Showing papers on "Value (ethics) published in 2014"

Contesting the value of "creating shared value"

Abstract: This article critiques Porter and Kramer's concept of creating shared value. The strengths of the idea are highlighted in terms of its popularity among practitioner and academic audiences, its connecting of strategy and social goals, and its systematizing of some previously underdeveloped, disconnected areas of research and practice. However, the concept suffers from some serious shortcomings, namely: it is unoriginal; it ignores the tensions inherent to responsible business activity; it is naive about business compliance; and it is based on a shallow conception of the corporation's role in society. [Michael Porter and Mark Kramer were invited to respond to this article. Their commentary follows along with a reply by Crane and his co-authors.]

Corporate Governance and Investors' Perceptions of Foreign IPO Value: An Institutional Perspective

Abstract: We build on sociology-grounded research on financial market behavior and suggest a “nested” legitimacy framework to explore U.S. investor perceptions of foreign IPO value. We draw on a fuzzy-set theoretic approach to demonstrate how different combinations of monitoring and incentive-based corporate governance mechanisms lead to the same level of investor valuations of firms. We also argue that institutional factors related to the minority shareholder protection strength in the foreign IPO’s home country represent a boundary condition that affects the number of governance mechanisms required to achieve U.S. investors’ high value perceptions. Our findings, drawn from a unique, hand-collected dataset of foreign IPOs in the U.S, contribute to the sociological perspective on comparative corporate governance and the inter-dependencies between organizations and institutions.

Firm Litigation Risk and the Insurance Value of Corporate Social Performance

Abstract: This paper advances the risk management perspective that superior social performance enhances firm value by serving as an ex ante valuable insurance mechanism. We posit that good social performance is more valuable as an insurance mechanism for firms with higher litigation risks. Moreover, value generation of corporate social performance (CSP) depends on whether a firm has gained pragmatic legitimacy (i.e., a firm's financial health) and moral legitimacy (i.e., whether or not a firm operates in a socially contested industry) among its stakeholders. We find that the value of CSP as insurance against litigation risk is practically significant, adding 2 to 4 percent to firm value. But CSP is less likely to create value if the firm is in financial distress or is operating in socially contested industries.

Making sense of higher education: students as consumers and the value of the university experience

Abstract: In the global university sector competitive funding models are progressively becoming the norm, and institutions/courses are frequently now subject to the same kind of consumerist pressures typical of a highly marketised environment. In the United Kingdom, for example, students are increasingly demonstrating customer-like behaviour and are now demanding even more ‘value’ from institutions. Value, though, is a slippery concept, and has proven problematic both in terms of its conceptualisation and measurement. This article explores the relationship between student value and higher education, and, via study in one United Kingdom business school, suggests how this might be better understood and operationalised. Adopting a combined qualitative/quantitative approach, this article also looks to identify which of the key value drivers has most practical meaning and, coincidentally, identifies a value-related difference between home and international students.

Nietzsche on Morality

Abstract: Both an introduction to Nietzsche’s moral philosophy, and a sustained commentary on his most famous work, On the Genealogy of Morality, this book has become the most widely used and debated secondary source on these topics over the past dozen years. Many of Nietzsche’s most famous ideas - the "slave revolt" in morals, the attack on free will, perspectivism, "will to power" and the "ascetic ideal" - are clearly analyzed and explained. The first edition established the centrality of naturalism to Nietzsche’s philosophy, generating a substantial scholarly literature to which Leiter responds in an important new Postscript. In addition, Leiter has revised and refreshed the book throughout, taking into account new scholarly literature, and revising or clarifying his treatment of such topics as the objectivity of value, epiphenomenalism and consciousness, and the possibility of "autonomous" agency.

Crisis, value, and hope: rethinking the economy. An introduction to supplement 9

Abstract: Crisis, value, and hope are three concepts whose intersection and mutual constitution open the door for a rethinking of the nature of economic life away from abstract models divorced from the everyday realities of ordinary people, the inadequacies of which the current world economic crisis has exposed in particularly dramatic fashion. This rethinking seeks to bring to center stage the complex ways in which people attempt to make life worth living for themselves and for future generations, involving not only waged labor but also structures of provisioning, investments in social relations, relations of trust and care, and a multitude of other forms of social action that mainstream economic models generally consider trivial, marginal, and often counterproductive. A holistic understanding of how people organize their economic lives is attentive to both the temporality of value and the relationship between different scales of value. It is attentive to the spatial configuration of economic life in many societies in which the future has become synonymous with geographical mobility. It is attentive to the fact that making a living is about making people in their physical, social, spiritual, affective, and intellectual dimensions.

