Suchergebnisse

Active participation in political parties is an important condition for the functioning of political democracy. On the political Left, however, the role of the party activist is under pressure from both internal and external changes in the political culture. Catching up with continental European socialist parties, the leadership of the British Labour Party has progressively changed policy priorities and now its socialist ideology. Externally, `new social movements' are said to be promoting new political aims and new forms of activism. A case-study of the influence of these factors on the commitment and participation of members, and ex-members, of a typical southern constituency Labour Party suggests that `new social movements' do not constitute a rival attraction to these members, ex-members, and activists. Their commitment is, however, being reduced by personal economic and social pressures and their dissonant adherence to traditional values of British socialism. To the extent that political involvement depends on motivation by values or ideological principles this study suggests a decline in party political activism, and a possible obstacle to a `grass roots' recovery by Labour in Southern England.

Article ; Les conflits d'intérêts (CI) dans le contexte universitaire reçoivent une attention croissante, mais l'accent a été en grande partie sur les conflits d'intérêts financiers problématiques résultants des relations université- industrie, qui doivent clairement être évités. Le résultat, malheureusement, est une perception péjorative. En effet, ceux-ci sont perçus comme étant de la fraude et donc un problème d'inconduite académique. Dans cet article, l'objectif est de montrer que même si certains conflits d'intérêts financiers et non financiers sont particulièrement problématiques et devraient donc être évités, beaucoup sont omniprésents et sont en fait la norme dans le milieu universitaire malgré qu'ils soient encore largement ignorés et incompris. Grâce à une réflexion sur ma propre expérience en tant que professeur d'université, je décris une diversité de conflits d'intérêts financiers, non financiers et institutionnels communs de degrés de risque divers, qui se posent dans les activités quotidiennes d'un professeur, pour ensuite examiner comment ces CI peuvent et doivent être gérés dans la pratique. Il est essentiel de se préoccuper de toute la gamme de conflits d'intérêts et de réfléchir à des politiques, des procédures ou des lignes directrices appropriées afin d'interdire certains conflits d'intérêts et atténuer les risques des autres. Cependant, ces mécanismes «durs» ne sont qu'une partie de la solution. Ce document met l'accent sur l'élucidation de différents mécanismes «doux» - comme l'éducation, la conscience de soi, l'humilité et le dialogue (avec les collègues, étudiants, personnels) - qui peuvent habiliter les professeurs à gérer ces conflits d'intérêts, qui ne peuvent être empêchés ni évités. ; Conflicts of interest (COI) in the university context are receiving growing attention, but the focus has been largely on problematic financial COI arising from university-industry relations, which clearly need to be avoided. The result, unfortunately, is a pejorative perception of COI as being equivalent to fraud and thus an issue of academic misconduct. In this paper, the aim is to show that while some financial and non-financial COI are particularly problematic and so should be avoided, many are pervasive and actually the norm in academia even if they are still largely ignored and misunderstood. Through a reflection on my own experiences as a university professor, I describe a diversity of common financial, non-financial and institutional COI of varying degrees of risk, that arise in the day-to-day activities of a professor, in order to then consider how these COI can and should be managed in practice. It is essential to attend to the full range of COI and to think about appropriate policies, procedures, or guidelines to prohibit some COI and mitigate the risks of others; but these "hard" mechanisms are only part of the solution. This paper will focus on elucidating the various "soft" mechanisms – such as education, self-awareness, humility, and dialogue (with colleagues, students, staff) – that can empower professors to manage those COI that cannot be prevented or avoided.

The Internet has become a 'global marketplace', enabling consumers to purchase health care products and services, including genetic testing, through a variety of national and international sources. A web search for commercial (for-profit) genetic testing companies found 12 with a web presence that were offering adult genetic susceptibility testing, of which 3 offered direct-to-consumer access. In this paper, Canada – with its educated population and universal health care system – will serve as a case study for illustrating the social, ethical and policy issues (e.g., information privacy, just access to health care, product safety, and access to unbiased health information) arising with Internet-based access to commercial genetic testing. Health professionals, policy makers and consumers in all developed nations will be faced with complex technical, social and ethical issues, but without further discussion it will not be possible to determine how best to manage and maximise the benefits of this increased accessibility and choice, while minimising the associated personal and social costs.

With contributions from innovative social and policy analysts including Colin Crouch, Anna Coote, Grahame Thompson and Ted Benton, this collection provides a revised framework for social democracy.

