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Humans care about things. The truth of this claim is obvious, yet scholars who have evaluated student interventions and outcomes in higher education have largely neglected how student values might inform their experience with those interventions and outcomes. This chapter will rely on a philosophical conceptualization of a particular type of value known as “caring” to explore what students value as they weigh various collegiate decisions. Elaborating on findings from a qualitative study of 143 college students from eight American universities, I will summarize previous findings related to what students cared about, how those cares were structured, and what the cares and structures meant for students' pathways through college. The categorical and theoretical patterns I share demonstrate how students approached values in ways that have not typically been considered by scholars or institutional administrators. After summarizing my previous findings, I offer a conceptual argument for a “dialectical” approach that considers the mutually formative interaction between student and institutional values. The practical result of naming and understanding the dialectic realities of values in higher education is the opportunity for institutions to use their relatively greater agency to help individual students pursue what is worth pursuing without reducing the agency of those students. Thus, the dialectic places necessary boundary lines on both the institution and the student while also clarifying the opportunity to help students develop moral expertise and navigate their collegiate pathways successfully.

This chapter explores the gap between social expectations and actual sustainability performance in the business world and identifies the root causes of this discrepancy. The author reviews corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability, and their relationship with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This chapter also compares the connections and differences between the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the SDGs. The author analyzes possible solutions to bridge the gap, including renewing the social contract between businesses, society and institutions. This involves rethinking the role of businesses and institutions in promoting sustainability and creating new systems and structures that incentivize sustainable practices. This chapter concludes by discussing the pathway to a sustainable and inclusive world through systems innovation and change. When embracing a systems thinking approach, individuals and organizations can identify and address the root causes of unsustainability, and create more resilient and sustainable systems that benefit both people and the planet.

Dementia is characterized by the progressive decline in cognitive and daily functioning. Although the decline is often the defining characteristic of dementia in biomedical models, several scholars highlight the preserved skills of persons with dementia. Identity, or a sense of self, is among the areas relatively preserved in the later stages of dementia. It is the window through which caregivers understand the subjective experiences of persons with dementia.

This qualitative exploratory study highlights the value of social relationships, particularly the role of the Filipino family in recognizing personhood and maintaining identity in dementia care. Preserving identity entails understanding the person’s unique characteristics that reflect one’s sense of self. In a highly collectivistic culture, such as the Philippines, the family is crucial to preserving identity and overall well-being in dementia. This study explores the perspectives of 15 Filipino caregivers as regards caring for a family member with dementia. Participants discuss changes in family structure and the challenges in dementia care. More importantly, they delve into strategies used to preserve identity and encourage life participation in their loved one with dementia. Essential Filipino cultural values in dementia care, such as collectivism, religion, and the values of filial piety and utang na loob (or debt of gratitude) are further discussed.

A review of the literature on the Filipino elderly reveals that social and cultural expectations of filial duty and obligations are still strong in the Filipino family. Filial piety based on the concept of “utang na loob” or debt of gratitude to parents, and respect for age are important traditional Filipino values as evident in the support given by children to their parents, and in the words and practices showing deference to the older generation. Studies have shown that the most common living arrangement of the elderly is co-residence with children or to have at least one child living close by in the neighborhood. With the generally poor economic well-being of the elderly, they rely heavily on their children both in the Philippines and abroad for support. Caregiving of the elderly is family-based with the children, particularly the daughters, as major providers of care and assistance to maintain their physical well-being. Studies have also shown the importance of intergenerational solidarity for the social well-being and mental health of the elderly through constant communication and visits, with a two-way flow of economic and emotional support between parents and children. Institutionalization of the elderly appears to be a last resort to complement rather than replace the welfare function of the family.

For future research, it is recommended that government laws benefitting the elderly and their implementation be analyzed, including the most effective way to reach those in remote areas in order to disseminate information on their benefits. Studies should also be done to develop programs for caregiving training and incentives, on ways to uphold standards and monitor the quality of facilities of private retirement homes, to establish more government homes or home-care services for the indigent who needs long-term care. It is also recommended that studies on geriatric centers and facilities be done to ensure high-quality of elderly care.