Rethinking the Concept and Measurement of Societal Culture in Light of Empirical Findings

Abstract: Fischer and Schwartz demonstrated that values vary much more within countries than between countries. This challenges the prevailing conception of culture as shared meaning systems, with high consensus, in which values play a central role. This article offers a concept of culture that does not assume shared individual values. It views societal culture as the hypothetical, latent, normative value system that underlies and justifies the functioning of societal institutions. As such, culture is external to individuals. But if culture is not in the minds of individuals, can it be measured by aggregating individuals' values? This article explicates the links between the latent culture and individual values, mediated through societal institutions that partially shape the beliefs, values, behaviors, and styles of thinking of societal members. It discusses the reasons for low value consensus among individuals and the justification for inferring cultural value emphases from aggregated individual values.

Value stability and change during self-chosen life transitions: Self-selection versus socialization effects

Abstract: Three longitudinal studies examine a fundamental question regarding adjustment of personal values to self-chosen life transitions: Do values fit the new life setting already at its onset, implying value-based self-selection? Or do values change to better fit the appropriate and desirable values in the setting, implying value socialization? As people are likely to choose a life transition partly based on their values, their values may fit the new life situation already at its onset, leaving little need for value socialization. However, we propose that this may vary as a function of the extent of change the life transition entails, with greater change requiring more value socialization. To enable generalization, we used 3 longitudinal studies spanning 3 different life transitions and different extents of life changes: vocational training (of new police recruits), education (psychology vs. business students), and migration (from Poland to Britain). Although each life transition involved different key values and different populations, across all 3 studies we found value fit to the life situation already early in the transition. Value socialization became more evident the more aspects of life changed as part of the transition, that is, in the migration transition. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for research on values and personality change, as well as limitations and future directions for research.

Value Judgments and the True Self

Abstract: The belief that individuals have a "true self" plays an important role in many areas of psychology as well as everyday life. The present studies demonstrate that people have a general tendency to conclude that the true self is fundamentally good--that is, that deep inside every individual, there is something motivating him or her to behave in ways that are virtuous. Study 1 finds that observers are more likely to see a person's true self reflected in behaviors they deem to be morally good than in behaviors they deem to be bad. Study 2 replicates this effect and demonstrates observers' own moral values influence what they judge to be another person's true self. Finally, Study 3 finds that this normative view of the true self is independent of the particular type of mental state (beliefs vs. feelings) that is seen as responsible for an agent's behavior.

Moral Character in the Workplace.

Abstract: Using two 3-month diary studies and a large cross-sectional survey, we identified distinguishing features of adults with low versus high levels of moral character. Adults with high levels of moral character tend to: consider the needs and interests of others and how their actions affect other people (e.g., they have high levels of Honesty-Humility, empathic concern, guilt proneness); regulate their behavior effectively, specifically with reference to behaviors that have positive short-term consequences but negative long-term consequences (e.g., they have high levels of Conscientiousness, self-control, consideration of future consequences); and value being moral (e.g., they have high levels of moral identity-internalization). Cognitive moral development, Emotionality, and social value orientation were found to be relatively undiagnostic of moral character. Studies 1 and 2 revealed that employees with low moral character committed harmful work behaviors more frequently and helpful work behaviors less frequently than did employees with high moral character, according to their own admissions and coworkers' observations. Study 3 revealed that adults with low moral character committed more delinquent behavior and had more lenient attitudes toward unethical negotiation tactics than did adults with high moral character. By showing that individual differences have consistent, meaningful effects on employees' behaviors, after controlling for demographic variables (e.g., gender, age, income) and basic attributes of the work setting (e.g., enforcement of an ethics code), our results contest situationist perspectives that deemphasize the importance of personality. Moral people can be identified by self-reports in surveys, and these self-reports predict consequential behaviors months after the initial assessment.

