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This paper empirically examines the impact of societal context on constructs of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The empirical analysis is informed by neo-institutional theory, which conceptualizes CSR constructs as potential or actual institutions. A case study from the Danish business setting identifies the steps that a project group of business actors took to develop a new CSR construct. The steps include the transfer and translation of a foreign institution in response to a field-level problem, major events, and partial deinstitutionalization of an established CSR construct. The findings suggest that the new CSR construct is an institutional hybrid, a combination of foreign and familiar institutions that make a new CSR construct innovative, legitimate, and continuous with existing practice in the business setting. The paper proposes that CSR constructs are malleable institutional hybrids that are most easily implemented if tailored to the social context. It concludes with implications for managers who want to select, design and implement CSR constructs in their own business settings. The Global Compact In an address to The World Economic Forum on 31 January 1999, United Nation Secretary-General Kofi Annan challenged business leaders to join an international initiative--the Global Compact--that would bring companies together with UN agencies, labour and civil society to support nine (now ten) principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment, and anti-corruption. The Global Compact's ten principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption enjoy universal consensus and are derived from 'The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,' 'The International Labour Organization's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work,' 'The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and 'The United Nations Convention Against Corruption.' The Global Compact is now entering its next stage of development--from a phase of entrepreneurial growth to one of increasing organizational maturity. With a network of nearly 2,000 companies and other stakeholders, operating in more than 70 countries, the Global Compact is ready to move to a new level of performance. In December 2004, the first draft of a White Paper proposing a new business model and governance structure will be shared with governments, businesses, labour and civil society groups, and other stakeholders, for review, comment and input. In September 2005, The Global Compact Office will begin to implement the new business model and governance structure. (Extracts, www.unglobalcompact.org, November 18, 2004) This paper addresses the process through which a new CSR construct comes into existence and, in particular, the role of social context in this construction process. The Global Compact exemplifies one such construct of corporate social responsibility (CSR). A CSR construct is a form of CSR that is specific enough to be implemented in practice. The Global Compact is a unique construct in that it draws exclusively on international conventions. It defines CSR as universally as possible to make the construct relevant and appealing across the globe. The Global Compact also exemplifies a CSR construct that has been successful in its ambition of spreading rapidly across the world. Not all CSR constructs make it this far, or this fast. Some never diffuse beyond the innovative setting, others vanish like yesterday's fads and fashions. Yet others are never intended for global diffusion, targeting instead implementation at a more modest scale. There are many different CSR constructs, some of which are local or national in scope, while others are more international in orientation. A close look reveals that they draw on quite different elements and traditions in their CSR definitions. These differences can manifest themselves in divergent CSR practices across nations. …

SOME THREE YEARS AGO Professor Mortimer Adler of the University of Chicago, in a paper read at the meeting of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, propounded the thesis that there was a hierarchy in the forms of government, and that the Democratic form was the best. He distinguished three specific forms: the Royal, the Republican and the Democratic and maintained that, absolutely regarded, the last named was the best of the three because it most closely expressed the true relation of the human person to civil society, that is, to the State. His paper aroused no little discussion, and his thesis was challenged on several grounds. As a result of the interest thus aroused, Professor Adler and the Reverend Walter Farrell, O.P., have been engaged jointly upon a book in which the thesis is thoroughly examined in the light of the objections urged, and their work has been appearing in instalments in The Thomist quarterly, New York, since July, 1941. From the portions of it I have seen, it is evident that it constitutes an exhaustive study of the whole subject of civil government which should have great and permanent interest for students and workers in this field of social relations. Enough of the study is now available to permit a clear view of the main lines of the argument and the present writer will attempt very briefly to describe those lines. At the outset two things should be noted. The first is that the whole discussion is conducted within the Thomistic tradition in philosophical thought. The second is that it is forms that are the main matter in hand, not their application in practice. At the very outset the authors say

