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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Ethical issues & debates
In the modern era, businesses have developed a complex relationship with the society surrounding them. While the effects of business activity are clearly seen, their direct impact varies from country to country. Comparative Perspectives on Global Corporate Social Responsibility is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on the accountability contemporary businesses face for the environmental, social, and economic impacts that they create. Highlighting the variant expressions between developed and developing countries, this book is ideally designed for graduate students, professionals, practitioners, and academicians interested in furthering their knowledge on corporate social responsibility.
Here is a pioneering and revealing study of the meaning of the abortion experience for American men. The book draws on over 400 detailed surveys from men involved in an abortion, along with opinion data from secondary polls of American women.
An analysis of literary accounts of suffering from sub-Saharan Africa, this book examines fiction and life-writing in English and French over the last forty years. Drawing on writers from the canonical to the less well-known, it uses close readings to examine the personal, social and political consequences of representing pain in literature.
Racial and ethnic categories have appeared in recent scientific work in novel ways and in relation to a variety of disciplines: medicine, forensics, population genetics and also developments in popular genealogy. Once again, biology is foregrounded in the discussion of human identity. Of particular importance is the preoccupation with origins and personal discovery and the increasing use of racial and ethnic categories in social policy. This new genetic knowledge, expressed in technology and practice, has the potential to disrupt how race and ethnicity are debated, managed and lived. As such, this volume investigates the ways in which existing social categories are both maintained and transformed at the intersection of the natural (sciences) and the cultural (politics). The contributors include medical researchers, anthropologists, historians of science and sociologists of race relations; together, they explore the new and challenging landscape where biology becomes the stuff of identity.
Utilising sources that range from 16th century parish registers to the 21st century supermarket loyalty card, this collection examines the history and development of identification documents and surveillance techniques over the past 500 years. Combining the knowledge of several experts from a variety of disciplines, this volume successfully demonstrates how identification and registration can enable and empower a population, particularly if the interests of the state and population coincide. It also reveals the weakness of states or corporations when dealing with issues such as popular resistance and fraud, despite great leaps forward in the scientific methods of identifying individuals. This important book offers a vital contribution to the literature on a variety of topical subject areas such as biometric identification, immigration control and personal data use, as such it is of interest to students and scholars of civil and human rights amongst other disciplines.
The recent history of broadcasting on both sides of the Atlantic, characterized by a great increase in the number of services on offer to the public, has been brought about by technological advances and economic pressures. This has inevitably affected traditional forms of content regulation. The book explores the moral basis and history of such regulation as it has until now been applied to major issues of taste and decency. These include the protection of children, obscenity and bad language, offences against religious sensibility, `reality' television, and stereotyping. Deciding What we Watch? considers the different constraints (in the law, cultural customs, and self-regulation) affecting broadcasters in the two societies and the means by which they have responded to them. The book describes, with examples, the operations of compliance regulations and standard controls. It also looks at the impact of the First Amendment on American broadcasting in this area. It looks at the arguments for the practicality of maintaining appropriate forms of restraint into the future. Deciding What we Watch? poses the question of how divided and diverse societies decide what is permissible to broadcast and how the issue might continue to evolve in the future.
A proliferation of press headlines, social science texts and "ethical" concerns about the social implications of recent developments in human genetics and biomedicine have created a sense that, at least in European and American contexts, both the way we treat the human body and our attitudes towards it have changed. This volume asks what really happens to social relations in the face of new types of transaction - such as organ donation, forensic identification and other new medical and reproductive technologies - that involve the use of corporeal material. Drawing on comparative insights into how human biological material is treated, it aims to consider how far human bodies and their components are themselves inherently "social." The case studies - ranging from animal-human transformations in Amazonia to forensic reconstruction in post-conflict Serbia and the treatment of Native American specimens in English museums - all underline that, without social relations, there are no bodies but only "human remains." The volume gives us new and striking ethnographic insights into bodies as sociality, as well as a potentially powerful analytical reconsideration of notions of embodiment. It makes a novel contribution, too, to "science and society" debates.
In the 1920s and 1930s, thousands of men and women were sterilized at asylums and prisons across America. Believing that criminality and mental illness were inherited, state legislatures passed laws calling for the sterilization of "habitual criminals" and the "feebleminded." But in 1936, inmates at Oklahoma's McAlester prison refused to cooperate; a man named Jack Skinner was the first to come to trial. A colorful and heroic cast of characters-from the inmates themselves to their devoted, self-taught lawyer-would fight the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Only after Americans learned the extent of another large-scale eugenics project-in Nazi Germany-would the inmates triumph. Combining engrossing narrative with sharp legal analysis, Victoria F. Nourse explains the consequences of this landmark decision, still vital today-and reveals the stories of these forgotten men and women who fought for human dignity and the basic right to have a family.