Doubt, Conflict, Mediation: The Anthropology of Modern Time

Abstract: In this introduction, I argue that in spite of recent discussions of global and neoliberal time, the anthropology of modern time remains under-explored. Modern time here is understood to be a complex historical product. At its centre is the abstract time-reckoning of capitalism, which acts as a universal measure of value, but which always comes into conflict with concrete experiences of time. Its social disciplines emerge from Christian practice, but the ethics of these routines are marked as secular and universal. Its politics is founded on representations of the natural connections of communities through a homogeneous historical time. Its science and technology tightly link social, human time to external non-human rhythms. It is important for anthropologists to reflect on modern time because our discipline has been profoundly influenced by the discoveries of its depth, secularity, and relativity. The controversies that emerged in relation to Darwin's and Einstein's insights still provide the framework for many of our theories, especially when we draw on phenomenological philosophy. In this introduction, I suggest that the key resources for overcoming this significant absence in anthropology lie in a rapprochement between Alfred Gell's epistemology of time and the approaches of Marxist political philosophers. This combination, along with an emphasis on the labour in/of time, gives rise to new questions and reveals new aspects of modern time in the present.

Challenges in humanitarian information management and exchange: evidence from Haiti.

Abstract: There is a growing recognition of the critical role information management can play in shaping effective humanitarian response, coordination and decision-making. Quality information, reaching more humanitarian actors, will result in better coordination and better decision-making, thus improving the response to beneficiaries as well as accountability to donors. The humanitarian response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake marked a watershed moment for humanitarian information management. Yet the fragmented nature of the response and the use of hierarchical models of information management, along with other factors, have led some observers to label the Haiti response a failure. Using an analytical framework often found in humanitarian emergencies, this study analyses challenges to information flow in the Haiti case and the implications for effective humanitarian response. It concludes by offering possible paths for overcoming such challenges, and for restoring the value and utility of humanitarian information management and exchange in humanitarian relief settings.

Public Value Accounting: Establishing the Philosophical Basis

Abstract: Questions of how best to define the ends, justify the means, and measure the performance of governments have preoccupied political economists for centuries. Recently, the concept of public value—defined in terms of the many dimensions of value that a democratic public might want to see produced by and reflected in the performance of government—has been proposed as an alternative approach. This article develops three philosophical claims central to the practice of public value accounting: (1) when the collectively owned assets of government are being deployed, the appropriate arbiter of public value is the collectively defined values of a “public” called into existence and made articulate through the quite imperfect processes of democratic governance; (2) the collectively owned assets include not only government money but also the authority of the state; (3) the normative framework for assessing the value of government production relies on both utilitarian and deontological philosophical frameworks.

