This article focusses on corporate attitudes to stakeholder environmental pressures in Argentina. It uses a cross section survey of 505 CEOs of Argentinean firms to gather information on environmental attitudes and a stakeholder theory framework to design and interpret the statistical analyses. It is underpinned by theoretical and empirical findings in the literature on stakeholder management, targeting in particular studies that deal with corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Latin America. Its general aim is to gain a deeper empirical understanding of (...) the coherence between managers' perceptions of stakeholder pressures and the importance they are given in corporate CSR strategies through an empirical investigation of environmental management (EM) decisions. In doing so, it uncovers general differences in the way firms perceive and treat groups of stakeholders. It also detects variations across firms, observing that some are typically proactive in their response to stakeholder pressures whilst others are less responsive. Profiling the various stakeholder networks and the corporate response strategies in this way encourages the development of stakeholder-focussed policies and corporate strategies that emphasise communications, awareness and a clear sense of direction. It concludes that CSR appears to be more effective in the protection of the environment than previously reported. Although this study focusses on EM in Argentina, the findings are more generally applicable. (shrink)

This article examines the conceptualisation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of mining multinationals (MNCs) in Argentina. It explores the suitability of CSR for addressing social, environmental and economic issues associated with mining in the country. The study is based on interviews with four stakeholder groups in the country: government, civil society, international financial organisations, and mining industry. These are analysed using content and interpretative techniques and supplemented by the content analysis of secondary data from headquarters of mining (...) MNCs. Using the concept of corporate social responsibility orientation (CSRO), the study contrasts the perceptions of major stakeholders and examines adaptation of mining companies’ CSRO to local context. It reveals that the CSRO of mining managers in Argentina differs from CSRO developed by global headquarters; and in Argentina companies “negotiate” economic, environmental and legal dimensions of CSR with the government. Although companies “negotiate” philanthropic responsibilities with the communities, ethical responsibilities are defined by the headquarters and not negotiated locally. The analysis suggests that environmental duties are the critical element of CSR in the mining sector in Argentina. This study treats environment as a separate dimension of corporate responsibility defined as to do “what is safe for the environment”. (shrink)

ArgumentRecurring economic crises, like the one of 2007-2008, led to criticism of economic research and a demand to develop new strategies to avoid them. Standard economic theories use conventional approaches to deal with economic challenges, heterodox theories try to develop alternatives with which to face them. It remains unclear whether the 2007-2008 crisis led to a change in economic research as well as to a consideration of alternative approaches. We used co-word analysis to map the structure of economic research in (...) Germany between 2005 and 2014. Core topics within economic research, such as “market” or “production” hardly shift and can be linked to standard economic theories. Peripheral topics such as “inequality” or “unemployment” show greater dynamics. However, only a few of these topics can be linked to heterodox approaches. Certain changes have occurred in reaction to the 2007-2008 crisis. However, the unchanged importance of standard economic topics raises the question whether these changes are sufficient to face coming economic challenges. (shrink)

We propose a model of planned corporate environmental behaviour that emphasises the values and attitudes of managers towards the environment, environmental intentions and the context in which these intentions are formed and translated into actual performance. In particular, we focus on the extent to which environmentally reactive managers influence the environmental performance of their firms. We identify the factors that mitigate or accentuate the effects of environmental “reactivism”—i.e. a mind-set shared by those who assign to the state the responsibility of (...) protecting the environment. We generate a series of hypotheses and use structural equation modelling to test them in the context of a unique dataset of Argentinean firms. Our system’s approach to corporate environmental behaviour explains approximatively 70 % of the variation in reported environmental performance across firms while highlighting elements of the model that may potentially be influenced by policy. Amongst other things, our empirical results suggest that stakeholder pressures can be an effective tool in the development of pro-environmental attitudes and in so doing offset some of the negative effects of environmental reactivism on environmental performance. Our paper highlights a number of other important implications for the design and implementation of environmental policies that account for human managerial determinants of corporate behaviour and social factors. (shrink)

Natural Law Today gives a strong voice to classical natural law theory as the best answers to the fundamental questions of ethics and as the best framework for political and social life. It explains various aspects of that theory and defends it against common misperceptions and criticisms.

