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This paper starts by establishing a prima facie case that disadvantaged groups or individuals are more likely to get a chronic disease and are in a disadvantaged position to adhere to chronic treatment despite access through Universal Health Coverage. However, the main aim of this paper is to explore the normative implications of this claim by examining two different but intertwined argumentative lines that might contribute to a better understanding of the ethical challenges faced by chronic disease health policy. The paper develops the argument that certain disadvantages which may predispose to illness might overlap with disadvantages that may hinder self-management, potentially becoming disadvantageous in handling chronic disease. If so, chronic diseases may be seen as disadvantages in themselves, describing a reproduction of disadvantage among the chronically ill and a vicious circle of disadvantage that could both predict and shed light on the catastrophic health outcomes among disadvantaged groups-or individuals-dealing with chronic disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial incentives may provide a way of reducing the burden of chronic diseases by motivating people to adopt healthy behaviours. While it is still uncertain how effective such incentives could be for promoting health, some argue that, even if effective, there are ethical objections that preclude their use. One such argument is made by Michael Sandel, who suggests that monetary transactions can have a corrupting effect on the norms and values that ordinarily regulate exchange and behaviour in previously non-monetised contexts. In this paper, I outline Sandel's corruption argument and consider its validity in the context of health incentives. I distinguish between two forms of corruption that are implied by Sandel's argument: efficiency corruption and value corruption While Sandel's thought-provoking discussion provides a valuable contribution to debates about health policies generally and health incentives specifically, I suggest the force of his criticism of health incentives is limited: further empirical evidence and theoretical reasoning are required to support the suggestion that health incentives are an inappropriate tool for promoting health. While I do not find Sandel's corruption argument compelling, this only constitutes a partial defence of health incentives, since other criticisms relating to their use may prove more successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have iterated that the future of synthetic biology and biotechnology lies in novel consumer applications of crossing biology with engineering. However, if the new biology's future is to be sustainable, early and serious efforts must be made towards social sustainability. Therefore, the crux of new applications of synthetic biology and biotechnology is public understanding and acceptance. The RASVaccine is a novel recombinant design not found in nature that re-engineers a common bacteria ( Salmonella) to produce a strong immune response in humans. Synthesis of the RASVaccine has the potential to improve public health as an inexpensive, non-injectable product. But how can scientists move forward to create a dialogue of creating a 'common sense' of this new technology in order to promote social sustainability? This paper delves into public issues raised around these novel technologies and uses the RASVaccine as an example of meeting the public with a common sense of its possibilities and limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zygmunt Bauman's sociology of morality signals an important new direction from the orthodoxy of Emile Durkheim's 'society' realised ethics. The first part of this paper defends Bauman's postmodern position as valuable in theorising the moral present, offering a sociological conception of the sources, strategies and experience of contemporary morality. The paper then shifts to a critique of Bauman's social theory of 'being for the other', arguing that it misses the particular and embodied aspects of moral sociality and effaces the self in endless responsibility to the Other. It is suggested that a sociology of morality is needed which goes beyond Bauman's moral saint and provides conceptual space to theorise the self and cultures of authenticity and self-fulfilment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic interest in magic has grown considerably during the last twenty years. Leaving aside the old stereotyped dichotomy between magic and religion, I consider magic a pragmatic subsystem of religion whose function is to alleviate or deal with daily life's misfortunes. I suggest in this paper some possible approaches that might be interesting to deepen in the social study of Roman magic. This paper is divided in three sections. The first one deals with morality and magic: even if legal sanctions on magic can be influential in the individual's decision to resort to magical practices, H. Versnel's category of Prayers for Justice proved that some curses can be perceived as legitimate from the subjective point of view of the user; I suggest that subjective legitimation can in fact be applied to all Roman curses. The second section tackles the topic of emotions and magic: based on western conceptualisations of emotions, scholarly approaches on ancient magic have generally failed to see the evidence that make the choice of resorting to magic a rational option more than an emotional act. Finally, the third part of this paper analyses magic as rational choice in the individual's strategies for decision taking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a dynamic system for the interrelationships between happiness and health that considers three main attitudes to life: α, β, and γ for Aristotelian, Epicurean, and Stoic, respectively. All variables that have been shown by empirical and theoretical studies to affect individual health and happiness are included (i.e., employment, occupation, education, ethical freedom, equity in achievements). Three main approaches are considered: behavioural and statistical ex- ante, and ex- post behavioural. A model is developed to rank the three attitudes in terms of health for a given happiness level, and consequently, provide insights into which attitude should be adopted by each individual, according to their characteristics: individuals in Protestant and non-Protestant Christian societies should adopt β and γ attitudes, respectively; educated individuals should adopt a γ attitude; and poor individuals should adopt an α attitude. Based on this analysis, this paper provides insights into which attitude actually is adopted by each society by comparing predicted health and achievement levels with the observed life expectancy at birth and per capita gross domestic product levels in 107 countries, thus providing an empirical test of the analytical model. This analysis revealed a prevalence of β attitudes in Protestant Developed Countries, with larger γ shares in less income-unequal countries; a prevalence of γ attitudes in non-Protestant Christian Developed Countries, with larger β shares in more income-unequal countries; a prevalence of α attitudes in Muslim Less Developed Countries, with larger γ shares in more educated countries; and a prevalence of β attitudes in more educated atheist and Jewish countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gated communities have received significant attention in academic debates. Despite this, there is a lack of studies on differentiation and tensions between them. This paper analyses differentiation between gated communities by adopting the theory of “symbolic boundaries” [Lamont, M., 1992.Money,morals,and manners:the culture of the French and American upper-middle class. