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Showing papers on "Value (ethics) published in 2015"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss how energy justice can serve as a conceptual tool for philosophers and ethicists that better integrates usually distinct distributive and procedural justice concerns, and present a useful decision-making tool that can assist energy planners and consumers in making more informed energy choices.

592 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors study which dimensions of corporate culture are related to a firm's performance and why, and they find that proclaimed values appear irrelevant and that when employees perceive top managers as trustworthy and ethical, a firm´s performance is stronger.

382 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the effect of women on the firm value, financial performance, and compliance with ethical and social principles adopted by the firm, and found no evidence that a higher female representation on the board directly affects the firm's value.
Abstract: The European Commission has recently proposed the introduction of legally binding quotas for women on corporate boards of European companies. This proposal has put the spotlight on the question of whether increasing female representation on the board brings economic benefits to the firm. In order to shed light on the issue, this study investigates the direct and indirect effects of women on the board on firm value. We use a simultaneous equation model to estimate the effects of women on the board on firm value, financial performance, and compliance with ethical and social principles adopted by the firm. We find no evidence that a higher female representation on the board directly affects firm’s value. However, we find indirect effects. Women on the board are positively related with financial performance (measured in terms of return on assets and return on sales) and with ethical and social compliance, which in turn are positively related with firm value. The findings in this study suggest that greater female representation on corporate boards of large European firms can increase firm value indirectly. Further, part of the indirect effect comes from stronger compliance with ethical principles, something that is not captured by accounting-based financial performance.

301 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article propose that self-serving justifications emerge before and after people engage in intentional ethical violations to mitigate the threat to the moral self, enabling them to do wrong while feeling moral.
Abstract: Unethical behavior by “ordinary” people poses significant societal and personal challenges. We present a novel framework centered on the role of self-serving justification to build upon and advance the rapidly expanding research on intentional unethical behavior of people who value their morality highly. We propose that self-serving justifications emerging before and after people engage in intentional ethical violations mitigate the threat to the moral self, enabling them to do wrong while feeling moral. Pre-violation justifications lessen the anticipated threat to the moral self by redefining questionable behaviors as excusable. Post-violation justifications alleviate the experienced threat to the moral self through compensations that balance or lessen violations. We highlight the psychological mechanisms that prompt people to do wrong and feel moral, and suggest future research directions regarding the temporal dimension of self-serving justifications of ethical misconduct.

287 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the moderating effect of Islamic religiosity on the relationship between Muslim customer perceived value (MCPV) and Muslim customer satisfaction, and find that Islam's religiosity moderates the effects of Islamic physical attributes value and Islamic non-physical attributes value on Muslim customers' satisfaction.

271 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a conceptual framework for the study of customer-to-customer co-creation in tourism contexts, while debating the epistemological assumptions of value-related research in tourism.
Abstract: The notion that tourists actively co-create value with organisations is increasingly acknowledged in tourism marketing. Yet, not much is known about the processes in play when customers co-create value with each other. This conceptual paper offers a theoretical basis for the study of customer-to-customer co-creation in tourism contexts, while debating the epistemological assumptions of value-related research in tourism. Proposed conceptual framework posits that value is socially constructed and embedded in tourists' social practices. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

228 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Call for Proposals for Group & Organization Management's (GOM) Conceptual Issue as mentioned in this paper was developed to increase the likelihood that potential authors would submit viable proposals, however, these conversations quickly turned to questions regarding "what is a conceptual paper?" are conceptual papers just papers without data?
Abstract: When developing the Call for Proposals for Group & Organization Management’s (GOM) Conceptual Issue, we had lengthy discussions with colleagues and with each other about the best way to phrase the Call, and to increase the likelihood that potential authors would submit viable proposals. However, these conversations quickly turned to questions regarding “what is a conceptual paper?” Are conceptual papers just papers without data? Are conceptual papers different from theoretical papers? What about review papers, are they different from these? Within the management field, we tend to group nonempirical papers into theory, review, or commentary/critique pieces (Cropanzano, 2009). So, what is a conceptual paper? To some extent, the answer to each of the questions posed above is, “yes, but not quite.” Thus, in the Call for Proposals, we noted that “beyond summarizing recent research, manuscripts should provide an integration of literatures, offer an integrated framework, provide value added, and highlight directions for future inquiry. Papers are not expected to offer empirical data.” So, what does this really mean?