The People, Place, and Space Reader

Abstract: Section 1 - Diverse Conceptions of People, Place, and Space Editors' Introduction and Suggestions for Further Readings "Constructing Differences in Public Spaces: Race, Class and Gender as Interlocking Systems" [1996] Susan Ruddick "Spacetime and the World" [2005] David Harvey "Psychological Ecology" [1943] Kurt Lewin "Junkspace" [2002] Rem Koolhaas "One Place after Another: Notes on Site Specificity" [1997] Miwon Kwon "Spatializing Culture" [2013] Setha Low Section 2 - Human Perception and Environmental Experience Editors' Introduction and Suggestions for Further Readings "Psychological Maps of Paris" [1970] Stanley Milgram and Denise Jodelet "The City Image and Its Elements" [1960] Kevin Lynch "The Theory of Affordances" [1979] James J. Gibson "Personal Space: The Behavioral Basis for Design" [1969] Robert Sommer "Theory of the Derive" and "Preliminary Problems in Constructing a Situation" [1958] Guy Debord Section 3 - Place and Identity Editors' Introduction and Suggestions for Further Readings "Place-Identity: Physical World Socialization of the Self" [1983] Harold Proshansky, Abbe Fabian, and Robert Kaminoff "Urban Landscape History: The Sense of Place and the Politics of Space" [1995] Dolores Hayden "The Idea of Chinatown: The Power of Place and Institutional Practice in the Making of a Racial Category" [1987] Kay Anderson "The Brandon Archive" [2005] Judith Jack Halberstam "The Poor Little Rich Man" [1900] Adolf Loos "Migration, Material Culture and Tragedy: Four Moments in Caribbean Migration" [2008] Daniel Miller Section 4 - Power, Subjectivity, and Space Editors' Introduction and Suggestions for Further Readings "Tall Storeys" [2008] Kim Dovey "Desire and the Prosthetics of Supervision: A Case of Maquiladora Flexibility" [2001] Melissa Wright "Mothers Reclaiming Their Children" [2007] Ruth Wilson Gilmore "The Social Becomes the Spatial, the Spatial Becomes the Social: Enclosures, Social Change and the Becoming of Places in the Swedish Province of Skane" [1985] Allan Pred "Software-sorted Geographies" [2005] Stephen D.N. Graham "The Habitus and the Space of Life-style" [1984] Pierre Bourdieu Section 5 - Meanings of Home Editors' Introduction and Suggestions for Further Readings "Domesticity" [1986] Witold Rybczynski "Disability, Embodiment and the Meaning of the Home" [2004] Rob Imrie "You Got to Remember You Live in Public Housing" [2008] Talja Blokland "The House as Symbol of the Self" [1974] Claire Cooper "Home Rules" [1994] Denis Wood and Robert J. Beck "Home: Territory and Identity" [2000] J. MacGregor Wise Section 6 - "Public" and "Private" Editors' Introduction and Suggestions for Further Readings "Putting the Public Back into Public Space" [1998] Kurt Iveson "To Again to Hyde Park: Public Space, Rights, and Social Justice" [2003] Don Mitchell "Contesting Crime, Order and Migrant Spaces in Beijing" [2001] Li Zhang "Privacy Could Only Be Had in Public: Gay Uses of the Streets" [1995] George Chauncey "People Who Live in Glass Houses: Edith Farnsworth, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Phillip Johnson" [1998] Alice T. Friedman "The Prison of 'Public Space'" [2008] Mark Kingwell Section 7 - The Urban Experience Editors' Introduction and Suggestions for Further Readings "The Metropolis and Mental Life" [1903] Georg Simmel "Paris-Capital of the Nineteenth Century" [1939] Walter Benjamin "Walking in the City" [1984] Michel de Certeau "The Uses of Sidewalks: Contact" [1961] Jane Jacobs "People as Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in Johannesburg" [2004] AbdouMaliq Simone "City Life and Difference" [1990] Iris Marion Young Section 8 - Landscape: Nature and Culture Editors' Introduction and Suggestions for Further Readings "A Pair of Ideal Landscapes" [1984] John Brinkerhoff (J.B.) Jackson "The African Origins of Carolina Rice Culture" [2000] Judith Carney "This Land Is Ours Now: Spatial Imaginaries and the Struggle for Land in Brazil" [2004] Wendy Wolford "Beyond Wilderness and Lawn" [1998] Michael Pollan "Ecstatic Places" [1990] Louise Chawla Section 9 - The Social Production of Space (and Time) Editors' Introduction and Suggestions for Further Readings "The Production of Space" [1991] Henri Lefebvre "Railroad Space and Railroad Time" [1978] Wolfgang Schivelbusch "A Time for Space and a Space for Time: The Social Production of the Vacation House" [1980] Anthony King "A Room of One's Own" [1929] Virginia Woolf "The Last Place They Thought Of: Black Women's Geographies" [2006] Katherine McKittrick "Class Struggle on Avenue B: The Lower East Side as Wild Wild West" [1996] Neil Smith Section 10 - Shifting Perspectives: Optics for Revealing Change and Reworking Space Editors' Introduction and Suggestions for Further Readings "Panopticism" [1975] Michel Foucault "Toward an Architecture of Humility: On the Value of Experience" [1999] Juhani Pallasmaa "Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California" [2000] Laura Pulido "Mobilities, Immobilities and Moorings" [2006] Kevin Hannam, Mimi Sheller, and John Urry "The Global and the Intimate" [2012] Geraldine Pratt and Victoria Rosner "On the Grounds of Globalization: A Topography for Feminist Political Engagement" [2001] Cindi Katz Section 11 - The Spatial Imagination Editors' Introduction and Suggestions for Further Readings "Invention, Memory, and Place" [2000] Edward Said "Negotiating the Muslim American Hyphen: Integrated, Parallel, and Conflictual Paths" [2008] Selcuk R. Sirin and Michelle Fine "Maps and the Formation of the Geo-Body of Siam" [1996] Thongchai Winichakul "'Drawing the Coral Heads': Mental Mapping and its Physical Representation in a Polynesian Community" [2003] Richard Feinberg, Ute J. Dymon, Pu Paiaki, Pu Rangituteki, Pu Nukuriaki, and Matthew Rollins "How Do We Get Out of This Capitalist Place?" [1996] J.K. Gibson-Graham "De-, Dis-, Ex-" [1987] Bernard Tschumi Section 12 - Democratic Prospects and Possibilities Editors' Introduction and Suggestions for Further Readings "Restoring Meaningful Subjects and 'Democratic Hope' to Psychology" [2013] Susan Saegert "Rhizome" [1987] Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari "Living the 'Revolution' in an Egyptian Village: Moral Action in a National Space" [2012] Lila Abu-Lughod "Traffic in Democracy" [1999] Michael Sorkin "Containing Children: Some Lessons on Planning for Play from New York City" [2002] Roger Hart