First of all, I owe everybody an apology. I did not receive Prof. Doull’s paper until I arrived here; and between sessions, dinners and beer I have tried to go very carefully through his paper. I have been tempted to write a 64 page rebuttal of it, but I’m afraid I can’t do that. So I shall make a few remarks concerning points on which I disagree with Prof. Doull. Not that I would like to do an anti-Hegel to his 20th century Hegel, because I very much agree with a lot of what he says about Hegel’s political philosophy giving us not only insights but far more than that in our modern world. I said earlier in the conference, going perhaps farther than Prof. Doull would agree, that some of the implicit truth of Hegel resides in Marx; and, therefore, I honestly accept the position that so much of the Philosophy of Right is terribly relevant to our own age. So the remarks I’m going to make do not mean that I disagree with Prof. Doull’s basic thesis. I go along with him quite a way on that. But there are a number of difficulties in his presentation, as I see it, which I just cannot pass over without comment.

The problem proposed for discussion in this paper is, it seems to me-though I suppose I am egotistical to say it-the core problem of this symposium. It is all very well, of course, and most desirable that some agreement be reached as to what constitutes the obscene, and that a set of standards be evolved which will both safeguard the community and, at the same time, preserve individual freedom and the due process of the law, upon which, to a large measure, the protection of the civil society depends. But such safeguards and procedures will be but ephemeral things if they do not rest on some permanent basis of moral principle. So, too, must individual freedom, if it is not to be a thing protected today and endangered tomorrow, find its stability on the moral basis of the dignity of man. Hence, in trying to formulate moral principles by which the obscene can be determined, we are at the nub of the whole matter. If, perhaps, I do not quite succeed in setting that nub forth in the clear light and with the persuasive force which it is capable of sustaining, let it be said at once that that is not because of the inexplicable density of the subject, but rather because of the fact that I am not a theologian in the sense of being engaged full-time in theological teaching or research, and second, because of the contributing factor that I shall, to some extent, be speaking a language that may be somewhat opaque to many readers. I shall try, however, to avoid, as far as I may, any "moralese"-the professional jargon of the textbooks-and to phrase my observations in the language of ordinary life. That the editors of this symposium have been very much alive to the timeliness of the problem is perhaps demonstrated by the fact that last summer (June 28-30, I954), the Catholic Theological Society of America, meeting in convention in Montreal, devoted one of its panel sessions to a discussion of this very topic, "Moral Principles for Discerning the Obscene." I was honored to be invited to read the paper and lead the ensuing discussion; and I should like to assure those readers who entertain the notion that Catholic theologians confine their discussions to fine-spun elucubrations concerning angels and needle-points that they would have been agreeably surprised at the practical nature of the two-hour question-and-answer period that followed the reading of the paper. The panel and its conclusions are reported in full in the proceedings of the Ninth Annual Convention;' and some of this present paper will be in the nature of an expansion of what is contained in that report. CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA, PROCEEDINGS OF THE NINTH ANNUAL CONVENTION 127-39 (I954). *S.T.L. I935, Woodstock College (Md.); Ph.D. 1941, Cambridge University. Literary Editor, America, National Catholic weekly, since I940. Author, TENETS FOR READERS AND REVIEWERS (1942); MYSTERIES' END (I945); NORMS FOR THE NOVEL (1953); Editor, THE GREAT BOOKS: A CHRISTIAN APPRAISAL (4 volumes, 1947-1952); FIFTY YEARS OF THE AMERICAN NOVEL (1951).