208 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose four central propositions about the purpose, accountability, control and success of business, and close with a consideration of several important theoretical issues and practical opportunities that await us in the future.

182 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The reasoning suggests the appropriateness of rejecting the assertion that nature's intrinsic value is anathema to conservation and accepting its role as an axiom.
Abstract: That at least some aspects of nature possess intrinsic value is considered by some an axiom of conservation. Others consider nature's intrinsic value superfluous or anathema. This range of views among mainstream conservation professionals potentially threatens the foundation of conservation. One challenge in resolving this disparity is that disparaging portrayals of nature's intrinsic value appear rooted in misconceptions and unfounded presumptions about what it means to acknowledge nature's intrinsic value. That acknowledgment has been characterized as vacuous, misanthropic, of little practical consequence to conservation, adequately accommodated by economic valuation, and not widely accepted in society. We reviewed the philosophical basis for nature's intrinsic value and the implications for acknowledging that value. Our analysis is rooted to the notion that when something possesses intrinsic value it deserves to be treated with respect for what it is, with concern for its welfare or in a just manner. From this basis, one can only conclude that nature's intrinsic value is not a vacuous concept or adequately accommodated by economic valuation. Acknowledging nature's intrinsic value is not misanthropic because concern for nature's welfare (aside from its influence on human welfare) does not in any way preclude also being concerned for human welfare. The practical import of acknowledging nature's intrinsic value rises from recognizing all the objects of conservation concern (e.g., many endangered species) that offer little benefit to human welfare. Sociological and cultural evidence indicates the belief that at least some elements of nature possess intrinsic value is widespread in society. Our reasoning suggests the appropriateness of rejecting the assertion that nature's intrinsic value is anathema to conservation and accepting its role as an axiom.

154 citations


Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, a comparative case study focusing on Microsoft Corporation and Grameen Bank is presented to illustrate the issues relative to productive and social entrepreneurship. But the authors focus on the impact of these two enterprises on the world, even if that impact is derived from different perspectives and motivations.
Abstract: As a critical contribution to the social entrepreneurship literature, this paper first engages the concept of social entrepreneurship. Situating it within the distinctive context of charity and philanthropy, it provides structure and clarity. Next, it identifies related sources of social impact and value creation, positing social and economic value creation as potentially overlapping. It then provides comparative case studies focusing on Microsoft Corporation and Grameen Bank, to illustrate these issues relative to productive and social entrepreneurship. Recognized as highly successful innovative ventures, these two enterprises have had profound social impact on the world, even if that impact is derived from very different perspectives and motivations.