Relational Autonomy: Moving Beyond the Limits of Isolated Individualism

Abstract: Although clinicians may value respecting a patient's or surrogate's autonomy in decision-making, it is not always clear how to proceed in clinical practice. The confusion results, in part, from which conception of autonomy is used to guide ethical practice. Reliance on an individualistic conception such as the "in-control agent" model prioritizes self-sufficiency in decision-making and highlights a decision-maker's capacity to have reason transcend one's emotional experience. An alternative model of autonomy, relational autonomy, highlights the social context within which all individuals exist and acknowledges the emotional and embodied aspects of decision-makers. These 2 conceptions of autonomy lead to different interpretations of several aspects of ethical decision-making. The in-control agent model believes patients or surrogates should avoid both the influence of others and emotional persuasion in decision-making. As a result, providers have a limited role to play and are expected to provide medical expertise but not interfere with the individual's decision-making process. In contrast, a relational autonomy approach acknowledges the central role of others in decision-making, including clinicians, who have a responsibility to engage patients' and surrogates' emotional experiences and offer clear guidance when patients are confronting serious illness. In the pediatric setting, in which decision-making is complicated by having a surrogate decision-maker in addition to a patient, these conceptions of autonomy also may influence expectations about the role that adolescents can play in decision-making.

Familism Through a Developmental Lens

Abstract: This article reviews an emerging literature examining the effects of familism across childhood and adolescence. Familism has been described as a Latino cultural value that emphasizes obligation, filial piety, family support and obedience, and its effects have been documented as primarily protective across childhood and adolescence. This review seeks to organize and critique existing research using a developmental science framework. Key tenets of this perspective that are highlighted in the review are close consideration of how familism develops within an individual across time, manifests itself at different points in development, and impacts child, adolescent, and family functioning. Forty-four articles were examined and categorized with results showing that the protective influence of familism is most evident during the period of adolescence. Consideration of expressions of familism and the impact of familism on outcomes during earlier and later periods of development is offered as a recommendation for deriving a more complete understanding of the function of familism in Latino families.

Is valuing positive emotion associated with life satisfaction

Abstract: The experience of positive emotion is closely linked to subjective well-being. For this reason, campaigns aimed at promoting the value of positive emotion have become widespread. What is rarely considered are the cultural implications of this focus on happiness. Promoting positive emotions as important for "the good life" not only has implications for how individuals value these emotional states, but for how they believe others around them value these emotions also. Drawing on data from over 9,000 college students across 47 countries we examined whether individuals' life satisfaction is associated with living in contexts in which positive emotions are socially valued. The findings show that people report more life satisfaction in countries where positive emotions are highly valued and this is linked to an increased frequency of positive emotional experiences in these contexts. They also reveal, however, that increased life satisfaction in countries that place a premium on positive emotion is less evident for people who tend to experience less valued emotional states: people who experience many negative emotions, do not flourish to the same extent in these contexts. The findings demonstrate how the cultural value placed on certain emotion states may shape the relationship between emotional experiences and subjective well-being.

Basic Personal Values Underlie and Give Coherence to Political Values: A Cross National Study in 15 Countries

Abstract: Do the political values of the general public form a coherent system? What might be the source of coherence? We view political values as expressions, in the political domain, of more basic personal values. Basic personal values (e.g., security, achievement, benevolence, hedonism) are organized on a circular continuum that reflects their conflicting and compatible motivations. We theorize that this circular motivational structure also gives coherence to political values. We assess this theorizing with data from 15 countries, using eight core political values (e.g., free enterprise, law and order) and ten basic personal values. We specify the underlying basic values expected to promote or oppose each political value. We offer different hypotheses for the 12 non-communist and three post-communist countries studied, where the political context suggests different meanings of a basic or political value. Correlation and regression analyses support almost all hypotheses. Moreover, basic values account for substantially more variance in political values than age, gender, education, and income. Multidimensional scaling analyses demonstrate graphically how the circular motivational continuum of basic personal values structures relations among core political values. This study strengthens the assumption that individual differences in basic personal values play a critical role in political thought.

