The underrepresentation of females on corporate boards is an important ethical issue that raises serious concerns about gender equality in senior management teams. Relying on a large sample of public firms from the Chinese market, we examine how social trust affects female board representation. We find that female board representation has a positive and significant relation with social trust. The effect is more pronounced in regions with a higher male-to-female sex ratio at birth, lower levels of education, lower (...) GDP per capita, and in nonfamily firms. We also find that higher social trust is more likely to increase the number of non-independent female directors rather than independent ones. Further analyses show that increased female board representation is an important channel through which social trust improves corporate ESG ratings. Overall, our study suggests that social trust contributes positively to gender diversity in corporate management. (shrink)

This article proposes a new social welfare measure based on Aristotle’s theory of reciprocity. Unlike existing metrics of social welfare, the proposed Aristotelian social welfare function measures reciprocity in a society, that is, the degree to which members of a society cooperate to benefit each other. We provide numerical estimates of the welfare function using data from income distribution quintiles in the recent past for the U. S., Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and Iran. The numerical results show that, (...) starting from different initial values, the U. S. and Germany have experienced declining social welfare, while Iran and Ukraine have experienced increasing social welfare. GDP per capita appears to be inversely correlated with social welfare in the U. S. and Germany. Europeans seem to enjoy higher social welfare than Americans. The article introduces its topic by advancing criticism that contemporary approaches to social welfare, such as the capabilities approaches, estimate a presumed welfare of individuals, rather than social welfare. (shrink)

In this contribution we take a look at the development of environmental concern and mobility behavior of the population in Germany and Switzerland. The proportion of survey participants who express concern about the state of the natural environment is high in both countries. However, this proportion did not increase during the last two decades despite the ongoing public debate about environmental issues. At the same time the demand for private transportation did increase in Germany by almost 20% (in Switzerland by (...) 2.5%). However, fuel consumption per capita decreased in Germany by 6.5% and in Switzerland by 2.2%. Our time series analyses of these trends suggest that this reduction is due to the price increase of gasoline which was substantial in both countries and not due to any change in attitudes. We argue that further price increases are appropriate means to reduce fuel consumption. However, our analyses also show that the price elasticity for fuel is low. (shrink)

Inconsistent corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices across stakeholder groups may induce undesired consequences for the firm. This study investigates the longitudinal and differential effect of chief executive officer (CEO) tenure on external and internal CSR and the moderating effects of two important contingencies relevant to the firm's social investments: firm visibility and slack availability. It presents CEO tenure as an important upper echelon factor that may induce differential preferences toward external and internal CSR and, therefore, CSR inconsistencies. Accordingly, (...) it proposes two important and relevant contingencies and provides additional evidence on how a firm's visibility and slack availability could affect CEO tenure-related differential behaviors. The findings contribute to studies on the temporal orientations of CEOs and how they impact firm strategic behavior. They also contribute to the literature on firm visibility and slack and how they may interact with certain upper echelon characteristics and affect firm behaviors. The analysis cautions against the perceptions of the relationships between firm- and CEO-level variables and a firm's aggregate CSR. (shrink)

What is the relationship between impunity and economic and social rights? A substantiated expectation of impunity encourages the commission of acts that violate human rights. Using a logistic-multinomial regression model, we find that impunity affects per capita GDP, years of schooling, and life expectancy. An unexpected finding was that different civil and political rights systems, as diverse as those of Norway and Singapore, have similar impacts on both impunity and economic and social rights. Nonetheless, we need to (...) focus on holistic models that strive for protection of all human rights. (shrink)

Improving the life service for the elderly is a topic of great concern to the government and society. This paper explores the influence of net attention on social work service satisfaction of the elderly. This paper studies and analyzes the current situation of the elderly’s net attention and social satisfaction, constructs the index system of social service satisfaction through the sample data of 17 districts and counties in A province, and establishes a multilayer linear model to analyze (...) the influencing factors of social service satisfaction, and empirically analyzes the feasibility of the proposed model’s rationality and effectiveness. The structure shows that the scores of elderly people’s satisfaction with public services in all regions of A province are higher than 60 points, and the biggest difference of standard deviation of each region is 3.91 points. Public service expenditure has a negative effect on social service satisfaction, but population density, geographical location, and per capita GDP have no obvious effect. The regression coefficient of public service expenditure is -0.099134, which can reduce the score of social service satisfaction. Elderly participation in public welfare activities, elderly awareness of government, and elderly participation in government can improve the social service satisfaction score. (shrink)