114 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The relationship between design and values has attracted much attention during the past 30 years as mentioned in this paper, leading to the growing consensus that design is not a neutral activity; rather, it is loaded with, or bears, values.
Abstract: Values: A Problem of Practice The question of the relationship of design and values has sparked much scholarship during the past 30 years. These investigations have led to the growing consensus that design is not a neutral activity; rather, it is value-laden: design is laden with, or bears, values. Despite substantial agreement that design is value-laden, significant variation arises in understanding how and why design bears values.1 Some scholars argue that artifacts act to determine what is possible and impossible in human engagements with the world—that is, products bear consequences that affect what we value in human life and living.2 Others note that products, broadly conceived, bear the conscious and unconscious intentions, values, and politics of the individuals and corporations that designed them.3 Some scholars propose that designed products bear the preferences and values of those who use them,4 while others view values as ideals, and design bears the burden of approximating an ideal.5 Others speak of products as embodying values, as valuebearing material expression.6 Others emphasize the capacity of designers and publics to give voice to values, to contest and argue for what should be valued; here, values are born and borne in argument.7 None of these positions offers a definitive, settled, or uncontested account of the relation of design and values. This scholarship, however, has led to calls for practitioners to explicitly address values in their everyday design practice. Values-oriented practitioners not only are faced with a variety of theoretical understandings; they also regularly encounter the empirical fact that a given value (e.g., autonomy) can be both valuable and not valuable in its participation in design products and practices. Batya Friedman provides a useful example that illustrates this problem. She describes a situation in which a new computer workstation, designed to support speech input and multimedia, includes a built-in, always-on microphone. When a user of this workstation wishes to have a conversation that is not recorded, she must go through multiple steps to turn off the microphone—a cumbersome solution. Out of this case, Friedman explores the concept of autonomy, she asks: 1 For a thorough scholarly explication of the history of ethics and design from a European perspective see, Anna Valtonen, “Back and Forth with Ethics in Product Development—A History of Ethical Responsibility as a Design Driver in Europe” (presentation, Conference of the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM), CergyPontoise, France, October 13, 2006). 2 Bruno Latour, “Where are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts,” in Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change, ed. Wiebe E. Bijker and John Law (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1994), 225–58. 3 Langdon Winner, “Do Artifacts Have Politics?,” in The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for the Limits in an Age of High Technology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 19–39. 4 Roland Barthes, Mythologies, 1st edition, Annette Lavers, trans. (New York: Hill and Wang, 1972); cf. (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1957). 5 Victor J. Papanek, Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change, 1st ed. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1972). 6 Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects (Boston: August Media, 2001). 7 Carl DiSalvo, Adversarial Design (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2012).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the relationship between CSR and governance in the context of global value chains that span both organizational boundaries and geographic borders, and propose the notion of contested governance to explain how CSR becomes a key domain in which these contending, though potentially complementary, ways of defining and delimiting governance as an analytic concept play out.
Abstract: The frontier of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is constantly being negotiated by corporate and non-corporate actors that vie to define its meaning and scope. In this article, we explore the relationship between CSR and governance in the context of global value chains that span both organizational boundaries and geographic borders. We draw on the CSR and global value chain literature to highlight the nexus between CSR and what we see as two overlapping dimensions of governance. These are industrial governance (or the coordination of relationships among actors in a global value chain) and global governance (the efforts of non-state actors to manage transnational processes, including via the creation of norms and rules regarding global production). Drawing inspiration from an emergent neo-Gramscian perspective on global value chains, we propose the notion of contested governance to explain how CSR becomes a key domain in which these contending, though potentially complementary, ways of defining and delimiting governance as an analytic concept play out.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article explored the role of political astuteness not only in discerning and creating public value, but also in enabling public managers to be sensitive to the dichotomy between politics and administration.
Abstract: The public value framework, with its call for more entrepreneurial activities by public managers, has attracted concern and criticism about its implicit breaching of the politics/administration dichotomy. This article explores the role of political astuteness not only in discerning and creating public value, but also in enabling public managers to be sensitive to the dichotomy. We employ a conceptual framework to identify the skills of political astuteness, and then articulate these in relation to identifying and generating public value. Drawing on a survey of 1,012 public managers in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, and in-depth interviews with 42 of them, we examine the perceptions and capabilities of public managers in producing value for the public while traversing the line (or zone) between politics and administration. We conclude that political astuteness is essential to both creating value and maintaining allegiance to democratic principles.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a conceptual framework for value co-creation, focusing on collective action that includes various actors, interactions, practices, and outcomes, is presented, which enables empirical research in value-co-creation that accounts for multiple actors nested in fields of collective action.
Abstract: Drawing on the theory of strategic action fields, this article explores a collective–conflictual perspective on value co-creation. Following recent developments and calls for research with a holistic outlook, we review streams of research that discuss both collective and discordant elements in social relations and subsequently relate this to value co-creation. We outline a conceptual framework for value co-creation, focusing on collective action that includes various actors, interactions, practices, and outcomes. This article pioneers the underdeveloped collective–conflictual perspective on value co-creation. Our framework enables empirical research in value co-creation that accounts for multiple actors nested in fields of collective action.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the recent literature in behavioral ethics and moral psychology on ordinary unethical behavior, including cheating, deception, organizational misconduct, and many other forms of unethical behavior.
Abstract: Cheating, deception, organizational misconduct, and many other forms of unethical behavior are among the greatest challenges in today's society. As regularly highlighted by the media, extreme cases and costly scams are common. Yet, even more frequent and pervasive are cases of ‘ordinary’ unethical behavior — unethical actions committed by people who value and care about morality but behave unethically when faced with an opportunity to cheat. In this article, I review the recent literature in behavioral ethics and moral psychology on ordinary unethical behavior.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Sep 2015-Antipode
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the state is fundamental to the value form because it delivers the use values of non-human nature to the process of capital accumulation without the participation of the state.
Abstract: My argument is that the state is fundamental to the value form because it delivers the use values of non-human nature to the process of capital accumulation. Capital cannot, and historically does not, capture non-human nature without the participation of the state. The state delivers the utilities of extra-human nature to the accumulation process by creating property regimes, physical infrastructure, and scientific knowledge. As such, the state is a crucial under-theorized political membrane in the ecological metabolism of capitalism and the value form. The capitalist states inherently environmental qualities are rooted in its fundamentally territorial qualities. Where are the utilities of non-human nature found? On the surface of the earth. What institutions ultimately control the surface of the earth? Territorially defined national states. The example of state formation in the early years of the United States is used to illustrate these ideas.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the conditions under which intentional profit-seeking through corporate social action projects can create economic value for the firm, using resource-dependency theory and the resource-based view to define the firm's external and internal environments respectively.
Abstract: Literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has tended to treat economic benefits to the firm as unintentional spillovers that result from laudable CSR behavior. Empirical studies of the relationship between CSR and corporate financial performance (CFP) have reported mixed findings. This article shifts the conceptual and empirical focus to investigate the conditions under which intentional profit-seeking through corporate social action projects can create economic value for the firm. The article uses resource-dependency theory and the resource-based view to define the firm’s external and internal environments respectively. From that perspective, the article looks at how corporate social action creates economic value through strategic social planning and strategic social positioning. A survey instrument was developed and applied to 110 large Spanish firms. In that sample, munificence and continuous innovation positively affect social positioning, while nongovernmental organization salience and social responsibility orientation positively affect social planning. Both social positioning and social planning in turn contribute to corporate ability to create value. The article concludes with a discussion of the research and managerial implications of these findings.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine some of the reasons women remain underrepresented at the top of organizations, despite developments in management thinking that appear to reward areas where women traditionally excel.
Abstract: Purpose – Examines some of the reasons women remain under-represented at the top of organizations, despite developments in management thinking that appear to reward areas where women traditionally excel. Design/methodology/approach – Looks at some of the research into leadership skills and draws conclusions regarding the paucity of women in management. Findings – Considers some of the obstacles to women becoming managers to be: the attitudes of male managers, the lack of suitable role models for women, women’s reticence to network, and lack of confidence. Practical implications – Urges organizations to work harder to reduce the significance of these obstacles. Social implications – Shows how organizations – and through them society as a whole – would benefit from having more women in top jobs. Originality/value – Argues that having more women in leadership positions – that is, more positive role models – would help to give women more confidence in their ability to be great leaders and would encourage more...

