Search results

This chapter explores the ideas of Alasdair MacIntyre and Vaclav Havel and what these two thinkers can contribute to green political theory.

This chapter includes examination of some of the key works of Havel and MacIntyre and analysis of these works from the point of view of green political theory.

The section ‘Havel and the Imperative to “Live in Truth”: Dissent and Green Politics’ explores Havel’s thought with a particular emphasis on his ethicised notion of political action and critique (‘living in truth’) and his focus on the centrality of dissent (both intellectually and in practice) as central to political critique and action. The section ‘MacIntyre as a Green Thinker: Vulnerability in Political and Moral Theory’ offers an overview of MacIntyre interpreted as a putative green thinker, with a particular emphasis on his ideas of dependence and vulnerability. The Conclusion attempts to draw some common themes together from both thinkers in terms of what they have to offer contemporary green political thought.

What is presented here is introductory, ground clearing and therefore necessarily suggestive (as well as under-developed). That is, it is the start of a new area of exploration rather than an analysis based on any exhaustive and comprehensive knowledge of both thinkers.

This chapter offers some initial lines of exploration for scholars interested in the overlap between green thinking and the work of Havel and MacIntyre.

This is the first exploration of the connections between the works of Havel and MacIntyre and green political theory.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the design of characteristics and use of practices incorporated in customer relationship management information systems (CRM‐IS) impact on the expression and realisation of moral agency within organisations.

The paper draws on the findings from an in‐depth UK case study of a CRM‐IS implementation.

The paper finds that some characteristics and practices within CRM‐IS can restrict the expression and realisation of moral agency in organisational life, resulting in a number of problems. For a greater consideration of MacIntyre's virtue ethics approach in order to respond to such challenges is argued.

The paper offers a relatively rare insight into the significance of the ethical issues arising from the organisational use of CRM‐IS and strategies. The paper should be of interest to managers, computer professionals and academics.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that the corporate social responsibility (CSR) discourse has taken a wrong turn in its historical development, which risks a restriction of our thinking.

The paper has two main sections followed by a concluding discussion. First, the way in which even proponents of CSR have allowed a search for a link between engagement in CSR and firm performance to become a predominant strand of the debate is explored. Second, the way that economic rationality has developed through the sociology of economic behaviour is examined to provide a novel lens through which to view CSR.

It is contended that arguments for CSR based in morality and ethics have been at least partially foreclosed by the CSR academy's response to pronouncements on the topic made by Milton Friedman in 1970. It is argued that, in responding to his arguments largely in the terms dictated by those arguments, the critical potential of CSR is diminished.

The paper suggests alternative intellectual resources that might help to re‐balance this debate, drawing on what might broadly be called the sociology of economic behaviour. The paper concludes by calling for a re‐moralised CSR, reminding one that economic activity is embedded in social relations.

Attempts to critique CSR through lenses afforded by sociology are comparatively rare. This paper shows how the true nature of predominant preoccupations in the mainly business‐related debates on CSR can be more openly seen as being economically rational when examined using theoretical frames and language from sociology.

This paper begins by discussing two contrasting approaches to health care. The first approach is that of principlism, which emphasises four universal principles: respect for autonomy; beneficence; non‐maleficence; and justice. The second approach is the ethics of care that emphasise the importance of the relationship between the cared‐for and the one caring, rather than abstract principles. The problems with both of these approaches are highlighted, before arguing that an approach based on virtue ethics is more appropriate and better suited to health care ethics. Finally, by drawing on the conclusions of research undertaken with chronically ill people, the paper explores what this approach might mean for an approach that stresses dignity as a core value in health care ethics.

The purpose of the article is to move beyond positivistic political economy analysis of fair trade, and to examine competitive dynamics between competing interpretations in terms of the very fair trade concept itself.

Grounded in an ideational ontology, the paper provides a theoretical framework concerned with the contestation of meaning. Analysis applies this framework through a heuristic reading of fair trade's history, drawing on secondary literature, documents and primary qualitative research; and the discursive construction of Fair for Life – a new programme seeking to negotiate the “constitutive rules” of fair trade.

The article identifies that the history of fair trade and its current competitive dynamics are constituted by a negotiation and contestation of the constitutive rules that set the parameters of the fair trade concept.

The paper complements political economy analysis of socially constructed governance such as fair trade, and adds value to academic analysis by exposing important, yet previously unconsidered, micro‐politics of language and practice. The description and initial analysis of “Fair for Life” opens a new area of empirical interest for scholars of fair trade and sustainability governance.

Analysis highlighting the important implication of discourse and practice for the very definition of fair trade offers practitioners important insights into little considered implication of their practices and their representations in language.

The article complements political economy analysis by demonstrating the value of an ideationally grounded analysis of fair trade and similar socially constructed governance systems.