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press]. It uses the data collected from fieldwork in two gated communities in Istanbul, Turkey, comprising semi-structured in-depth interviews with residents. First, the paper contributes to Lamont's “symbolic boundaries” [Lamont, M., 1992.Money,morals,and manners:the culture of the French and American upper-middle class. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press] by showing that morality is not independent from socio-economic context, but indicates the legitimate values of a given social context. This is shown in residents’ use of moral boundaries such as a law-abiding lifestyle, legitimate sources of capital accumulation and the existence of warmer relations with each other. Second, the paper contributes to the study of gated communities by demonstrating that they can be regarded as spatial manifestations of the division within the upper classes which results from competition for deserved status. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is an ongoing debate in the metaphysics of dispositions regarding which type of modality governs their manifestation. This paper assumes as its default position the view that dispositions manifest by conditional necessity; that is, when in appropriate circumstances dispositions manifest necessarily. From this standpoint, the paper engages critically with an existing alternative in the literature, put forward most prominently by Mumford and Anjum, and known as dispositional modality. According to this latter view, even when in appropriate manifestation conditions, dispositions only merely tend towards their manifestation. By raising difficulties for this alternative, the paper offers indirect support for the conditional necessity view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most long-standing criticism of virtue ethics in its traditional, eudaimonistic variety centers on its apparently foundational appeal to nature in order to provide a source of normativity. This paper argues that a failure to appreciate both the giving and taking of reasons in sustaining an ethical outlook can distort a proper understanding of the available options for this traditional version of virtue ethics. To insist only on giving reasons, without also taking (maybe even considering) the reasons provided by others, displays a sadly illiberal form of prejudice. The paper finds and criticizes such a distortion in Jesse Prinz's recent discussion of the "Normativity Challenge" to Aristotelian virtue ethics, thus highlighting a common tendency that we can helpfully move beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper works with Levinasian thought to ask how principles of responsibility can be engaged for the twenty-first century crisis of climate destabilization, and other matters of injustice and exploitation. A case is made for extending an ethics of responsibility from a human-centered view to include humans as interdependent with nature. After a selective review of responsibility as inaugurating an ontology ofotherwise-than-being, consideration is given to the phenomenology of the face-to-face relation and to notions of a teaching relation, to knowledge and to Levinas’ notion of justice, in line with the philosophical and educational interests of this journal. The prospect of society constituted on responsibility is brought to life in a brief reference to Māori society and indigenous thought. An interpretation of quantum theory is also introduced because of its analogies with the inter-related world view of indigenous thought. These all point to relationality which antecedes the ontology ofbeing. While much is made of Levinas’ work on the face, this paper argues that it is in principles of ethics that break with totality, and Levinas’ notions of transcendence and infinity rather than the faceper sethat enable us to broaden the scope of reference for Levinasian ethics. Levinasian ethics question the stronghold of liberal humanistic goals in educational vision, and open a horizon of the shared destiny of humans and nature—an ‘eco-pedagogy.’ The paper draws these threads together to consider their relevance to education for sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent decades, concepts of group agency and the morality of groups have increasingly been discussed by philosophers. Notions of collective or joint duties have been invoked especially in the debates on global justice, world poverty and climate change. This paper enquires into the possibility and potential nature of moral duties individuals in unstructured groups may hold together. It distinguishes between group agents and groups of people which - while not constituting a collective agent - are nonetheless capable of performing a joint action. It attempts to defend a notion of joint duties which are neither duties of a group agent nor duties of individual agents, but duties held jointly by individuals in unstructured groups. Furthermore, it seeks to illuminate the relation between such joint duties on the one hand and individual duties on the other hand. Rebutting an argument brought forward by Wringe, the paper concludes that it is not plausible to assume that all humans on earth can together hold a duty to mitigate climate change or to combat global poverty given that the members of that group are not capable of joint action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transmission and contestation of putative transcendent moral values has been relatively under-represented in geographers' thinking about globalisation and transnationalism. This paper does so through an analysis of how a new moral geography is being produced by debates over homosexuality in one transnational religious network: the Anglican Communion, a major international Christian denomination that has been significantly divided in recent years over the issue. The paper begins by outlining the beliefs articulated by Anglicans who claim an 'orthodox' position on homosexuality, the threat that 'orthodox' Anglicans perceive from the international dissemination of progressive values about lesbian and gay equality and the transnational dynamics of the debate. The second half of the paper reflects on the impact of these transnational debates on the local lived experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians drawing on empirical research in England, the USA, South Africa and Uganda. The paper concludes by arguing that understanding why and how particular moral certainties are promoted as transcendent causes matters because challenging such processes are crucial in the struggle over the shape and meaning of social relations in the twenty-first century. In doing so, the intention is to reinvigorate the field of moral geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying as a vegan is a public declaration of one's identity morals and lifestyle. Veganism is more than a diet; it is a philosophy and ethic. However, not all vegans hold the same norms and values. The differences are often determined