This paper studies the language of political actors on social networks from the concept of digital language with a communicative perspective. Attention is paid to tweets by political parties, public administrations and civil society related to Catalan politics over the last eight months. The main trends of digital language are confirmed for political language on Twitter, but are relativized by the majority use of a more formal register. In addition, the political language appears as hybrid, heterogeneous, multimodal, a continuation of the offline arena and with little narrative innovation. Within these general characteristics, the activation of innovative linguistic orthographic, lexical, syntactic or coherence elements draws specific strategies for each actor, without common features for the sectors but shows that they do converge at specific moments forming sociolects that seek to promote belonging to a community and protest against specific facts or the status quo. El artículo estudia el lenguaje de los actores políticos en redes sociales a partir del concepto de lenguaje digital desde una perspectiva comunicativa. Se examinan los tuits de los partidos políticos, las administraciones públicas y las organizaciones civiles relacionados con la política catalana durante los últimos ocho meses. Se confirman para el lenguaje político en Twitter la evolución general del lenguaje digital pero relativizado por el uso mayoritario de un registro formal. Además, el lenguaje político se perfila como híbrido, heterogéneo, multimodal, continuador de la temática off line y con escasa innovación narrativa. Los estilemas permiten detectar estrategias individualizadas e identidades lingüísticas con rasgos ortotipográficos, léxicos, uso de hashtag, iconos, enlaces o sintaxis propias de cada actor. No se detectan características comunes para cada uno de los tres sectores, únicamente algunos actores confluyen en momentos puntuales conformando sociolectos que buscan promover la pertenencia a una comunidad, la protesta contra hechos puntuales o contra el status quo.

This article will endeavor to explore Sudanese women’s involvement in civil society. It will investigate their roles as actors in public life with emphasis on their roles in conflict resolution and peace reconstruction. The paper argues that Sudanese women are active members in civil society, yet they face many obstacles, which could hinder their full involvement in development and the peace process.

Demands for the adoption of women quota in public office, whether these positions are by election or appointment, were late in materializing and reaching the agenda of policy-makers in Lebanon. Persistent efforts by some civil society organizations since the 1990s and the appointment of a human rights activist as a Minister of Interior in 2008 led to the submission of two official proposals to this end as part of a general electoral reform. Nothing has materialized so far. The first proposal, calling for a women quota on parliamentary electoral lists, was aborted by Parliament in 2008. The second, calling for the allocation of seats for women on the municipal councils was approved by the Council of Ministers on January 29, 2010 but still awaits adoption by Parliament.1 In light of the prevalent frustration with the decision-makers’ failure to seriously act on this issue, the following sections of this paper aim at providing an assessment of the contributions that the two suggested quota proposals may have made to the enhancement of women representation in public office at the national and local levels respectively, as well as highlighting the factors influencing the decision-making process on this issue.

Intra-state violent conflicts have been on the rise in many states in recent years. Climate change has been negatively affecting available resources in many communities, and this contributes to the spate of unhealthy competitions and violent conflicts in many communities. This is further compounded by the increasing waves of terrorism. Nigeria is not spared of this experience. From North to South, East to West, violent conflicts have negatively impacted on public service delivery and business activities in the world largest community of blacks creating a drawback in the development stride in local communities and society at large. There have been attempts by successive governments to address the violent conflicts, but much of which have been through the use of government security agents, and since violence begets violence, the approach has not really resulted in positive peace required to create the right business clime for the people. Following this, civil society organisations stepped in with a view to filling the gap occasioned by government’s failure to effectively manage the situations. The various civil society organisations explored tools, from traditional religion, Christian religion and modern conflict resolution mechanism to intervene in the conflicts. This paper examined the roles of these organisations in conflict intervention in Nigeria.Key words: Civil society organisations, conflict, intervention, Nigerian experience, implication, public service delivery, business activities

Man begins his career as a child of Nature: he completes it as a creature of Art. When Aristotle said, "Man is by nature a political animal," he meant that essential human qualities are developed in civil society. Izoulet makes the same point in stating that the mind is the child of the city.2 Modern psychologists agree that social environment is a basic factor in the development of personality. If this be so, then the complex life of our great cities must profoundly affect the mentality of their inhabitants and result in reactions different from those characteristic of a rural population. How such modification comes about, it is the purpose of this paper to consider. Urban life is marked by its heightened stimulation. When many people are brought close together contacts are multiplied and reactions are greatly increased.3 Men are assailed at every sense by the presence of their neighbors. The sound of footsteps and hoof-beats, the rattle of wagons and rush of cars, the clang of bells and hoot of whistles, the stroke of hammers and whir of machinery, cries of children and peddlers, strains of music, shouts and laughter swell into a dull roar as the city wakes to its day's work. One who watches the torrent of people pouring through the boulevards of Paris, or who struggles for a foothold in the rush at Brooklyn Bridge, becomes aware of innumerable prods at his attention. The crowd sets a pace. The individual must hurry with it or be pushed aside. Such excitement deeply stirs the nervous system. Architects tell us that tall buildings are set vibrating by the jar of street

