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The notion of “sustainable development” has had a short and tumultuous history, including a departure from economic reductionism by focusing on a multidimensional aspect and addressing the issues of its scope across many disciplines. It has become a project enabling a rethinking of capitalism based on the concept of a reformed type of capitalism. The purpose of this paper is to study this issue.

The paper is based on the following arguments: the presentation of sustainable development as a “vague” theory, an empirical proof of this vagueness with regard to corporate actions whose justification is based around the notion of sustainable development, and finally the ambiguities of the notion.

The notion of sustainable development raises the question of an apparent consensus on its correlates: solidarity, responsibility, equity, etc. It tends to establish a protean sense of the firms' responsibility, particularly the larger ones. The largely political dimension of the notion has today consequences on its usage. Sustainable development as addressed in the firm tends to take on the dimension of a management issue, which is likely to persist due to its larger political dimension.

The paper provides insight on the catch‐all dimension of the notion and its appealing rhetorical character and bases the ambiguity related with references to an “in‐between.” On the institutional level, it refers to a social and fair economy that stands arguably in between the state and the market. On the methodological level, it refers to heuristics of fear and hope.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a definition of genetic information by taking into account the debate surrounding it. Particularly, the objections raised by Developmental Systems Theory (Griffiths, 2001; Oyama 1985; Griffiths and Knight 1998) to Teleosemantic endorsements of the notion of genetic information (Sterelny et al. 1996; Maynard Smith, 2000; Jablonka, 2002) as well as deflationist approaches which suggest to ascribe the notion of genetic information a heuristic value at most, and to reduce it to that of causality (Godfrey-Smith, 2000; Boniolo, 2003, 2008).

The paper presents the notion of genetic information through its historical evolution and analyses it with the conceptual tools offered by philosophical theories of causation on one side (“causation as influence,” Woodward, 2010; Waters, 2007; Lewis, 2000) and linguistics on the other (“double articulation” Martinet, 1960).

The concept of genetic information is defined as a special kind of cause which causes something to be one way rather than another, by combining elementary units one way rather than another. Tested against the notion of “genetic error” this definition demonstrates to provide an exhaustive account of the common denominators associated with the notion of genetic information: causal specificity; combinatorial mechanism; arbitrariness.

The definition clarifies how the notion of information is understood when applied to genetic phenomena and also contributes to the debate on the notion of information, broadly meant, which is still affected by lack of consensus (Floridi, 2013).

This paper presents a new solution for conceptually modeling the training‐domain knowledge of intelligent computerassisted instructional (ICAI) systems. Various cognitive demands from learners impose various modalities of presenting and structuring the knowledge to be taught. This paper is presenting a theoretical framework allowing to develop coherent, flexible models for the training‐domain knowledge of an ICAI system. A case study and an authoring‐system are also presented, in order to describe the main features of the modeling methods. This new approach in ICAI systems’ domain‐knowledge structuring and representation can offer a solution to the problem of adapting the instructional system interaction to users with different learning styles and needs.

Discusses the long existing and confusing problems of establishing the relationship of who is, and who if not, a dependent worker. Reflects developments which have occurred in British law as it affects the employment field, plus an evaluation and analysis of some of the different types of employment relationships which have evolved by examining, where possible, the status of each of these relationships. Concludes that the typical worker nowadays finds himself in a vulnerable position both economically and psychologically owing to the insecurity which exists.

The notion of sustainable development, which appears to have become a permanent fixture in political and economic discussions at the national and international level, carries with it approvals of various sorts. At a time when the sheer number of human beings on the planet is ecologically problematic, sustainable development has replaced motherhood as that which everyone unreservedly commends. The different foundations upon which approval rests successfully blanket sustainable development with an all encompassing positive assessment. Positively assessed economically, politically, ecologically and purportedly topped off with moral support from human rights and justice considerations, sustainable development has attained the status of an unquestioned good. Frequently it is touted as the highest good. The means to achieving sustainable development globally and how to contribute to it nationally are seriously debated worldwide. While courses of action plotted to secure the end may rest in pages of committee reports or be poorly implemented, the few voices raised against the recommendation to pursue it are scarcely discernable as a murmur in the cacophony of those who sing its praises. Consequently, when the support from economic, political, ecological and moral theories combines with “the people's” commitment to sustainable development, this notion functions to identify today's most powerful justification for the actions or omissions of governments, individually or jointly.

The purpose of this paper is to consider some notions that are currently in use in integrated care, with the aim of exploring whether these notions improve the quality and integration of care.