by the reasons why one chooses to become a vegan. Using Goffman's theory of impression management and the presentation of sell; this qualitative study examines how sixteen self-defined ethical vegans negotiate contradictions in their ethics and behavior The vegans construct a sense of authenticity through accommodating strategies when they feel inauthentic. This is a two-prong process. They present a narrative of themselves in relation to the "other"—those they define as health vegans—and in relation to other ethical vegans. Through these narratives, this paper explores how these vegans negotiate the difficulties of living in an animal-based consumer-driven society in a manner that preserves their ethics. Additionally this paper observes how they cope when their behavior contradicts their identity as authentic vegans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the recent flurry of beauty pageants as reintegration rituals which specifically aim at the symbolic integration of some stigmatized embodied identities: Miss HIV (Botswana, Uganda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe but also Russia), Mr or Ms AIDS (Kenya) and the most recent Miss Landmine (Angola, Cambodia). Common reactions to such events betray a most uncomfortable moral quandary: people seem torn between condemnation, repulsion and a very hesitant acknowledgement of the stated aim of positive re-integration. The paper explores this moral discomfort through its relations to a number of unresolved issues: the ambiguous status of beauty, the complex relationships between stigma and (its lack of) public representation, the multiple uses of beauty pageants as integrative rituals and the importance of beauty practices as a means to re-create meaning and dignity in distressing circumstances. Contestants’ interviews make it clear that they use the beauty pageants as one of the few – or maybe the only – site allowing for personal, social and political affirmation. The necessary collective dimension of these affirmations is linked to the socio-cultural and political contexts of countries just re-emerging from armed struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the adoption of an integrated approach to children's services. The paper opens by introducing the Scottish policy statements that recommend that it is at the level of the school and community that integrated services need to be effective for the aims of social justice and inclusion to be achieved. The policy discourses are analysed to reveal a number of potential issues of contention between the different practitioner groups involved in children's services relating to the relocation of the space of integration and the nature of practitioner-, practice- and governance-level relations. The social capital theory is then introduced, and a multi-level conceptual framework of sub-types of social capital is proposed to chart and analyse intersections and potential points of disjuncture in the work of the different practitioner groups in schools. The concept of human capital is used to explore questions of practitioner knowledge, expertise and research practices. It is suggested that mapping the capital resources used by the children's sector practitioners provide a framework to analyse how inter/transprofessional relations currently operate and to identify interstices where practitioners' social and human capital need to be reconstructed to better serve children and young people, and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the different moral approaches taken by the Russian Orthodox Church and secular NGOs to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Russia. The paper consists of two parts. The first is a brief summary of the theoretical approach of the project. In this section I outline the theory of moral breakdown that helps provide a coherent framework to the emerging, but yet under-theorised, subdiscipline of the anthropology of moralities. In doing so, I show how this theory provides legitimacy to this choice of topic for a proper study of local moralities. The second section provides a brief background on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Russia, and then moves on to an analysis of the moral discourses and practices of the Russian Orthodox Church and secular NGOs, and how they have influenced the way these institutions approach the HIV/AIDS epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first part of this paper provides a concise overview of the ethnographies of 'looting', demonstrating the importance of this kind of archaeological ethnography in understanding the phenomenon; the paper also emphasizes the need to encompass reflexivity in terms of the impact and the sociopolitical dimensions of professional archaeology upon public perceptions and treatments of the material past. Such a reflexive archaeological ethnography of 'looting' is instrumental for two reasons: it allows for the recognition of the power imbalances in the production of the past; and, most importantly, it gives voice to unofficial, indigenous meanings of and engagements with material remains. In the second part of the paper, the author explores how her ethnography of 'looting' conducted in Kozani, Greece opened the way for reflecting on her relationship with the people she interacted with. In particular, she discusses her personal experience in wrestling with ethical dilemmas that emerged from the dual official role that she came to carry: that of the archaeologist and the ethnographer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims Using terms of justification such as ‘corporate social responsibility’ and ‘partnerships with the public health community’, the alcoholic beverage industry (mainly large producers, trade associations and ‘social aspects’ organizations) funds a variety of scientific activities that involve or overlap with the work of independent scientists. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the ethical, professional and scientific challenges that have emerged from industry involvement in alcohol science. Method Source material came from an extensive review of organizational websites, newspaper articles, journal papers, letters to the editor, editorials, books, book chapters and unpublished documents. Results Industry involvement in alcohol science was identified in seven areas: (i) sponsorship of research funding organizations; (ii) direct financing of university-based scientists and centers; (iii) studies conducted through contract research organizations; (iv) research conducted by trade organizations and social aspects/public relations organizations; (v) efforts to influence public perceptions of research, research findings and alcohol policies; (vi) publication of scientific documents and support of scientific journals; and (vii) sponsorship of scientific conferences and presentations at conferences. Conclusion While industry involvement in research activities is increasing, it constitutes currently a rather small direct investment in scientific research, one that is unlikely to contribute to alcohol science, lead to scientific breakthroughs or reduce the burden of alcohol-related illness. At best, the scientific activities funded by the alcoholic beverage industry provide financial support and small consulting fees for basic and behavioral scientists engaged in alcohol research; at worst, the industry's scientific activities confuse