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Not since the Great Depression of the 1930s have the activities of individual corporations come under as much scrutiny as they have over the past decade. With daily headlines about the savings and loan crisis, insider trading, layoffs and plant closures, green marketing, ingredient labeling practices, and influence‐peddling political contributions, the new watchwords in the business world are ethics, accountability, and social responsibility.

The teaching of environmental sustainability was explored in five sections of an elementary social studies methods course with pre-service teachers. Using surveys and structured discussions, we identified pre-service teachers’ beliefs about environmental sustainability in response to prior experiences, course readings, films, guest lecture, and group activities (e.g., simulations). Findings suggest the subjects’ knowledge of environmental sustainability increased as a result of the course. They believed environmental sustainability is a significant global issue meriting attention in the elementary classroom; however, they felt ill prepared to teach sustainability issues to young children in developmentally appropriate ways. Finally, pre-service teachers expressed caring about improving their own consumer behaviors and sought concrete solutions from others in order to do so. Implications for elementary social studies education are discussed.

There have been increasing calls for social studies educators to engage issues of sustainability. Proponents argue that the very survival of the planet depends on the degree to which teachers can move learners away from unsustainable beliefs and behaviors to those grounded in interdisciplinary approaches to solving community and global challenges. How to implement this vision of sustainability education? The purpose of the paper is to report the results of teacher-educators' curriculum and pedagogical approaches to implement the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) C3 framework to engage and empower prospective and practicing teachers to teach for a sustainable future.

The study is guided by the growing field of self-study in teacher education, a type of research undertaken by teacher-educators with the dual purpose of personal professional development and a deep understanding of teacher-education practices. Most data were derived from multiple, recursive conversations (both formal and informal) around curriculum decisions and pedagogical choices to integrate sustainability issues into teacher-education courses. Additional data sources include classroom lecture notes and PowerPoint presentations, course readings and resources.

The authors' three years of collaborative work has shown that an issues-centered, interdisciplinary approach to select and integrate global issues, the current event article analysis, young adult literature and discussion and deliberation of local sustainable development issues that are some of the most effective pedagogical tools to engage and empower teacher candidates in learning about issues that affect the sustainable development of global community. The NCSS C3 provides a powerful framework to scaffold the process of analyzing sustainable issues while also teaching social studies curriculum and standards and skills.

Scholars of global education have called for shifting from an anthropocentric philosophy to a bio-centric worldview emphasizing the embeddedness of humans within the environment. How can social studies teacher-educators implement this vision of global education What instructional resources strategies and learning activities can be effectively integrated into existing courses to help candidates develop competences and commitment to teaching for global sustainability The study examines the innovative approaches to addressing these critical topics in teacher education.

While social marketing has been utilised to bring about positive social change, ultimately, the decision to engage in prosocial behaviour resides with the individual. The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants and outcomes of prosocial behaviours.

A web-based self-administered survey was used to collect data from a convenience sample of largely university staff and students. Data obtained were analysed using SEM-based partial least squares methodology.

The results show that individuals who are future oriented and issue involved are more likely to engage in prosocial behaviour. Also, these individuals are more likely to assess fewer negative consequences and experience more positive feelings as a result of their prosocial behaviour.

While the study focuses on two social issues, it does provide some explanation of self-reported behaviour, rather than intention to behave. However, future research could pay attention to a wider array of social issues and undertake post hoc testing to measure the characteristics of the chosen social issues. This may enhance findings, and provide greater support for the generalisability of the model. Also, future research could be directed towards the examining the role of perceived risk and feelings as an outcome of behaviour.

A better understanding of the prosocial individual can assist in designing more effective social marketing campaigns. In particular, focusing on positive feelings as a result of engaging in prosocial behaviour has practical implications.

Little attention has been given in the marketing and consumer behaviour literature to understanding the prosocial individual. To this end, this research empirically tests a model of prosocial behaviour for two social issues that integrates determinants (social responsibility, time orientation and issue involvement) and outcomes (assessment of negative consequences and feelings). Moreover, the results highlight that positive feelings are a significant outcome of prosocial behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of a collaborative framework for balancing stakeholder power and social responsibilities in construction projects. To resolve the problems of unclear responsibility that is common in construction projects, the framework is designed to help stakeholders identify their roles in various issues and to facilitate collaborative endeavours by elucidating their responsibilities.