The 1960s revolutionized American contraceptive practice. Diaphragms, jellies, and condoms with high failure rates gave way to newer choices of the Pill, IUD, and sterilization. "Fit to Be Tied" provides a history of sterilization and what would prove to become, at once, socially divisive and a popular form of birth control. During the first half of the twentieth century, sterilization (tubal ligation and vasectomy) was a tool of eugenics. Individuals who endorsed crude notions of biological determinism sought to control the reproductive decisions of women they considered "unfit" by nature of race or class, and used surgery to do so. Incorporating first-person narratives, court cases, and official records, Rebecca M. Kluchin examines the evolution of forced sterilization of poor women, especially women of color, in the second half of the century and contrasts it with demands for contraceptive sterilization made by white women and men. She chronicles public acceptance during an era of reproductive and sexual freedom, and the subsequent replacement of the eugenics movement with "neo-eugenic" standards that continued to influence American medical practice, family planning, public policy, and popular sentiment.
Anne M. Blankenship's study of Christianity in the infamous campswhere Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II yieldsinsights both far-reaching and timely. While most Japanese Americansmaintained their traditional identities as Buddhists, a sizeable minorityidentified as Christian, and a number of church leaders sought to ministerto them in the camps. Blankenship shows how church leaders were forced toassess the ethics and pragmatism of fighting against or acquiescing to whatthey clearly perceived, even in the midst of a national crisis, as an unjustsocial system. These religious activists became acutely aware of the impact ofgovernment, as well as church, policies that targeted ordinary Americans ofdiverse ethnicities. Going through the doors of the camp churches and delving deeply intothe religious experiences of the incarcerated and the faithful who aidedthem, Blankenship argues that the incarceration period introduced newsocial and legal approaches for Christians of all stripes to challenge the constitutionalityof government policies on race and civil rights. She also showshow the camp experience nourished the roots of an Asian American liberationtheology that sprouted in the sixties and seventies.
This book explores the complex relationship between public policy and scandal. By critically examining some of the landmark scandals of the postwar period, using a variety of contemporary records and by close examination of the public inquiries which followed, this book describes the process whereby scandals are constructed and pursued, and demonstrates how scandals coincide with key shifts in public policy, in ways that are more complex and reciprocal than might first appear.
"Women, Society, the State, and Abortion" takes an unbiased look at the abortion issue, examining it from a cross-disciplinary perspective comprising history, politics, law, biology, philosophy, theology, and medicine. Through application of a structuralist method of analysis, the author looks beneath the surface to determine what the real abortion controversy is all about. This insightful volume will be of interest to public officials and administrators at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as to health, education, and social service personnel who work in and around the abortion issue.
The essays in Me, You, Us address a range of issues in moral philosophy, political philosophy, and moral psychology, but are unified by their starkly individualistic view of the moral subject. That view regards persons as permanently separated from others by the impenetrability of their subjectivities, and hence as the sole ultimate bearers of both interests and responsibility. Because they are organized around a strong form of moral individualism, the essays challenge recent tendencies to conceptualize normative issues in terms of relationships, collectivities, and social meanings. Of the twelve essays in the collection, the ones on ethics and metaethics deal with questions about the nature of moral standing, the basis of our moral equality, and the justification of the common practice of assigning greater weight to one's own interests than to the interests of others. The essays in political philosophy discuss both the ways in which the wider society does and does not penetrate the individual self and the recent influential attempt to redirect our thinking about justice from the distribution of goods to the relations of domination and subordination that obtain among individuals. The essays in moral psychology criticize some relational accounts of responsibility and blame, and address the complicated relation between what a person knows and what he is responsible and blameworthy for. Three of the collection's essays have not been previously published.
The path forward to rein in online surveillance, AI, and tech monopolies. Technology is a gift and a curse. The five Big Tech companies―Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google―have built innovative products that improve many aspects of our lives. But their intrusiveness and our dependence on them have created pressing threats to our civil rights, economy, and democracy. Coming from an extensive background building Silicon Valley-based tech startups, Tom Kemp eloquently and precisely weaves together the threats posed by Big Tech:
This richly detailed book exposes the consequences of Big Tech's digital surveillance, exploitative use of AI, and monopolistic and anticompetitive practices. It offers actionable solutions to these problems and a clear path forward for individuals and policymakers to advocate for change. By containing the excesses of Big Tech, we will ensure our civil rights are respected and preserved, our economy is competitive, and our democracy is protected.