The question of ‘new’ methods in the anthropology of science and technology is perhaps better phrased as the need to improve our understanding of experiences—as both participants and observers—of these fields of enquiry. This paper is based on ethnographic research on the role of computers in Hungarian civil society at the Hungarian Telecottage Association (HTA), a movement seeking to promote locally-oriented technological development with the aim of empowering and improving the lives of local people. The members of this movement are geographically dispersed, each representing a telecottage in their own village community. They are united organizationally through a mixture of face-to-face and internet-based interaction.

This paper explores how the post-communist setting of my fieldwork in a Hungarian Romany settlement aided, rather than hindered, my research. Far from finding distrustful and unstable communities and institutions in post-communist Hungary, I was assisted and encouraged in my research by the supportive and open attitudes of the Romany community members and civil society actors with whom I worked. Additionally, the communist records stored in Budapest archives provided detailed data that textured and contextualised my fieldwork. With sensitive fieldwork methods, Eastern Europe is as accessible and welcoming an environment as any anthropologist could hope to find!

This paper proposes a reflection over the educational policies on the mode of Educacao de Jovens e Adultos (EJA – Young and Adults Education) on deprivation of freedom situation on prisons facilities. The process of democratization of learning and the universalization of educational rights receive basement on Brazilian Constitution of 1988, serving political civil society will and give space and voice to different segments could effectively participate in the definition and implementation of educational policies and practices through the more equitable distribution of resources and increasing the supply of places in all types of education with the inclusion of individuals in prison settings. Analyses too, the evolution of those policies under the Lei de Diretrizes e Bases (LDB – Law of Guidelines and Basis), Plano Nacional de Educacao (PNE – National Plain of Education), approaching the Education Guidelines to EJA offer in deprivation of freedom. The theoretical basis is offer by authors as Briceno; Gomes; Neves; Pucci; Sacavino, among others, besides of Secretary of Justice and others Brazilian’s Government offices data – INFOPEN, IBGE, MEC/FNDE, MEC/INEP, IPEA, Prison Ministry and National and International Human Rights Organizations.

There is a question which must be decided before any sociology can lay claim to rationality or sanity; which, in a sense, precedes even any discussion of a "Christian" sociology, although its postulates have become a part of Christian tradition and Christian philosophy. It is the question recent philosophy has made it a dilemma of the relation of man to society. The Catholic trained sociologist usually sees no difficulty in the matter the stock answer is that "Society is for man, not man for society." But this particular position is untenable, unless bolstered by qualification. An exact understanding of the relative positions of the person and of society is essential; and exact understanding is notably lacking in the valuable but vague platitude just quoted. Admittedly a part of philosophy, rather than of sociology proper, solution of the "dilemma" is absolutely necessary to the orientation of sociology as a science, and social work as an art. It has important bearing also upon the question of a "Christian" or a "sacred" sociology. Case work, group work, secular sociology, and the "theological interrelationship of men" can be synthesized only if we can determine definitely what man is, and why society is. This paper, of course, makes no pretense to a definitive solution, or synthesis. The elements of the question are clear enough and have been for centuries; the synthesis must await a fuller treatment. It is an attempt, however, to block out the problem, to establish the general outlines which a solution must fill in. Man is, of course, a rational animal a person. But, possibly before he was recognized specifically as a rational animal, he was classified as a social animal. And there are the elements of conflict. Neither of these definitions can be impugned, of course. Leo XIII, to cite but one authority and example, has pointed out that "Man's natural instinct moves him to live in civil society, for he cannot, if dwelling apart, provide himself with the necessary requirements of life, not procure the means of developing his mental and moral faculties. Hence, it is definitely ordained that he should 186