcherism and elsewhere undermined this agenda; and what have been the consequences for women in family and public life. The marketization of life, pursued under Thatcherism, contributed to undermining the family form which has traditionally underpinned the market. Deregulated labour markets and spreading owner‐occupation in an unstable housing market have been important contributions to family breakdown, insecurity and women's access to—and need for—jobs. The idea of family responsibility was promulgated, but in practice family members have become less able to support each other.Nevertheless, one consequence of these changes has been a stronger position for women as women by the end of this Conservative era. Access to paid work makes women less dependent within families and improves their access to public politics. Social policies geared to the Beveridge‐type family had become increasingly threadbare and some changes—such as policies enabling lone mothers to do paid work—had been forced by the increasing mismatch between family realities and the Beveridge model. Many changes owed more to the women's movement than to Thatcherism, but Thatcherite policies played a (largely unintentional) part.

Diversity, Values and Social Change: renegotiating a consensus on sex education

This paper explores three interrelated themes in order to contextualise and then propose a values framework for school sex education within a modern plural society. First, it outlines some of the social changes that have contributed to a growing uncertainty about values in British society in the area of sexuality and personal relationships. Secondly, it considers the ways in which policy changes in the area of sex education over the last 10 years have reflected competing claims over the moral legitimacy and content of this area of the curriculum. Thirdly, it describes the work of two related initiatives, that sought to renegotiate a consensus for values within school sex education. The paper suggests that it may not be possible to resolve what are fundamental conflicts of a plural society and argues that a moral agenda for sex education may be most appropriately realised as a pursuit of consistency between politics, policy and practice on the basis of confidence in the abilities of young people, and a recognition of social change.

Veneral disease, public health and social control: the Scottish experience in a comparative perspective.

During the first half of the twentieth century, VD became in many countries a metaphor for the forces of physical and moral pollution that appeared to threaten social order and racial progress. By reference to some central aspects of the Scottish experience in a comparative perspective, this article seeks to identify the common denominator of anxieties and assumptions which fuelled public health initiatives towards VD and which defined the boundaries within which VD policy options were discussed. In particular, it will explore various dimensions of social control associated with the treatment and regulation of VD; the degree to which VD controls and procedures have targetted and stigmatised sexually active women, their use to regulate the sexual behaviour of the young, and the way in which discourses shaping medical practice and policy towards VD have enshrined both class and racial stereotyping. The article also examines the powerful moral agenda which shaped the categories and content of treatment and the focus of epidemiology and public health debate. Finally, the institutional and cultural factors shaping the distinctively compulsionist stance of Scottish public health administration towards VD will be explored as a means of identifying some of the possible comparators needed for broader comparative analysis of VD policy in the twentieth century.

The centre for policy studies: The paradoxes of power

The story of the Centre for Policy Studies is one of numerous paradoxes but considerable historical influence. Formed because of the perceived inadequacies of Conservative Party policy‐making, and more importantly thinking, it was designed to convert the party to the ‘new conservatism’. It supplied many key personnel and policies for government but it also had a very public role. This was the cause of some internal disputes. It developed a distinctive ‘liberal‐conservative’ agenda, integral to Thatcherism, but did not always gain favour. It brought neo‐liberal economic ideas into the political arena, but has an overlooked moral and social agenda. It has had to survive the exigencies of government, and the uncertainty of a change of prime minister, but retained a consistency in ideology. Despite its unfinished agenda, its future will be closely related to developments within the Conservative Party.

