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This paper aims to provide a new methodological approach by applying Neo-Kohlbergian considerations in historical context to an analysis of the late speaker of Deutsche Bank Dr Alfred Herrhausen’s moral reasoning process.

A wide range of methods is used, including analyzing Herrhausen interviews, biographies, speeches, statements and further written material, as well as interviews of his contemporaries conducted by this researcher to derive the most accurate posthumous depiction of Herrhausen’s moral reasoning.

The study reveals that Herrhausen was indeed a person of significant moral character when judged by his activist stance on several highly salient global issues.

The thought construct Kohlbergian scholars have been providing is deeply imbedded in a tradition of continental philosophy. While the underlying philosophy in Kohlberg’s cognitive moral development model provides much more than is often considered when used in the field of business ethics, discourse ethicists still consider Kohlberg’s ideas a cornerstone of their philosophical ventures.

Herrhausen has become an iconic figure in Germany, often used by politicians as an aspirational standard and corrective to the current management elites’ mishaps. Internationally, he played an important role as a global manager on the political stage by arguing for a Chapter 11 solution for highly indebted countries during the late 1980s.

The nature and conceptualization of public space and public life have been always associated with collective participation and socialization – in other words, the capacity to live together among strangers. Today these associations seem to have become challenged and problematic, and often end in questioning whether public space still matters for our public life? This paper aims to bring new understanding to the reading of public life in public spaces and also contribute to rethinking of the role of urban design today within our changing public life.

The paper adopts participant‐observation within a case‐study area, “Parque das Nações”, in Lisbon, Portugal.

The paper identifies a number of spatial, social and experiential conditions that are conducive to social interactions amongst strangers. Often it is the combination of three factors that generates the most interaction.

Participant observation is a useful method to study public behaviour in the public realm. Nevertheless, as the study was conducted in one location, the findings may not be transferable to other locations/cultures, etc.

This paper demonstrates the need to rethink and adapt urban design practices to an increasing changing public life. Urban design needs to be much more sensitive to all locations (planned and unplanned) and the favourable spatial, experiential and social conditions people make use of and which can provoke positive interactions need to be recognised.

A better understanding of the factors that are conducive to positive interaction between strangers and non‐strangers in the public realm will help to develop more favourable conditions for these to take place. The interaction between people is part of the fabric of social life.

This is the first paper to combine social/spatial and experiential factors in the observation of social interaction in public places.

Organisations are often reluctant to change their corporate cultures even when such change is essential to cope with the changing business environment. This paper analyses the three phases of change management adopted by the multinational company RWE Solutions and describes several steps that organisations can adopt in managing change strategies and establishing new corporate cultures. It is important to formulate and articulate the core statements and the “mission” of the company, making sure that the company’s business model and strategy are comprehensible and communicable to external publics. It is also important for managers to ask whether a gap exists between statements and reality, the real vision and claims of the vision, and assess how any existing chasms can be bridged. Next, assess whether the company’s “emotional presence” is evident in the corporate design, which should match the story of the company and be as close to the self‐image and the goals of the employees and management staff as possible. Finally, managed communication (and public relations) should be a critical component of any corporate strategy.

Emerging collaborative arrangements between public and private institutions provide the potential for novel ways of enhancing the provision of public goods. This paper aims to explore the question whether formal mechanics rooted in complex institutional alliances are today's prototype of tomorrow's mainstream approaches to governance, or such mechanics are transitory stages or symptoms of governance challenges that will eventually be resolved through more traditional means.

The paper focus on the role of business in these governance micro‐climates, although the analysis carries implications for public institutions and civil society organizations, and the final sections extend the country case analysis to related public policy strategies.

Collaborative governance could be the common currency of decision making in the future and is preferable if it provides a means to overcome existing institutional constraints to effectively addressing social and environmental challenges.

The paper brings together the phenomena of collaborative governance and corporate responsibility.

This paper seeks to present the key actors in Germany in the field of public forecasting and futures studies.

Taking into account the highly decentralized nature of German institutions, and the reforms carried out since the reunification, it analyses the contributions of the main economic institutes and foundations of the country. It gives a detailed account of their methods, means, topics of research, and impact on public debate, together with up‐to‐date links to the main web sites.

The dominant approach tends to be economic forecasting, carried out by major institutes that rely on academic logic. Societal futures studies are not so well served and are less recognized.

Provides an insight into the state of futures research in Germany and its characteristics.

Recent years have witnessed an increasing number of cities develop strategies. The discourse of strategic management has become an obligatory point of passage for many city managers. This paper starts by posing an ostensibly simple question: why do cities need strategies? The commonsensical answer to the question is: because cities compete with each other. This paper aims to problematise the seemingly natural link between cities, competition and strategy. It also aims to explore the role that calculative practices play in creating city league tables that, in turn, function as the a priori condition that generates competition between cities.

This paper is interdisciplinary and draws on the related disciplines of accounting, organization theory and strategy. The argument unfolds in four steps: first, it briefly provides some theoretical background for analysis and relates it back to strategizing and accounting as a calculative practice; second, it scrutinizes league tables as an a priori of competition; third, it discusses the implications of the argument for city management and critical accounting; finally, it concludes with a discussion of the power effects of those calculative practices that shape strategizing in cities through the production of competition.

This paper argues that city strategizing is best understood as a set of complex responses to a new competitive arena, one rendered visible through calculative practices, manifested through city rankings. The paper makes five key contributions: one, league tables reduce qualities to a quantifiable form; two, league tables create an order amongst an heterogeneous ensemble of entities; three, league tables stimulate the very competition they claim to reflect; four, once competition is accepted, individual players need a strategy to play the game; and five, league tables have important power effects that may result in unintended consequences.

The paper contributes to understanding how calculative practices relate to strategy; it explores the organizational environment in which city managers strategize; in addition, it discusses the problem of civic schizophrenia.

The paper seeks to open up an agenda for studying city management, strategy and accounting.