The framework is designed using a scientific approach based on a problem-solution paradigm. It is developed as a model that would provide strategies for responding to various issues and that would also balance stakeholder responsibilities with power. A case study is conducted to validate the framework in an ongoing real estate project in China.

The effectiveness of the framework is validated from the case study, which found that the engagement of stakeholders is improved by adopting the framework. It is also found that use of the framework led to enhancement of communication and trust, and better collaboration through a collective form of responsibility.

The study provides valuable insights into stakeholder collaboration on social responsibility issues in construction projects. The dynamic nature of stakeholders is addressed, and an easy-to-follow framework is offered for use in construction projects.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the need to theorize firms’ involvement in social issues and propose the social issues management model as a framework for analyzing the communication processes underlying social issues management. An application of the new approach is illustrated through a brief case analysis.

The paper is conceptual and emphasizes theory building for firm’s involvement in social issues management.

The paper describes modifications to the general issues management model that can be adopted to reflect the social issues management process and contemporary digital media environments.

The paper can benefit theory and practice of social issues management by describing how specific communication strategies and digital media use may affect social issues management.

Because firms increasingly are motivated or urged by stakeholders to take stands on social issues, understanding how they can perform the role of social issue manager can enhance their potential for contributing to positive social change.

The paper provides a much needed update to the models of issues management used in strategic communication. The new model accounts for the increasing pressure on firms to address social issues and the role of digital communication channels in that process.

This essay examines the issues that the ongoing revolution in biosciences and biotechnology pose to social science. A convenient frame for examining these issues is the framework of “thematic priorities” established by the British funding agency for social science, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). These “thematic priorities” are used to identify major challenges and opportunities that currently confront social research. Though not constructed as part of a futures exercise, this framework proved useful for organising the issues that were generated from literature review and brainstorming, provided a stimulus to identify new issues, and was a useful filter for presenting results to the ESRC, which sponsored the study. This range of issues does not just call for interaction between natural and social scientists: there is also need for the sharing of knowledge and perspectives across diverse fields of social science. In order to help inform future research priorities, we need to move beyond the perspectives of single disciplines, and make sure that we do not simply emphasise those areas where social scientists have already been actively engaged. The study concludes clearly that there is a huge range of vital questions that social science needs to address if we are to understand, let alone bring more social intelligence to bear on shaping, the scientific and technological revolutions that are under way, and their broader social implications.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the networks that form around an organizational crisis and identify the most predominant frames communicated by the traditional media and other social media users.

Through the systematic analysis of 3,000 tweets, this study utilized the social analysis method to map and measure how crisis information spreads through social media as well as a content analysis to identify the type of frames being communicated online immediately following a crisis.

The results of this analysis show that the media were the most active and influential sharers of information following Chipotle’s E. coli crisis. This information shaped the frame of the story, which focused on the hazard components involved in the crisis and the outrage of the organization’s publics. Consequently, stakeholders framed the situation as an issue of policy due to poor food handling procedures.

This study also reaffirms the important presence of traditional media organizations as the originators of information in a crisis. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate how Twitter can serve as a framing tool for an organization’s stakeholders. Communication managers and professionals can use the methods in this study to gauge public sentiment and obtain information that can be used to shape their consequent crisis management efforts.

Findings from this study reveal that as awareness of an issue spreads, stakeholders will quickly turn to social media to obtain and share information, as well as communicate about the issue with other social media users. This study demonstrates how the SNA method can be used to develop theory, in the realm of social media and online communication and provide guidance for professionals crafting their communication.

Given the growing interest in social movements as policy agenda setters, this paper investigates the contexts within which movement groups and actors work with political elites to promote their common goals for policy change. In asking how and why so-called outsiders gain access to elites and to the policymaking process, I address several contemporary theoretical and empirical concerns associated with policy change as a social movement goal. I examine the claim that movements use a multipronged, long-term strategy by working with and targeting policymakers and political institutions on the one hand, while shaping public preferences – hearts and minds – on the other; that these efforts are not mutually exclusive. In addition, I look at how social movement organizations and actors are critical in expanding issue conflict outside narrow policy networks, often encouraged to do so by political elites with similar policy objectives. And, I discuss actors’ mobility in transitioning from institutional activists to movement and organizational leaders, and even to protesters, and vice versa. The interchangeability of roles among actors promoting social change in strategic action fields points to the porous and fluid boundaries between state and nonstate actors and organizations.