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the authors look at complications related to viewing authenticity as a value or criterion of positive and make recommendations for addressing this dilemma, including having a diverse group of leadership role models, having goals for learning as well as for performance and accepting the need for changes in one's personal narrative.
Abstract: The article looks at complications related to viewing authenticity as a value or criterion of positive. It says that leadership typically requires learning and adapting to new roles and challenges through the adoption of new behaviors which may feel inauthentic, at least at first. It offers recommendations for addressing this dilemma, including having a diverse group of leadership role models, having goals for learning as well as for performance, and accepting the need for changes in one's personal narrative. INSET: The Cultural Factor.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explored the range and type of "values" and "costs" in formulating overall consumer value (CV) perceptions, in association with two emerging processing technologies that at the outset are neither distinctly positive nor negative in the eyes of consumers, in two culturally variant contexts, namely, a Western society where technology is often met with skepticism (i.e., the UK); and a non-Western society, where technology plays a reassuring role regarding concerns about food safety and quality (e.g., China).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate ways that research and practice might move to a higher level of self-leadership by considering the why and what of self influence beyond the how, and the degree to which self-influence processes are characterized by authenticity, responsibility, and increasing capacity.
Abstract: Some might question the relevance or value of what we know about self-leadership given recent business and societal contexts that seem to discourage personal responsibility and even reward destructive behavior. This article is intended to help expand our thinking via a journey along a “self-leadership high road.” After reviewing what we already know about self-leadership, this paper goes on to investigate ways that research and practice might move to a higher level. The concept of higher-level self-leadership (supported by the metaphor of a self-leadership high road) is addressed in terms of the degree to which self-influence processes are characterized by authenticity, responsibility, and increasing capacity. Authenticity encompasses the significance of addressing higher-level standards (e.g., considering the why and what of self-influence beyond the how). Responsibility is viewed in a way that is consistent with commonly understood elements of corporate social responsibility. Capacity centers on the exp...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined the relationship between working-class participation in higher education (HE) and social and cultural mobility and argued that embarking on a university education for workingclass people has been construed in governmental discourses as an instrumental means of achieving upward mobility, or of aspiring to become middle class.
Abstract: This paper interrogates the relationship between working-class participation in higher education (HE) in England and social and cultural mobility. It argues that embarking on a university education for working-class people has been construed in governmental discourses as an instrumental means of achieving upward mobility, or of aspiring to ‘become middle class’. Education in this sense is thus not only understood as having the potential to confer value on individuals, as they pursue different ‘forms of capital’, or symbolic ‘mastery’ (Bourdieu, 1986), but as incurring a form of debt to society. In this sense, the university can be understood as a type of ‘creditor’ to whom the working-class participants are symbolically indebted, while the middle classes pass through unencumbered. Through the analysis of empirical research conducted with staff from working-class backgrounds employed on a university Widening Participation project in England, the article examines resistance to dominant educational discourses, which understand working-class culture as ‘deficient’ and working-class participation in HE as an instrumental means of securing upward mobility. Challenging the problematic notion of ‘escape’ implicit in mobility discourses, this paper concludes by positing the alternative concept of ‘fugitivity’, to contest the accepted relationship in HE between creditor and debtor.