In this century Australia has enjoyed the highest per capita incomes and probably the most equal distribution of income of any nation in the world. Australia has been a lighthouse social democracy. We assess the impact of the vigorous liberal economic reforms of the 1980s on economic management and steering, social integration and cohesion, on the public sector, on civil society and the public sphere. We see that the reforms have been ideologically driven and that they have (...) negatively affected the distribution of income, the deliberative capacity of the policy apparatus, and the unique institutional features of social democracy in Australia. (shrink)

This review article situates the work Black Flame within a capita selecta of earlier publications on anarchism-syndicalism and radical thought. Schmidt and Van der Walt's contribution (2009) is a recent addition to political thought, theory and socio-economic practice within the broad stream of anarcho-syndicalism. Its treatment of anarchism and anarchist syndicalist groups in the workplace within an international context since the middle 1800s and the attempt to situate the debate in contemporary society are some notable features. The authors engage (...) with the past relevance of anarcho-syndicalism and implications for the future given current discontent with (global) politics. As an ongoing discourse on social philosophy, references are made to areas of agreement and differences between Anarchist and Marxist discourse. The latter versus one ‘grand narrative’ conjectures that liberal-capitalism on a global scale is bringing about an ‘End of History’ and that we have entered a post-industrial or even post-modern condition on the globe. However, theories-put-into-practice around the implosion of history and a ‘clash of civilisations’ result in deep inequality and the rise of absolute poverty. The work invites reflection and critical engagement. (shrink)

System analyses deal with interrelationships between different variables that keep the system in balance. In many analysis of complex thinking, a system is viewed as a complex unit in which the ‘whole’ is not reduced to the ‘sum’ of its parts; the system becomes an ambiguous item because it consists of several entities that interact with unforeseen results or, in other words, it is situated at a transdisciplinary level, it is impossible for an area to have a complete reading of (...) its complexity. It was also mentioned that the concept of the open system best describes complexity by stating that ‘the laws of the organization are not equilibrium, but an imbalance that is restored or compensated for by stabilized dynamics’. This idea originated from the field of thermodynamics and the second law, in which the imbalance that it maintains allows the system for an apparent balance. This fragile steady state has something of a paradox, since the structures remain the same, but their constituents are changeable. The concept of open system undoes the door to a theory of evolution that can only derive from the interactions between a system and its ecosystem. Within this systemic approach, the focus of the analysis takes into account the ambiguity, multidisciplinary and complexity associated with system adjustment, i.e. it is intended to qualify an employee job based on their experience and knowledge as a measure of their impact on the organization performance. (shrink)

Se presentan los resultados de un estudio que explora la gestión de la responsabilidad social en trece hospitales de la Red Sanitaria de RS. Las conclusiones revelan que estos hospitales gestionan la RS profesionalmente y con criterios de calidad, orientados al cumplimiento de los ODS, en el marco del plan estratégico de cada hospital. Aunque, todavía se detectan déficits en su implantación departamental, su planificación, y la evaluación de sus impactos. Y debilidades como la falta de recursos y de (...) liderazgo. Para superarlos, el apoyo directivo del hospital resulta determinante. La Red Sanitaria de RS constituye un modelo de colaboración. (shrink)