This chapter presents a spiritual or wisdom-based approach to development, its rationale, conceptualization, methods and examples of applications. The politics of being proposes that societies explicitly make the fulfillment (‘being’) of all its members – humans and non-humans – their main goal, which should guide the development and implementation of public policies. It stands in opposition to the current development paradigm focused on economic growth or ‘having’, and rooted in a set of modern western values – individualism, materialism, reductionism, anthropocentrism, etc. By nourishing our relational nature, the politics of being can address the root causes of the meta crisis the world is facing, reconciling human flourishing with sustainability and supporting the cultural evolution that is needed. It proposes a dialogue between wisdom and science, the two main areas of knowledge, to guide its design and implementation. It conceptualizes ‘being’ as the actualization of our truest ‘being’ and our highest ‘being’. This means that societies should provide the right conditions for their human members to express themselves and fulfil their healthy aspirations, as well as to develop human virtues and qualities. Wisdom traditions and spiritual teachings offer relevant insights into the nature of human fulfilment and the process of spiritual evolution that can be applied to societies. They emphasize the cultivation of spiritual values and qualities such as love, peace, happiness, life, mindfulness, mystery and the understanding of interconnectedness. In recent decades, these qualities have become areas of scientific research and been at the core of social change and development initiatives. Together they can serve as the foundations of the politics of being and allow to identify actionable public policy agendas in many sectors mainly based on existing examples.

The purpose of this book chapter is to examine how sustainable developmental goal (SDG) implementation for sustainability transformation can be driven by the business practice of a multinational enterprise (MNE). It concerns sustainability transformation that takes place in complex environments with the engagement of different types of stakeholders from various organizations and domains. The chapter focuses on inclusive stakeholder orientation to move from a firm-centric to a societal perspective grounded in an ethical, macro-oriented, and network philosophy. The transformation is embedded in the global transformation agenda, the UN 2030 agenda, with its 17 SDGs. In this chapter, the authors assess MNEs’ role in implementing the SDGs by conceptualizing sustainability transformation practice in a business context of IKEA grounded in circular economy and circular society thinking. Implementing the SDGs strengthens the “challenge-driven transformative change.” Based on the theoretical and conceptual framework, the authors have constructed a matrix and contextualized the case of IKEA. It results in a descriptive analysis of MNE SDG implementation for sustainability transformation. The chapter has contributed a general model for a sustainability transformation practice in a business context embedded in circular economy and circular society thinking, which can utilize for challenge-driven transformative change. The new model has been redesigned for its new purpose. The model is constructed based on a new theoretical and conceptual framework and from the context of IKEA as a MNE acting as a globally integrated enterprise with a circular and societal transformation focus.

At the beginning of the 21st century, multiple and diverse social entities, including the public (consumers), private and nonprofit healthcare institutions, government (public health) and other industry sectors, began to recognize the limitations of the current fragmented healthcare system paradigm. Primary stakeholders, including employers, insurance companies, and healthcare professional organizations, also voiced dissatisfaction with unacceptable health outcomes and rising costs. Grand challenges and wicked problems threatened the viability of the health sector. American health systems responded with innovations and advances in healthcare delivery frameworks that encouraged shifts from intra- and inter-sector arrangements to multi-sector, lasting relationships that emphasized patient centrality along with long-term commitments to sustainability and accountability. This pathway, leading to a population health approach, also generated the need for transformative business models. The coproduction of health framework, with its emphasis on cross-sector alignments, nontraditional partner relationships, sustainable missions, and accountability capable of yielding return on investments, has emerged as a unique strategy for facing disruptive threats and challenges from nonhealth sector corporations. This chapter presents a coproduction of health framework, goals and criteria, examples of boundary spanning network alliance models, and operational (integrator, convener, aggregator) strategies. A comparison of important organizational science theories, including institutional theory, network/network analysis theory, and resource dependency theory, provides suggestions for future research directions necessary to validate the utility of the coproduction of health framework as a precursor for paradigm change.