Book
24 Jul 2015
TL;DR: The role of the policeman in the community and attitudes towards the police are now matters of active public concern as discussed by the authors, and Maureen Cain gives an account of how the police operate in the United Kingdom.
Abstract: The role of the policeman in the community and attitudes towards the police are now matters of active public concern. In this important and enlightening study, first published in 1973, Maureen Cain gives an account of how the police operate in the United Kingdom. Her book will be of great value to sociologists, criminologists and policemen alike.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the intervention of a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in developing the dairy value chain in Bangladesh and found that the success relied on building the social structure of a market wherein market participants could negotiate relationships and norms of production and exchange and embed them in practices and technologies.
Abstract: Motivated by the question of how to develop viable new markets and value chains in the resource-constrained settings of least developed countries, we adopted multi-year qualitative methods to examine the intervention of a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in developing the dairy value chain in Bangladesh. Consistent with the theoretical premise that markets and value chains are social orders, we found that the NGO’s success relied on building the social structure of a market wherein market participants could negotiate relationships and norms of production and exchange and embed them in practices and technologies. To establish social structure among participants as a means of market building, the NGO acquired relevant knowledge, then used contextual bridging (transferring new meanings, practices and structures into a given context in a way that is sensitive to the norms, practices, knowledge and relationships that exist in that context), brokering relationships along the value chain (facilitating introduc...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is found that indulgence weakens the effect of utilitarian value, but strengthens the effects of hedonic value, on affective commitment, when compared with low-individualism users.
Abstract: In this study we examine the contingent effects of two cultural values, indulgence and individualism, on the relationships between perceived benefits (utilitarian value, hedonic value, and relation...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make a distinction between personal values and collective cultural values, and make an overview of recent advances in the literature on values, making a distinction from personal values to cultural values.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assume that place-based approaches can contribute to the sustainable development of communities and regions, using local resources, people's capacities and the distinctiveness of places for sustainable development.
Abstract: Our starting point in this conceptual paper is the assumption that place-based approaches can contribute to the sustainable development of communities and regions. In order to enhance sustainable development, adaptations to vulnerabilities and unsustainability require a more place-based approach, using local resources, people’s capacities and the distinctiveness of places for sustainable development. Our aim is to understand how processes of sustainable place-shaping are influenced by human values, rooted in culture. Culture is constructed and plays a mediating role between people and their environment, influencing people’s intentions, way of life, sense of place, practices, norms and rules. In its variety, culture is one of the sources as well as an outcome of distinctiveness between places. Transformation to sustainability is not only driven by practices and political structures, but also by beliefs, values, worldviews and paradigms that influence attitudes and actions. The paper shows how values have b...