Is There a Culture War? Conflicting Value Structures in American Public Opinion

Abstract: This article examines the “culture war” hypothesis by focusing on American citizens’ choices among a set of core values. A geometric model is developed to represent differences in the ways that individuals rank-order seven important values: freedom, equality, economic security, social order, morality, individualism, and patriotism. The model is fitted to data on value choices from the 2006 Cooperative Congressional Election Study. The empirical results show that there is an enormous amount of heterogeneity among individual value choices; the model estimates contradict any notion that there is a consensus on fundamental principles within the mass public. Further, the differences break down along political lines, providing strong evidence that there is a culture war generating fundamental divisions within twenty-first century American society.

Selfish or selfless? On the signal value of emotion in altruistic behavior.

Abstract: Theories that reject the existence of altruism presume that emotional benefits serve as ulterior motives for doing good deeds. These theories argue that even in the absence of material and reputational benefits, individuals reap utility from the feelings associated with doing good. In response to this normative view of altruism, this article examines the descriptive question of whether laypeople penalize emotional prosocial actors. Six studies find that emotion serves as a positive signal of moral character, despite the intrapsychic benefits associated with it. This is true when emotion motivates prosocial behavior (Studies 1, 2, 3, and 5) and when emotion is a positive outcome of prosocial behavior (i.e., "warm glow"; Studies 4, 5, and 6). Emotional actors are considered to be moral because people believe emotion provides an honest and direct signal that the actor feels a genuine concern for others. Consequently, prosocial actors who are motivated by the expectation of emotional rewards are judged differently than prosocial actors who are motivated by other benefits, such as reputational or material rewards (Study 6). These results suggest that laypeople do not view altruism as incompatible with all benefits to the self.

Birds of the Same Feather Tweet Together: Bayesian Ideal Point Estimation Using Twitter Data

Abstract: Politicians and citizens increasingly engage in political conversations on social media outlets such as Twitter. In this article, I show that the structure of the social networks in which they are embedded can be a source of information about their ideological positions. Under the assumption that social networks are homophilic, I develop a Bayesian Spatial Following model that considers ideology as a latent variable, whose value can be inferred by examining which politics actors each user is following. This method allows us to estimate ideology for more actors than any existing alternative, at any point in time and across many polities. I apply this method to estimate ideal points for a large sample of both elite and mass public Twitter users in the United States and five European countries. The estimated positions of legislators and political parties replicate conventional measures of ideology. The method is also able to successfully classify individuals who state their political preferences publicly and a sample of users matched with their party registration records. To illustrate the potential contribution of these estimates, I examine the extent to which online behavior during the 2012 US presidential election campaign is clustered along ideological lines.

The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age

Abstract: From a cutting-edge cultural commentator, a bold and brilliant challenge to cherished notions of the Internet as the great leveler of our age The Internet has been hailed as an unprecedented democratizing force, a place where everyone can be heard and all can participate equally. But how true is this claim? In a seminal dismantling of techno-utopian visions, The People's Platform argues that for all that we "tweet" and "like" and "share," the Internet in fact reflects and amplifies real-world inequities at least as much as it ameliorates them. Online, just as off-line, attention and influence largely accrue to those who already have plenty of both. What we have seen so far, Astra Taylor says, has been not a revolution but a rearrangement. Although Silicon Valley tycoons have eclipsed Hollywood moguls, a handful of giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook remain the gatekeepers. And the worst habits of the old media model-the pressure to seek easy celebrity, to be quick and sensational above all-have proliferated online, where "aggregating" the work of others is the surest way to attract eyeballs and ad revenue. When culture is "free," creative work has diminishing value and advertising fuels the system. The new order looks suspiciously like the old one. We can do better, Taylor insists. The online world does offer a unique opportunity, but a democratic culture that supports diverse voices and work of lasting value will not spring up from technology alone. If we want the Internet to truly be a people's platform, we will have to make it so.

Habits and beliefs that guide self-regulated learning: Do they vary with mindset?