Notions like “continuity of care”, “coordination of care”, “team‐working” and “partnerships” are some of the wide variety of terms increasingly employed within the range of initiatives and efforts that aim to enhance the quality of health and social care environments for patients and users. While each of these notions seems to represent a worthy cause in the quest for better care, and is accompanied by varying extents of evidence of its effectiveness, conceptual clarity of each notion remains a challenge. This paper undertook a detailed examination of what each of these notions comprises, how it is measured objectively and subjectively, whilst highlighting any apparent overlap between the notions.

From the analysis of the four notions, two main patterns of dysfunctional features emerged: the first pattern involved issues of multiple, imprecise and constricted definitions; the second pattern had to do with imprecise or conflicting assessments of how the different notions or dimensions thereof are related to one another.

A review of the literature suggests that the meanings, and consequently the measurement, of these notions could benefit from less ambiguity in order to prevent confusion about what precisely is being implemented and measured.

In order that calls for quality improvement do not become slogan statements, there is an urgent need for integrated framework(s) that add clarity to an already compound web of notions. This could contribute to improving the quality of research and evidence base of this complex field.

This study aims to explore the impact of well-educated young Chinese employees’ notions of work on their conflict management styles in the increasingly turbulent workplace to help better manage work-related conflict in the time of transition in China.

Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from over 400 young Chinese employees. The data were first factor analyzed to explore the underlying dimensions of contemporary work notions in China’s transition period. Hierarchical regression analysis was then conducted to explore the relationship between dimensions of work notions and conflict management styles.

The results showed that well-educated young Chinese employees’ notions of work consisted of sense of control, fulfilling and rewarding, holistic concerns, personal growth and development and meaningfulness. The results further indicated that young Chinese employees with strong needs to satisfy individual interests in their work tend to use competitive methods to manage work-related conflicts, employees with strong needs to satisfy group interests in their work prefer to use collaborative methods and those who believe in collective efforts in achieving individual goals through group goals’ obtainment are more likely to use collaborative and compromising approaches.

This study provides a new perspective to manage work-related conflict in the Chinese context. The findings of this study are able to help enrich conflict management theories in China and suggest insightful conflict resolution approaches to work-related conflicts in China’s changing environment. This study also helps bridge the research gap between work notions and conflict management styles. The results of this study can greatly facilitate Chinese companies’ endeavors toward crafting a more innovative workforce and help improve employee performance in China’s transition to industrialization.

The purpose of this paper is to comment on Steven Laporte’s review of About and on Behalf of Scriptum Est by Suominen with the aim of clarifying conceptual confusions related to the notion of constitutive and the notion of value-in-itself in the review.

The notion of constitutive as it appears in the reviewed monograph and Laporte’s reasoning around the notion of value-in-itself as challenges to are discussed and their differences are analyzed.

The notion of value-in-itself appears problematic as the reviewed monograph already claims. The notion of constitutive provides us with a more plausible foundation for challenging the exclusively instrumentality-based views of the rationality of the practice of the library and librarianship. Compared to the notion of constitutive as used here, the notions used by Laporte remain abstract.

The notion of constitutive could be a key notion opening a perspective for conceiving of the historical, cultural, social, and political conditions of being of the humans as the foundation of the rationality of the library and librarianship.

The purpose of this paper is to circumscribe the various philosophical connections between the classical and the modern notion of corruption from Enlightenment to post-modernity.

The paper analyzed to what extent the classical notion of corruption (Plato, Aristotle and Cicero) still influenced the way philosophers perceived the phenomenon of corruption during the Enlightenment (1625-1832), the transition period (1833-1900) and the post-modernity (1901 onward). Taking those historical periods as reference points, the author will see how literature about historical, social and political conditioning factors of corruption could convey the presence/absence of the classical or the modern notion of corruption.

The paper finds that the classical notion of corruption implies the degeneration of human relationships (Plato and Hegel), the degeneration of the body-and-mind unity (Aristotle, Pascal and Thomas Mann) or the degeneration of collective morality (Cicero, Locke, Rousseau, Hume and Kant). The modern notion of corruption as bribery was mainly introduced by Adam Smith. Nietzsche (and Musil) looked at corruption as degeneration of the will-to-power. The classical notion of corruption put the emphasis on the effects rather than on the cause itself (effects-based thinking). The modern notion of corruption as bribery insists on the cause rather than on the effects (cause-based thinking).

In this paper, the author has taken into account the main representatives of the three historical periods. Future research could also analyze the works of other philosophers and novelists to see to what extent their philosophical and literary works are unveiling the classical or the modern notion of corruption.

The paper presents a philosophical and historical perspective about corruption. It sheds light on the way philosophers (and sometimes novelists) deal with the issue of corruption, whether it is from an effects-based or from a cause-based perspective.