public discussion of health issues and policy options, raise questions about the objectivity of industry-supported alcohol scientists and provide industry with a convenient way to demonstrate ‘corporate responsibility’ in its attempts to avoid taxation and regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet support groups are widely considered friendly, non-judgmental 'safe spaces' for exchanging support and information. However, online HIV/AIDS support group discussions of seropositivity disclosure ethics show that morality is hotly debated, sometimes in very harsh, judgmental terms. This paper is based on a wider study of over 16,000 pages downloaded from 16 different HIV/AIDS support groups. It presents a single discussion 'thread' in which group pressure persuades a fellow-participant to retreat (at least verbally) from initial unwillingness to disclose his seropositivity to partners. This paper demonstrates the impact of group discussions, and their potential as agents of change. The Discussion considers why such examples are rare, and what conditions might produce them. It locates this thread within the tradition of community empowerment, and assesses the suitability of Habermas' concept of the ideal speech situation to understanding online support and discourse. Implications for public health are discussed, as are study limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic communication raises challenges to our understanding of the ethics of interpersonal relationship. This paper examines one area of electronic communication, the practice of journal blogging, and its correlation to one form of interpersonal relationship, intimacy. Analyzing intimacy in terms of knowledge, esteem, and assimilation, the paper argues that while journal blogging would seem to enhance and facilitate these relational elements, the practice in fact and in principle undermines them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is remarkable how much robotics research is promoted by appealing to the idea that the only way to deal with a looming demographic crisis is to develop robots to look after older persons. This paper surveys and assesses the claims made on behalf of robots in relation to their capacity to meet the needs of older persons. We consider each of the roles that has been suggested for robots in aged care and attempt to evaluate how successful robots might be in these roles. We do so from the perspective of writers concerned primarily with the quality of aged care, paying particular attention to the social and ethical implications of the introduction of robots, rather than from the perspective of robotics, engineering, or computer science. We emphasis the importance of the social and emotional needs of older persons—which, we argue, robots are incapable of meeting—in almost any task involved in their care. Even if robots were to become capable of filling some service roles in the aged-care sector, economic pressures on the sector would most likely ensure that the result was a decrease in the amount of human contact experienced by older persons being cared for, which itself would be detrimental to their well-being. This means that the prospects for the ethical use of robots in the aged-care sector are far fewer than first appears. More controversially, we believe that it is not only misguided, but actually unethical, to attempt to substitute robot simulacra for genuine social interaction. A subsidiary goal of this paper is to draw attention to the discourse about aged care and robotics and locate it in the context of broader social attitudes towards older persons. We conclude by proposing a deliberative process involving older persons as a test for the ethics of the use of robots in aged care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In strongly patriarchal societies, where the cultural and economic value of sons is at a premium, son preference manifests itself in many ways, ranging from differential allocation of household resources, medical care and neglect of girl children to female infanticide. With the increasing availability of ultrasound in the mid-1980s sex determination followed by sex-selective abortion began to become widespread as well. The following paper introduces this Roundtable and discusses the following questions: Is sex selection a part of women's right to free choice and control over their reproduction? What is the role of the medical profession? Are all manifestations of sex selection equally unethical? Are there solutions? Do the solutions themselves pose new ethical dilemmas? Following this paper, four respondents put different points of view on sex selection as a gender-based preference for a pregnancy; progress in getting the Supreme Court of India to implement a 1994 law regulating the use of antenatal diagnostic technology; why sex selection should be available as a form of reproductive choice; and why sex selection may be empowering for women and justify their actions in the short run, given the demands on them. All agree that only improved status for women and girls will reduce the demand for sex selection. Dans les sociétés patriarcales, où la valeur culturelle et économique des fils est supérieure, la préférence pour les garçons se manifeste de différentes manières, depuis l'allocation différentielle des ressources du ménage et des soins médicaux jusqu'à l'abandon et l'infanticide des filles. Avec la disponibilité accrue des échographies à la moitié des années 80, la détermination du sexe du fœtus suivie de l'avortement sélectif selon le sexe est devenue plus fréquente. L'article présente la table ronde et aborde plusieurs questions: la sélection selon le sexe fait-elle partie du droit des femmes au libre choix et à la maı̂trise de la reproduction? Quel est le rôle de la profession médicale? Toutes les manifestations de cette sélection sont-elles contraires à l'éthique? Y a-t-il des solutions? Les solutions posent-elles de nouveaux dilemmes moraux? Après l'article, quatre répondants donnent différents points de vue sur la sélection selon le sexe qui influence le désir de mener la grossesse à terme; les progrès pour obtenir de la Cour suprême indienne l'application d'une loi de 1994 régulant l'utilisation de la technologie de diagnostic prénatal; pourquoi la sélection selon le sexe devrait être disponible comme forme de choix reproducteur; et pourquoi la sélection selon le sexe peut aider les femmes et justifier leurs actions à court terme, compte tenu des exigences auxquelles elles doivent répondre. Tous les intervenants pensent que seule une amélioration de la condition des femmes et des filles réduira la demande de sélection selon le sexe. En las sociedades extremadamente patriarcales, donde se le otorga un valor económico y cultural muy alto a los hijos varones, se manifiesta esta preferencia de muchas maneras, desde la distribución diferenciada de los recursos domésticos y la atención médica hasta el abandono de las hijas y la infanticida femenina. A partir de la creciente disponibilidad de la ecografı́a a mediados de los años 80, se empezó a generalizar la determinación del sexo seguido por el aborto selectivo. Como introducción a la Mesa Redonda, este artı́culo aborda las siguientes preguntas: 'Es la selección de sexo parte del derecho de la mujer a la opción libre y al control sobre su reproducción? ¿Cuál es el papel de la profesión médica? ¿Son igualmente inéticas todas las