In this paper, Caitlin Murphy Brust and Rebecca Taylor examine the responsibilities of college educators to resist conditions of epistemic injustice within their institutions. Pedagogy alone cannot bring about epistemic justice in higher education, for no individual epistemic agent can single-handedly transform their epistemic environment. The roots of such injustices are structural and thus require structural interventions. However, college educators do retain some agency to engage in epistemic resistance. Brust and Taylor argue that they can and should take (...) steps to foster just relations within the epistemic communities of their classrooms — calling for pedagogy that both recognizes the unjust features of the broader epistemic environment and responds to the unique forms of epistemic injustice that manifest in the classroom, with particular attention to seminar-style courses. (shrink)

In these remarks to the co-author, I offer general support for their overall argument, especially the relationship between faith and reason, the retrieval of religion as a virtue and its relation to the political community, and their emphasis on the confessional nature of any political community. I also offer some remarks on the importance of their ecclesiological argument.

While prior ecolabel research suggests that consumers’ trust of ecolabel sponsors is associated with their purchase of ecolabeled products, we know little about how third-party certification might relate to consumer purchases when trust varies. Drawing on cognitive theory and a stratified random sample of more than 1200 consumers, we assess how third-party certification relates to consumers’ use of ecolabels across different program sponsors. We find that consumers’ trust of government and environmental NGOs to provide credible environmental information encourages consumers’ use (...) of ecolabels sponsored by these entities, and consumers do not differentiate between certified versus uncertified ecolabels in the presence of trust. By contrast, consumers’ distrust of private business to provide credible environmental information discourages their use of business association-sponsored ecolabels. However, these ecolabels may be able to overcome consumer distrust if their sponsors certify the ecolabels using third-party auditors. These findings are important to sponsors who wish develop ecolabels that are more credible to consumers, and thus encourage more widespread ecolabel use. (shrink)

Ernst Wiechert’s prose written in the 1930s is best symbolized by Friedrich Hölderlin’s poem "Abendphantasie", in which the persona describes his loneliness and resignation, describing them as a thorn in his chest. The question of the identification of these feelings with the East Prussian writer is a major problem raised in the article. Wiechert certainly belongs to the group of writers associated with the so called Inner Emigration, and the studies by Herbert Wiesner, Ralf Schnell, Reinhold Grimm and Friedrich Denka (...) support this thesis. Also, the method developed by Hubert Orlowski allows us to include or exclude literary works from inner emigration literature. This method turns out to be helpful in the interpretation of Wiechert’s works. Moreover, the question of Wiechert’s position on National Socialism is considered, which is full of contradictions, as well as his coming close to the Inner Emigration. On the basis of selected prose works created in the 1930s, the writer’s evolution from the ‘breakthrough of grace’ to becoming an inner emigrant will be presented. Particularly noteworthy are some relevant themes in his works such as World War I, the mother figure as a prefiguration of the ‘Great Mother’ myth, the writer’s stand on National Socialism or the Mazurian landscape. (shrink)

Excerpt from Die Weltanschauung Platos: Dargestellt im Anschluss an den Dialog Phadon Kap. 2. N ach dieser Auscinandersetzung des I'hadon fragt Echekrates von neuem nach den Umstanden bei dem Tode des Sokrates, was dabei gesprochen und gethan worden, und welche von seinen Freunden zugegen gewesen waren. Phadon erklart zunachst, dass er dabei in eine wunderbare Stimmung ge kommen sei. Trotz des bevorstehenden Todes eines ihm teuern Mannes erfullte doch nicht das Gefuhl des Mitleides seine Brust; denn gluckselig erschien ihm (...) der Mann hinsicht lich seines Verhaltens sowohl als seiner Reden. Furchtlos und edel ging er in den Tod, so dass I'hadou der Gedanke vor die Seele trat, dass Sokrates auch in den Harles nicht ohne gottliche Schickung hinabsteige, und dass es ihm auch dort wohl ergehen werde, wenn sonst je einem. Aber auch Freude zog nicht bei ihm ein, wahrend sie doch mit philosophischen Fragen beschaftigt waren; sondern es war ein geradezu seltsa mer Zustand, in welchem er sich befand, gemischt aus Freude und aus Schmerz zugleich. In diesem Zustande befanden sich so ziemlich alle Anwesenden, indem sie bald lachten, manch mal auch weinten. Einer von ihnen ganz besonders, Apollodoros. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)