Book
23 Oct 2015
TL;DR: Lambek's essays as mentioned in this paper show that our human condition is at heart an ethical one-we may not always be good or just, but we are always subject to their criteria.
Abstract: Written over a thirty-year span, Michael Lambek's essays in this collection point with definitive force toward a single central truth: ethics is intrinsic to social life. As he shows through rich ethnographic accounts and multiple theoretical traditions, our human condition is at heart an ethical one-we may not always be good or just, but we are always subject to their criteria. Detailing Lambek's trajectory as one anthropologist thinking deeply throughout a career on the nature of ethical life, the essays accumulate into a vibrant demonstration of the relevance of ethics as a practice and its crucial importance to ethnography, social theory, and philosophy. Organized chronologically, the essays begin among Malagasy speakers on the island of Mayotte and in northwest Madagascar. Building from ethnographic accounts there, they synthesize Aristotelian notions of practical judgment and virtuous action with Wittgensteinian notions of the ordinariness of ethical life and the importance of language, everyday speech, and ritual in order to understand how ethics are lived. They illustrate the multiple ways in which ethics informs personhood, character, and practice; explore the centrality of judgment, action, and irony to ethical life; and consider the relation of virtue to value. The result is a fully fleshed-out picture of ethics as a deeply rooted aspect of the human experience.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The value of the approach is to provide a universalisable though prima facie set of moral commitments which all doctors can accept, a basicmoral language and a basic moral analytic framework that can underpin an intercultural ‘moral mission statement’ for the goals and practice of medicine.
Abstract: This paper argues that the four prima facie principles— beneficence, non-maleficence, respect for autonomy and justice—afford a good and widely acceptable basis for ‘doing good medical ethics’. It confronts objections that the approach is simplistic, incompatible with a virtuebased approach to medicine, that it requires respect for autonomy always to have priority when the principles clash at the expense of clinical obligations to benefit patients and global justice. It agrees that the approach does not provide universalisable methods either for resolving such moral dilemmas arising from conflict between the principles or their derivatives, or universalisable methods for resolving disagreements about the scope of these principles—long acknowledged lacunae but arguably to be found, in practice, with all other approaches to medical ethics. The value of the approach, when properly understood, is to provide a universalisable though prima facie set of moral commitments which all doctors can accept, a basic moral language and a basic moral analytic framework. These can underpin an intercultural ‘moral mission statement’ for the goals and practice of medicine. Not long after I first read the 1979 first edition of Principles of Biomedical Ethics, 1 currently in its 2013 seventh edition, I became convinced that those four prima facie principles—beneficence, non-maleficence, respect for autonomy and justice —afforded a good and widely acceptable basis for ‘doing good medical ethics’. Over the years I have promoted and defended their use, while acknowledging that being prima facie they did not provide universalisable methods for resolving conflicts between those principles or their derivatives, nor did they provide a universalisable method or methods for resolving conflicts about their proper scope of application. 2–5 Intermittently I have incorporated them into a proposed intercultural ‘moral mission statement’ for the goals of medicine: ‘the provision of health benefits with minimal harm in ways that respect people’s deliberated choices for themselves and that are just or fair to others, whether in the context of distribution of scarce resources, respect for people’s rights or respect for morally acceptable laws’. 5

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present two data sets derived from Q methodology which examined stakeholder views of the cultural values from two marine protected areas; the Pacific Rim National Park, Vancouver Island, Canada and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Chichester Harbour, UK.
Abstract: Cultural ecosystem services are generally understood to be the non-material value that can be gained through ecosystems such as a sense of well-being, reflection and spiritual enhancement. These are often linked with a sense of place, culture, heritage and identity. The assessment of cultural ecosystem services, particularly in the marine environment is an inherently complex and difficult task, because they often involve making value judgments which can be hard to quantify. Methods applied to determining the value of these services are often focused on their financial value. Whilst methodologies have been developed to assess the non-material importance of these services, this paper argues that Q methodology provides a highly appropriate way of examining unmeasurable values by being able to convert qualitative, subjective data into quantitative information. The research presents two data sets derived from Q methodology which examined stakeholder views of the cultural values from two marine protected areas; the Pacific Rim National Park, Vancouver Island, Canada and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Chichester Harbour, UK. The relevance of using Q methodology as a valuation mechanism in this type of study is examined and justified; whilst highlighting the advantages of tackling a subject of values and intangibility, highly qualitative information, with a structured, semi-automated and primarily quantitative methodology. The findings show that the case-study areas hold three predominant ‘factors’ of value for its stake holders. These include the protected areas; as a place of care for each other and oneself through the natural world; a place of spirituality; and as a place of freedom and refuge. The paper strongly argues for the use of Q methodology in such a study, which ultimately helps to bring about a depth of information that arguably traditional methods are incapable of in the same capacity.