manifestaciones de selección de sexo? ¿Hay soluciones? ¿Plantean dichas soluciones nuevos dilemas éticos? Los cuatro comentarios a continuación aportan diferentes puntos de vista acerca de la selección de sexo: como preferencia de género de un embarazo; los avances hacia la implementación de parte de la Corte Suprema de la India de una ley del año 1994 que reglamenta el uso de la tecnologı́a diagnóstica prenatal; por qué la selección de sexo debe estar disponible como una opción reproductiva; y por qué la selección de sexo puede empoderar a las mujeres y justificar sus acciones a corto plazo, considerando las exigencias a que están sujetas. Todos están de acuerdo en que la única forma de disminuir la demanda para la selección de sexo es mejorar la condición de la mujer y las niñas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of religious practices in cultural evolution and the interrelations of religious and other cultural practices are the topics of this paper. This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the social and historical conditions of which religious practices have been generated. Additionally, the relation of religious practices to the outcome of cultural survival is discussed. Our analysis draws upon a number of distinctions: cultural vs. noncultural practices, religious vs. nonreligious, religious vs. moral, and moral vs. other cultural practices. We address the significance of these distinctions to the role of religious practices in cultural survival and conclude with a discussion of the challenges facing behavior analysts as cultural engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That an intimate connection exists between the notion of human dignity and the notion of humiliation seems to be a commonplace among philosophers, who tend to assume that humiliation should be explained in terms of (violation of) human dignity. I believe, however, that this assumption leads to an understanding of humiliation that is too "philosophical" and too detached from psychological reality. The purpose of the paper is to modify the above connection and to offer a more "down to earth" account of humiliation that does not depend on metaphysical or axiological questions concerning the unique dignity enjoyed by all human beings qua human beings. The paper argues for a subjective-psychological notion of self-respect in the explication of humiliation, instead of an objective-normative one. To be humiliated means to suffer an actual threat to or fall in one's self-respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses how the moral values are not universalistic in nature. The act is evaluated as right or wrong in the light of the prevailing situation in which it occurs. The paper presents an exemplary parent-child discourse revolving around the value of sharing. It is evident from the analysis that the mother in this context is not encouraging of her child's act of sharing, as according to her the other person's need was not genuine. The discursive method of analysis helps in understanding the moral value as embedded in everyday interaction, rather than studying it in a decontextualized fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of social robots for children with autism has been a growth field for the past 15 years. This article reviews studies in robots and autism as a neurodevelopmental disorder that impacts socialcommunication development, and the ways social robots could help children with autism develop social skills. Drawing on ethics research from the EU-funded Development of Robot-Enhanced Therapy for Children with Autism (DREAM) project (framework 7), this paper explores how ethics evolves and developed in this European project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Much of the literature on ageing is presaged upon a model of advocacy that seeks to combat what is seen as the negative stereotyping of old age and old people. One consequence is that ageing studies has difficulty in confronting the darker side of ageing except in so far as age associated disability and distress can be attributed to extrinsic disadvantage, such as low income, poor housing and inadequate services. The pain and suffering associated with age itself tend to be neglected as subject experiences. This paper seeks to shed some light on these topics, considered under the general heading of ‘suffering’. Suffering can be viewed from the perspective of moral philosophy of medicine and of the social sciences. Serving as a witness to suffering has been proposed as the basis for an ethics of human dignity and as a call upon the collective moral agency of the community. Whether or not one accepts such an ethical viewpoint, it seems important for students of ageing to acknowledge document and explore the place of suffering in later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I offer a normative account of development expertise. Although extending expertise beyond the traditional development experts to include local stakeholders, this normative account aims to delimit legitimate forms of expertise. I label this normative viewthird wave development expertise. Third wave expertise is distinguished from both the technocratic and the social constructivist views of development expertise. In particular, I discuss the notions of contributory and interactional expertise. Contributory expertise denotes the extent to which a group of agents possesses (tacit, embodied, or explicit) knowledge which can make a significant contribution to development decision-making, while interactional expertise denotes the extent to which they are able to communicate this knowledge meaningfully. While local stakeholders may possess contributory expertise in matters of their own development, they may lack interactional expertise to communicate this knowledge. Resolving this issue, I argue, requires a mediator who can interact with and between external experts and local stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I provide an introduction to development ethics and make some observations about integral human development. I argue that although there is very little dialogue between these two traditions, they have a lot of common ground, and can helpfully inform one another. International development ethics is a largely secular field concerned with ethical reflection on the ends and means of development. I discuss four levels of ethical reflection: (1) meta-ethical, (2) normative, (3) practical, or applied, and (4) personal or integral. The first three of these levels are well established in philosophical ethics. I introduce the fourth with the hope of encouraging more discussion of how individuals engaged in the theory and practice of development ethics ought to navigate the various spheres of their own lives. This last stage of ethical reflection and action can benefit greatly from work done in integral human development. Integral human development is integral in at least two ways: (1) development is not simply economic development, but development the whole person, including social, political, creative, spiritual, etc., and (2) development is the development of every person, whether the person is a marginalize peasant or a powerful elite. I explain why this second way of integration is both less discussed and more radical than the first. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘new sociology of childhood’ has activated a growing interest in children as social actors and their level of involvement in activities that affect their lives. In the field of research, debate is underway regarding the consent processes and methodological activities that support child participation. This paper highlights methodological and ethical considerations that emerged while engaging in research with young boys (aged 9–11 years old) with a formal diagnosis of attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Key issues include recruitment, informed consent, and participatory activities for data production. Sociocultural theories of childhood and disability are applied to reflect on the power and privilege operating through the research process. Engaging in research that involves children with disabilities, in which discourses of risk, stigma, and protection are elevated, problematizes the researcher– researched relationship and expands considerations of what constitutes ethical practice and ‘valuable data’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author responds to his discussants by trying to remain true to the principles he posited in the main paper, that is, in abiding by the Ethics of translation. Resorting to Goethe’s wisdom, he comes to the conclusion that in trying to formulate into one’s own idiom the ideas of others, a psychoanalyst should try to reach for the untranslatable in the other’s discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This discussion reflects closely on Dominique Scarfone’s call to consider psychoanalysis as a practice founded on ethics, and to rely on this premise in charting a fundamental common ground such that has eluded psychoanalysis for most of its history. Out of the three points Scarfone centers on, I dedicate most attention to the third—psychoanalysis as modeled on the notion of translation—because I find his suggestion inspiring, and promising toward the goals he sets for his paper. Building on the basis Scarfone offers in this context with the help of ideas developed by Walter Benjamin and Emmanuel Levinas, I suggest that the vision that can pull us together as psychoanalysts indeed relies on an ethics of attending to the other’s speech, its meaning as well as its fundamental yet complicated striving for comunicability. More specifically, we need to recognize that words can hide our need to say them. That what we say obscures our vulnerability and shame. That when we try to recall, the language we speak is distorted by the personal and historical forces collaborating to make us forget ourselves. I argue that the task of the psychoanalytic translator is therefore to uncover and resignify the scattered, coded fragments; to help us restore our ability to tell our stories; and to recognize that more than everything, we want to tell them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The EU's central task is to improve the lives of European citizens. The EU acts out that task by enhancing its internal market, on the assumption that market exchanges are a primary way individuals pursue their own conceptions of the good life. While the EU aims to enable market exchange through its legal structures, it does not demarcate the moral limits of its internal market. As such, the EU approach to the internal market has decoupled market logic from morality. However, justice requires that European citizens are treated with equal respect and that the exchanges they wish to pursue are subject to a generalisable normative standard. This paper explores the question of how and where the moral limits of the internal market are drawn as a question of justice, and argues that the current European approach to this question fails to safeguard European citizens from denigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CSR needs to be implemented into every level of an organization to have a meaningful impact, and management systems are proven useful for CSR practice. Benefits of integrating all CSR aspects into a sustainability management system are often claimed. Stakeholder theory can advance CSR practice. This case study explores how a company reacts to and appropriates stakeholder theory through interviews and workshops with the top management of corporate responsibility. This is an empirical addition to the dominant conceptual contributions to stakeholder management framed within the concept of management system thinking. The focus is on identification of stakeholders and the estimation of 'who and what really counts'. This study support conceptual papers and suggest Mitchell and colleagues' model for the initial step of SMS. It shows that theory easily can be practised and that it works well. The company highlighted the discussions where it had to look at stakeholders from different perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes to reconsider the feasibility of overcoming violent situations. Situations in which reality imposes itself in an indefectible and aggressive manner and in which it is hard to generate spaces of justice, since in them, social inequality and marginalization prevail. The persistence of injustice is the breeding ground for violence. An explicit case of such conditions was the massacre of 43 students of the Rural Teachers’ College in Ayotzinapa (Guerrero) on November 26, 2014. Under these circumstances, and, in order to formulate alternatives where peace becomes a viable horizon, this paper assumes the perspective about real injustice developed by Luis Villoro. Based on the recognition of this condition, the collective imagination of alternatives for overcoming violence and achieving peace becomes possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Making better choices about future technologies that are being researched or developed is an important motivator behind lay ethics interventions. However, in practice, they do not always succeed to serve that goal. Especially authors who have noted that lay ethicists sometimes take recourse to well-known themes which stem from old, even 'archetypical' stories, have been criticized for making too little room for agency and decision-making in their approach. This paper aims to contribute to a reflection on how lay ethics can acquire more practical relevance. It will use resources in narrative ethics to suggest that in order to be relevant for action, facilitators of lay ethics interventions need to invite participants to engage in a narrative quest. As part of a quest, lay ethicists should be asked to (1) reflect on a specific question or choice, (2) use diverse (imaginative) input which is informative about the heterogeneity of viewpoints that are defended in society and (3) argue for their standpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many clinical ethicists have argued that ethics expertise is impossible. Their skeptical argument usually rests on the assumptions that to be an ethics expert is to know the correct moral conclusions, which can only be arrived at by having the correct ethical theories. In this paper, I argue that this skeptical argument is unsound. To wit, ordinary ethical deliberations do not require the appeal to ethical or meta-ethical theories. Instead, by agreeing to resolve moral differences by appealing to reasons, the participants agree to the Default Principle-a substantive rule that tells us how to adjudicate an ethical disagreement. The Default Principle also entails a commitment to arguments by