Despite criticisms of their derivation and implementation, corporate codes of conduct (CoCs) continue to dominate debates on Corporate Social Responsibility and the informal regulation of worker exploitation and abuse by 'sweatshops' supplying northern multinational corporations (MNCs). Through analytical interrogation of existing literature and empirical evidence from Vietnamese case studies, two propositions are made to clarify the poor performance of CoCs. It is argued, firstly, that the extent of the control of MNCs over their subcontracting suppliers is misconceived and over-estimated because supply chains function more like networks than the hierarchies assumed by 'principal-agent' preconceptions. Conceptualizing such relationships instead as networks of conflicting political and economic imperatives amongst various sets of actors generates a second proposition derived from our case studies. The factory workers, their subcontractor employers, intermediary vendors and even the MNCs seeking CoC commitments, have convergent interests in violating key aspects of the codes and deceiving their auditors. The analysis evaluates the residual value of CoCs in light of these constraints and the options for improving labour regulation, with particular reference to the plight of disadvantaged women workers.

Despite criticisms of their derivation and implementation, corporate codes of conduct (CoCs) continue to dominate debates on Corporate Social Responsibility and the informal regulation of worker exploitation and abuse by 'sweatshops' supplying northern multinational corporations (MNCs). Through analytical interrogation of existing literature and empirical evidence from Vietnamese case studies, two propositions are made to clarify the poor performance of CoCs. It is argued, firstly, that the extent of the control of MNCs over their subcontracting suppliers is misconceived and over-estimated because supply chains function more like networks than the hierarchies assumed by 'principal-agent' preconceptions. Conceptualizing such relationships instead as networks of conflicting political and economic imperatives amongst various sets of actors generates a second proposition derived from our case studies. The factory workers, their subcontractor employers, intermediary vendors and even the MNCs seeking CoC commitments, have convergent interests in violating key aspects of the codes and deceiving their auditors. The analysis evaluates the residual value of CoCs in light of these constraints and the options for improving labour regulation, with particular reference to the plight of disadvantaged women workers.

Attempts to show the wider social impact of collective redundancy creating recruits for the "flexible" sector of the labour force, those on temporary contracts, part time and self employed. Considers the way collective redundancy has changed the demographic structure of the UK labour force including a sizeable number of older unemployed individuals and many female part time workers. Argues that this could be seen as limited empowerment, labour market enfranchisement for women or marginalization of the traditional older male worker.

Article ; La recherche en nanotechnologie commence à recevoir une attention croissante dans les médias et la littérature de vulgarisation scientifique, mais les discussions sur les espoirs et les craintes concernant les nanotechnologies sont déjà polarisées par des visions utopiques et dystopiques. Par ailleurs, certaines discussions plus modérées se concentrent sur les applications à court terme des nanotechnologies, ainsi que sur leurs avantages et désavantages potentiels. Cependant, en explorant les implications sociales et éthiques des nanotechnologies (ou la nanomédecine, le but du présent document), d'importantes leçons devraient être tirées des expériences dans d'autres domaines. En particulier, les études sur les enjeux éthiques, légaux et sociaux (ELSI) de la recherche en génétique ont réussi à cartographier un grand nombre des questions (et des réponses sociales et politiques) qui se posent lorsque de nouvelles technologies sont déployées. Nous soutenons que, pour la plupart, les questions éthiques et sociales qui se posent dans la nanomédecine ne sont pas tout à fait nouvelles et ne nécessitent donc pas de nouveaux principes ou cadres éthiques, ni un investissement massif dans la recherche « NELSI ». Au lieu de cela, nous avons besoin d'un soutien pour le développement d'une culture de l'éthique parmi les scientifiques et les cliniciens, des connaisances de base en science et médicine pour les bioéthiciens et une compétence sociale pour les citoyens pour qu'ils peut participer activement aux débats sur les répercussions des nouvelles technologies en général. ; Nanotechnology research is beginning to see widespread coverage in the media and popular science literatures, but discussions of hopes and fears about nanotechnology have already become polarised into utopian and dystopian visions. More moderate discussions focus on the near-term applications of nanotechnologies, and on potential benefits and harms. However, in exploring the social and ethical implications of nanotechnology (or nanomedicine, the focus of this paper), important lessons should be learned from experiences in other fields. In particular, studies of the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) of genetics research have successfully mapped out many of the issues (and social and political responses) that arise when new technologies are deployed. It is our contention that, for the most part, the ethical and social issues arising in nanomedicine are not altogether new, and thus do not require novel ethical principles or frameworks, nor a massive investment in 'NELSI' research. Instead, what is needed is support for the development of a culture of ethics amongst scientists and clinicians, basic scientific and medical knowledge for bioethicists, and a social competency for citizens to participate actively in debates about the implications of new technologies in general.