Abstract: Prior research by Kornell and Bjork (2007) and Hartwig and Dunlosky (2012) has demonstrated that college students tend to employ study strategies that are far from optimal. We examined whether individuals in the broader—and typically older—population might hold different beliefs about how best to study and learn, given their more extensive experience outside of formal coursework and deadlines. Via a web-based survey, however, we found striking similarities: Learners’ study decisions tend to be driven by deadlines, and the benefits of activities such as self-testing and reviewing studied materials are mostly unappreciated. We also found evidence, however, that one's mindset with respect to intelligence is related to one's habits and beliefs: Individuals who believe that intelligence can be increased through effort were more likely to value the pedagogical benefits of self-testing, to restudy, and to be intrinsically motivated to learn, compared to individuals who believe that intelligence is fixed.

Moral enhancement, freedom, and what we (should) value in moral behaviour

Abstract: The enhancement of human traits has received academic attention for decades, but only recently has moral enhancement using biomedical means – moral bioenhancement (MB) – entered the discussion. After explaining why we ought to take the possibility of MB seriously, the paper considers the shape and content of moral improvement, addressing at some length a challenge presented by reasonable moral pluralism. The discussion then proceeds to this question: Assuming MB were safe, effective, and universally available, would it be morally desirable? In particular, would it pose an unacceptable threat to human freedom? After defending a negative answer to the latter question – which requires an investigation into the nature and value of human freedom – and arguing that there is nothing inherently wrong with MB, the paper closes with reflections on what we should value in moral behaviour.

There Is No Alternative

Abstract: This is a theoretical and practical interrogation of how the post-political has come to dominate governance. We are told that we live in a 'post-ideological' era - that we have moved 'beyond Left and Right' and that we are 'all in it together'. Democracy has been reduced to the consensual administration of economic necessity. How can we make sense of this form of depoliticisation? How does it manifest itself in different spheres of social life? And in what ways is it being challenged or subverted? Contributors to this volume respond to these questions through a wide-ranging critical engagement with the concept of the post-political developed by Chantal Mouffe, Jacques Ranciere, Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou and others. It gives an overview of the literature on the post-political for people approaching the field for the first time: its value and limits, its internal tensions and the possibility of creative syntheses with other approaches. It empirically analyses the post-political in relation to a diverse set of interconnected themes. It works within 3 key spheres of post-politicisation: urban governance, political ecology and international development. It exposes the constitutive antagonisms and sites of resistance in post-political governance. It assesses the reality and limitations of emancipatory political projects.

Value chains, neoliberalism and development practice: The Indonesian experience

Abstract: This paper provides a critical analysis of the emergence of an approach within the practice of international development that adopts a ‘value chain’ discourse, and traces the conceptual underpinnings of this discourse and practice through its translation from scholarly literature. This practical application of value chain theory has involved the selective application and interpretation, by development practitioners, of key scholarly ideas on global commodity chains, development strategies and industrialization. The specific application of value chains in Indonesian development practice, however, is silent on other aspects of the global value chain framework, such as the role of the state in mediating development strategies, power asymmetries within chains, and world-historical circumstances that shape upgrading possibilities. Despite foundational roots in critical analyses of global capitalism, recent ‘value chains for development’ applications appear to be perpetuating a neoliberal development ag...

Beyond Stakeholder Utility Function: Stakeholder Capability in the Value Creation Process

Abstract: In spite of the thousands of articles on stakeholder theory, research on value creation has had a shorter history and narrower breadth. Only a few studies have researched value creation from stakeholder perspective looking at how stakeholders appropiate value or the processes or activities by which stakeholders create value. Consequently to date, certain questions still remain unanswered regarding how a firm should treat stakeholders in order to create value. Several questions arise specifically from the stakeholder's side: What does "value" mean for a particular group of stakeholders and how do firms create these different types of value? How do we measure the value created by stakeholders? The purpose of this paper is to answer these questions from Amartya Sen's Capability Approach, identifying and measuring stakeholders' capabilities in the value creation process. Stakeholder Capability is the adequate concept for understanding stakeholder welfare rather than the utility function concept. The empirical evidence comes from an in-depth case study of the company The Grobo Group and its stakeholders. According to the results, the following stakeholder capabilities are relevant to value creation: being employable, being autonomus, being innovative, being entreprenurial, being responsive, being socially integrated, being emphatic, being "green" and being healthy.