parity, and together these two methodological approaches allow us to make genuine moral progress without assuming any deep ethical principles. Ethical expertise, in one sense, is thus the ability and knowledge to deploy the Default Principle and arguments by parity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that the lack of interest, among analytic moral philosophers, in the contingencies of our moral present, produces an impoverished moral philosophy, unable to address the moral problems and quandaries of ordinary people. What is needed to remedy this is a broadening of the scope of the moral philosopher's thought to include a rich attention to moral phenomena of the present. One such phenomenon, attended to by sociologists and critical journalists over the past few decades, is the contemporary proliferating genre of psychologically oriented self-help literature. I display a range of sociological responses to self-help in order to point out aspects of morality that are made visible in these discussions, whereas they often remain invisible in standard moral philosophy. The aim is not to suggest a specific methodology for including such material into philosophical discussions, but rather to urge philosophers to reconsider the range of materials they attend to in their work, in order to produce a more lively engagement with and understanding of contemporary morality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of value is fundamental to contexts of resource scarcity given that contest over use and distribution of scarce resources centres on judgments about rights, interests and access. In mining processes, the use and extraction of water in great volumes commodifies and threatens supplies of what others understand to be a substance essential to all forms of life. In the Atacama, while industrial extraction and commodification by the mining industry are the basis for indigenous people's contestations over water resources, an analysis of everyday water practice and performance (as 'ordinary ethics') demonstrates that an indigenous ethics of resources includes commodity values under certain conditions. This paper examines a field of competing actors engaging in extraction and use of scarce waters in order to make an argument for the importance of considering the complexities and dynamics of ethical practice and water value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper relates perspectives around the discourse that about nature have been built, with special emphasis on the need to recognize it (nature) the category of subject, as opposed to the modern, industrial, post-industrial inheritance, which considers it to be a mere object, raw material, base input for the production system within the framework of the capitalist system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a descriptive qualitative study that explored the value and benefit of Serenity Spirituality Sessions programme for older nursing home residents. The research was carried out in six nursing homes in the Republic of Ireland. The facilitators of these sessions, who worked in the nursing homes, were interviewed about their experiences of delivering the programme and their views on the impact that the programme had on resident participants. Emergent themes revealed benefits of the intervention for clients, including inducing a calming effect, increased sense of belonging and benefits of ritual use. The programme yielded positive results, and appears suited to the predominantly Christian population, and as such is deemed a useful adjunct to holistic and spiritual care in these settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the conventional linguistic practices involved in everyday hospitality situations. We compare offers in Arabic and English and, rather than focusing on the differences between the ways interactants in these two cultures make offers, we challenge the notion that offering is in essence differently handled in the two languages. We argue instead that we should focus just as much on the similarities between the ways offers are made, since no two cultural/linguistic groups are diametrically opposed. Furthermore, no cultural or linguistic group can be argued to be homogeneous. Through a detailed analysis of four naturally occurring hospitality encounters, we explore the nature and sequencing of offering and receiving hospitality in each cultural community and discuss the extent to which offers and refusals are conventionalized in each language. In this way we hope to develop a more contextual discursive approach to cross-cultural politeness research. Drawing on Spencer-Oatey's notion of sociality face, we examine the conventions for being hospitable in order to appear sincere. A qualitative analysis of the data reveals that, while there are similarities in offering behaviour in both English and Arabic, in Arabic, the interactional moves of insisting and refusing are slightly more conventionalized. This however does not constitute a radical difference between the offering norms of these two cultural groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does moral philosophy corrupt? Socrates spent his days talking with many others about goodness and virtue and suchlike, and, partly as a result of showing them how very ignorant they were about such things, he was eventually charged with corrupting the youth. Much more recently, Raimond Gaita has claimed that there are some things it is evil to believe or even to think, and that academic philosophy nevertheless instructs us to seriously consider such things. He lays two charges, that this is corrupt in itself, and corrupt in the effects it risks--anyone who seriously considers whether evil is an illusion is already morally corrupt, he claims, not to mention the risk that they might end up actually believing it. The aim of this paper is to examine whether moral philosophy as practiced today is susceptible to Gaita's charges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increasing popularity of Axel Honneth's recognition theory across philosophy and the social sciences, there is almost no philosophical literature on the relation between recognition and poverty from this perspective. In this paper, I am concerned with three questions related to such a reflection. Firstly, I will examine whether and how the recognition approach can contribute to the understanding of poverty. This involves both conceptual and empirical questions and targets the ability of the recognition approach to propose a valid theory of the social world. Secondly, I am interested in figuring out whether and how the recognition approach can help to understand what is wrong about poverty. This means asking about the normative or ethical competence of the recognition approach in regard to poverty. Thirdly, the recognition approach claims to transcend theory and research, but also affect the social and political practice. Then the question arises as to whether and how it can help to design or implement poverty reduction or poverty alleviation practices and policies. In discussing these three matters, I aim to show that the recognition approach can in fact be a valuable and important contribution to poverty research and poverty politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research and interventions that are made from the community-based health require criteria and guidelines to address the peculiarities