A la fin du XIXe siècle, le progrès des sciences et des techniques parut ouvrir une ère de bonheur où l'homme, délivré des tâches serviles et de toutes les superstitions, serait enfin le maître de la nature et de son propre destin. Mais le XXe siècle ne tint pas ces promesses. Certes, le progrès des sciences a fait reculer la mortalité infantile et allonger l'espérance de vie. Les nouveaux moyens de communication ont permis la circulation rapide d'informations autour du globe. (...) Mais notre environnement est menacé par toutes sortes de déchets. La biologie a ouvert des voies effrayantes. l'automatisation a bouleversé le monde du travail. La nécessité de former des scientifiques pour créer et maîtriser ces nouveaux outils a fait reculer la culture classique. De tels changements ont obscurci les repères traditionnels, les esprits sont déroutés, le sens est en crise. A l'entrée du troisième millénaire, l'Académie d'Education et d'Etudes sociales ne pouvait laisser ces questions dans l'ombre : elles sont trop souvent l'objet de débats plus passionnés que fondés et raisonnés. La science menace-t-elle l'homme et son environnement? Pèse-t-elle sur la cohésion sociale et la démocratie? Quelle est sa place dans la culture, à côté de la philosophie? Comment le chrétien se situe-t-il dans ce monde scientifique et technique? Par une étude raisonnée de ces questions, l'AES souhaite délivrer un message d'espoir et de confiance, et contribuer à mettre le développement scientifique et technique au service de l'homme, suivant la parole de l'Ecclésiastique : " Le Très-Haut a donné à l'homme le savoir pour être glorifié dans ses merveilles " (17,8). (shrink)

Apresentação Agradecemos à presença dos professores do mestrado em Comunicação da Faculdade de Comunicação Social da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, aos alunos da graduação e da pós e aos quatro convidados pela gentileza de estarem no campus da Universidade para tratar de um assunto pouco estudado na área de comunicação. Nos currículos antigos, em especial aqueles na década de 1980, havia uma disciplina intitulada Sistemas Internacionais de Comunicação. Hoje esse é um tema ausente da grade de (...) muitos cursos, daí a importância desta palestra organizada pelos alunos, em 2006, da disciplina de Comunicação Internacional do Programa de Pós-graduação em Comunicação – mestrado – da Uerj, que também encerra as atividades da disciplina no semestre. Este encontro faz parte do Seminário de Produção Acadêmica (SPA), no qual os alunos da graduação e da pós-graduação se encontram em algumas ocasiões para debater assuntos pré-agendados. Participam desta mesa os seguintes correspondentes internacionais: Paula Gobbi, presidente da Associação dos Correspondentes de Imprensa Estrangeira no Rio de Janeiro (ACIE), que reúne praticamente todos os correspondentes estrangeiros sediados na cidade; a brasileira Ivani Flora, que trabalha para a rede de televisão SIC, de Portugal; Ana Maria Geres, diretora no Brasil da agência de notícias espanhola EFE, e Krzysztof Gluchowski, correspondente do jornal The Polish Daily, que circula na Grã-Bretanha. (shrink)

After the three families divided up the state of Jin and the Tian family took over Qi, the political situation in the fourth century B.C.E. appeared even more chaotic. Wei conquered Chu's Luyang and Qin's Xihe, Qin defeated Wei at Shimen , and again at Shaoliang , and Wei moved its capital to Daliang. During the mid-Warring States period, Qin became dominant in the west, Qi in the east, Chu in the south, and Wei in the center. Rapid changes occurred (...) one after another; trickery and conflict were rampant. However, the shi , the intelligentsia, actually managed to expand their spheres of existence and activity accordingly in this state of tension between countries, states, and men. A few major states assembled quite a number of literati; and those men of the villages, who had in earlier times merely waited passively for opportunities to fall into their laps, crisscrossed the various feudal states; literati who previously had no cause to use military force became, one by one, the honored guests of the feudal lords. With the breakdown of the previously simple and obvious order, the gradually dismantling of the common body of the ancestral clan of the past, and the increasing complexities of social relationships after the dissolution of blood ties, social order became a matter of concern. Or, to reword this most practical issue: How could this universally chaotic society go from disorder to order? (shrink)

The International Panel on Social Progress is an independent association of top research scholars with the goal of assessing methods for improving the main institutions of modern societies. The IPSP has produced a report consisting of twenty-two chapters in three volumes that distills the research of these scholars and outlines what the best social science has to say about positive social change. Written in accessible language by scholars across the social sciences and humanities, these volumes assess (...) the achievements of world societies in past centuries, the current trends, the dangers that we are now facing, and the possible futures in the twenty-first century. It covers the main socio-economic, political, and cultural dimensions of social progress, global as well as regional issues, and the diversity of challenges and their interplay around the world. The authors offer a cautious optimistic conclusion: multiple ideas for social progress and better policies are already available and deserve to be tested and implemented. (shrink)