Iris Murdoch and the Good Psychoanalyst

Several . . . films [Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Field of Dreams, and Star Trek V: Final Frontier, 1989] send their heroes searching for hints of God's presence in the universe, on quests for spiritual meaning. . . . And like many New Age approaches that cloak self-absorption in veneer of spirituality, the films are not really about God and faith. In every case, the religious quest masks more human concern, reconciliation with the hero's own father. (Caryn James) What seems to us so grandiose about ethics, so mysterious and, in mythical fashion, so self-evident, owes these characteristics to its connection with religion, its origins from the will of the father. (Sigmund Freud 370) Thomas McCaskerville, the Scottish psychoanalyst in Iris Murdoch's Good Apprentice (1985), meticulously ethical, constantly concerned with doing what right, always thinking of the effects of his words and actions on others, and also religious in way, practicing what Harold Bloom calls Murdoch's astringent post-Christian Platonism, kind of negative theology. Let's say that God permanent non-degradable love object, Thomas says to young Stuart Cuno. Must we not imagine something of the sort? Then, running through typical, even stereotypical, Murdochian litany, Stuart eventually says that he wants to go it alone, without god, Just to try to be good, to be for others and not oneself. . . . [The good is] all, everywhere, as if everything spoke it and showed it - and it's so deep that it's entirely me, and yet it's entirely not me too -. Steady on, says Thomas. All that sounds like God. You say there no God, then you aspire to be God yourself, you take over his attributes. Perhaps that the task of the present age (140-41). John Updike, himself religious quester in his fiction, writes that Murdoch, unable in good conscience to locate in the external cosmos where God once reigned, turns, in the paradoxical gesture of Christian humanism, toward Man himself to supply the that Man demands. . . . Murdoch's central male triangle of Harry [Cuno], Edward [Baltram, Harry's stepson], and Stuart [Harry's son] . . . does not illustrate much in the way of depth (126). However, Thomas, the artistic saint, and Jesse Baltram, the saintly artist (Edward's biological father), supply plenty, maybe too much.(1) The esthetic puzzle, Bloom writes, is whether the comic story and the spiritual kernel can be held together by Miss Murdoch's archaic stance as an authorial will. Pearl K. Bell argues that the novel peculiarly disjointed and uneven (36); Gillian Wilce calls it a moral soap opera (30). Good Apprentice, however, does include realistic, sensitive portrayal of an analyst - the first and only such portrayal in her canon - and, as in A Fairly Honourable Defeat (1971), itself social and psychological comedy, and of equal rank with this one, here Murdoch creates characters and landscapes that come to life, colorful and vibrant people and settings. Further, in showing Stuart beating everyone over the head with his heavy-handed ethical message, Murdoch lampooning the didactic side of herself (undercutting her usual moral agenda), tactic that allows the surface of the novel to have light and airy feel, even as dark, mysterious forces seem to be at work. Her command of detail and her painterly descriptions invest the book with what Peter J. Conradi calls her luminous, lyrical accuracy (4). moral agenda allowed to drift and grow beneath the surface, as it often does in good literature. Ironically, by blatantly calling attention to morality with the naive character Stuart, Murdoch manages to push her own moral philosophy into the shadows awhile, where it becomes even more effective. Stuart portrayed as good person, but unintentionally clown, not saint. Thomas the saint figure, but although he presented as an almost ideal man (resembling Murdoch's father in his intelligence, steadiness, and success),(2) he nonetheless has faults as both man and analyst, which are used indirectly to criticize Freudianism once again (as Murdoch often does in both her fiction and nonfiction). …

Inward and Outward with the Modern Self

The modern self, with its inwardness, its freedom and its individuality (p. ix), suffers, Taylor tells us, from disenchantment (p. 500, cf. pp. 17-18, 186). Moreover, disenchantment has come in spite of the advance, to which Taylor wishes to give full credit, that modernity has made in giving great value to ordinary life at work and in the family (p. 211). For religion, though still present as one layer of sentiment among many in the historical deposits that compose modern culture, has given ground to “disengaged instrumentalism” or to its antagonist, romantic “expressivism” (p. 498). Taylor, a philosopher of uncommonly generous spirit, is willing to find good in each of these orientations: the first, for example, has with utilitarianism put the relief of needless suffering at the top of the moral agenda (p. 331), along with redeeming from superstitious repression a number of innocent pleasures; the second has deepened human capacity, on the one hand by deepening emotions (both in the sense of oneself and in concern for others), on the other hand by gaining for them intellectual respect (pp. 294, 372, 419).