of this work in contrast to disciplines that have developed codes of ethics for their development. Some principles provide key aspects to be taken into consideration, such as dignity and respect, protection, autonomy, distributive justice, equity, interculturality, intersectorality and interdisciplinarity. With these initial considerations, some organizations and institutions have developed guidelines, codes and principles that shape this body of knowledge ideally suited for working in the community health area, although a further elaboration and consolidation of these aspects still needs to be taken more into consideration and included in the initiatives being undertaken in the collectives. This paper does an initial review of the concept of community health and its key elements, to then expose the ethical principles that should guide the work within the community health area and examine some of those that have been proposed by organizations and institutions which, one way or another, work in the field to finally propose some thoughts that contribute to consolidating a bioethics orientation of the research and involvement from the community health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advance directives (also called "living wills") are documents signed by a competent individual providing directives as to the permission to apply or to reject medical treatments in the event that the individual who wrote it may not be in a position to declare his or her will. Despite the good reception from the global bioethics community, their validity has been seriously questioned. In this paper, I intend to analyze in depth the faults mentioned by its detractors and I will try to offer an alternative that is superior to the classic version of these documents and manage to escape the criticism which, for decades, they have been subject to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexist attitudes do not exist in a limbo; they are embedded in larger belief systems associated with specific hierarchies of values. In particular, manifestations of benevolent sexism (Glick and Fiske , , ) can be perceived as a social boon, not a social ill, both because they are experienced as positive, and because they reward behaviors that maintain social stability. One of the strongest social institutions that create and justify specific hierarchies of values is religion. In this paper, we examine how the values inherent in religious beliefs (perhaps inadvertently) propagate an unequal status quo between men and women through endorsement of ideologies linked to benevolent sexism. In a survey with a convenience sample of train passengers in Southern and Eastern Poland ( N = 180), we investigated the relationship between Catholic religiosity and sexist attitudes. In line with previous findings (Gaunt ; Glick et al. ; Taşdemir and Sakallı-Uğurlu ), results suggest that religiosity can be linked to endorsement of benevolent sexism. This relationship was mediated in our study by the values of conservatism and openness to change (Schwartz ): religious individuals appear to value the societal status quo, tradition, and conformity, which leads them to perceive women through the lens of traditional social roles. Adhering to the teachings of a religion that promotes family values in general seems to have as its byproduct an espousal of prejudicial attitudes toward specific members of the family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the intensified role of the media in shaming ‘ordinary' people when they commit minor offences. We argue that shaming is a powerful cultural practice assumed by the news media in western societies after it was all but phased out as a formal punishment imposed by the judiciary during the early nineteenth century. While shaming is no longer a physically brutal practice, we reconceptualize the idea of a ‘lasting mark of shame' at the hands of the media in the digital age. We argue that this form of shaming should be considered through a lens of media power to highlight its symbolic and disciplinary dimensions. We also discuss the role new and traditional media forms play in shaming alongside formal punishments imposed by the judiciary. While ‘ordinary' people armed with digital tools increase the degree of disciplinary surveillance in wider social space, traditional news media continue to play a particularly powerful role in shaming because of their symbolic power to contextualize information generated in social and new media circles and their privileged position to other fields of power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite references to photography as a tool for consuming and constructing the tourist experience, little attention has been afforded to the effects of such practice. In this paper I therefore seek to unpack the ethics of the seemingly fleeting relationships between tourists and host communities that emerge during photographic encounters. Focusing on the emergent interactions between tourists and locals who are photographed, I explore the social and cultural values that underpin tourists' ethical considerations of whether or not to photograph local people. In doing so, I first contend that tourists draw upon a range of photographic strategies as they negotiate the moral maze of ethical considerations during photographic encounters and engagement with locals at destinations. Secondly, I suggest that the ethical considerations of tourist photographic practice find genesis in a web of partial knowledges, subjective interpretations, and reflexive performances of self and others. In doing so, I propose that tourist practice is driven by subjective interpretations of that which is appropriate, acceptable, or responsible with regard to photographing. Thus, I contend, an immanence of ethical consideration arises in the immediacy of the moment of photographing, as photography emerges as a complex fusion of both predictable and reactionary practices that align general ethical viewpoints with unpredictable ethical responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances a social organization approach to examining unethical behavior. While unethical behaviors may stem in part from failures in individual morality or psychological blind spots, they are both generated and performed through social interactions among individuals and groups. To illustrate the value of a social organization approach, a case study of a medical school professor's first experience with pharmaceutical-company-sponsored research is provided in order to examine how funding arrangements can constrain research integrity. The case illustrates three significant ways that institutional corruption can occur in the research process. First, conflicts of norms between pharmaceutical companies, universities, and affiliated teaching hospitals can result in compromises and self-censorship. Second, normal behavior is shaped through routine interactions. Unethical behaviors can be (or can become) normal behaviors when they are produced and reproduced through a network of social interactions. Third, funding arrangements can create networks of dependency that structurally distort the independence of the academic researcher in favor of the funder's interests. More broadly, the case study demonstrates how the social organization approach deepens our understanding of the practice of ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]