Emerging technologies present a challenging but fascinating set of ethical, legal and regulatory issues. The articles selected for this volume provide a broad overview of the most influential historical and current thinking in this area and show that existing frameworks are often inadequate to address new technologies - such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, synthetic biology and robotics - and innovative new models are needed. This collection brings together invaluable, innovative and often complementary approaches for overcoming the unique challenges of emerging technology ethics and governance.
Social thinkers in all fields are faced with one unavoidable
question: what does it mean to be 'human' in the 21st century? As
definitions between what is "animal" and what is "human" break
down, and as emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence
and nano- and bio- technologies develop, accepted notions of
humanity are rapidly evolving.
"Juffer discusses how in recent years women have been more active
in producing erotica for their own enjoyment and shows how this has
affected the nature of erotica itself. She chronicles the rise of
literary porn written by women for women, showing how books like
Nancy Friday's collections of female fantasies helped pave the way
. . . Juffer . . . is a sharp observer of the media." "Illuminates the complex politics of sex in women's everyday
lives. At Home with Pornography is an important contribution to a
new model of cultural studies and an exciting and valuable addition
to contemporary struggles over sexual politics." Twenty-five years after the start of the feminist sex wars, pornography remains a flashpoint issue, with feminists locked in a familiar argument: Are women victims or agents? In At Home with Pornography, Jane Juffer exposes the fruitlessness of this debate and suggests that it has prevented us from realizing women's changing relationship to erotica and porn. Over the course of these same twenty-five years, there has been a proliferation of sexually explicit materials geared toward women, made available in increasingly mainstream venues. In asking "what is the relationship of women to pornography?" Juffer maintains that we need to stop obsessing over pornography's transgressive aspects, and start focusing on the place of porn and erotica in women's everyday lives. Where, she asks, do women routinely find it, for how much, and how is it circulated and consumed within the home? How is this circulation and consumption shaped by the different marketing categories that attempt to distinguish eroticafrom porn, such as women's literary erotica and sexual self-help videos for couples? At Home with Pornography responds to these questions by viewing women's erotica within the context of governmental regulation that attempts to counterpose a "dangerous" pornography with the sanctity of the home. Juffer explorers how women's consumption of erotica and porn for their own pleasure can be empowering, while still acting to reinforce conservative ideals. She shows how, for instance, the Victoria's Secret catalog is able to function as a kind of pornography whose circulation is facilitated both by its reliance on Victorian themes of secrecy and privacy and on its appeals to the selfish pleasures of modern career women. In her pursuit to understand what women like and how they get it, Juffer delves into adult cable channels, erotic literary anthologies, sex therapy guides, cyberporn, masturbation, and sex toys, showing the varying degrees to which these materials have been domesticated for home consumption. Representing the next generation of scholarship on pornography, At Home with Pornography will transform our understanding of women's everyday sexuality.
This collection of new essays aims to address some of the most perplexing issues arising from death and dying, as well as the moral status of persons and animals. Leading scholars, including Peter Singer and Gerald Dworkin, investigate diverse topics such as animal rights, vegetarianism, lethal injection, abortion and euthanasia.
This book innovatively re-envisions the possibilities of sexuality education. Utilizing student critiques of programs it reconfigures key debates in sexuality education including: Should pleasure be part of the curriculum? Who makes the best educators? Do students prefer single or mixed gender classes?
Modes of Censorship and Translation articulates a variety of scholarly and disciplinary perspectives and offers the reader access to the widening cultural debate on translation and censorship, including cross-national forms of cultural fertilization. It is a study of censorship and its patterns of operation across a range of disciplinary settings, from media to cultural and literary studies, engaging with often neglected genres and media such as radio, cinema and theatre. Adopting an interdisciplinary and transnational approach and bringing together contributions based on primary research which often draws on unpublished archival material, the volume analyzes the multi-faceted relationship between censorship and translation in different national contexts, including Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Greece, Nazi Germany and the GDR, focusing on the political, ideological and aesthetic implications of censorship, as well as the hermeneutic play fostered by any translational act. By offering innovative methodological interpretations and stimulating case studies, it proposes new readings of the operational modes of both censorship and translation. The essays gathered here challenge current notions of the accessibility of culture, whether in overtly ideological and politically repressive contexts, or in seemingly 'neutral' cultural scenarios.
The Edge of Life: Human Dignity and Contemporary Bioethics treats a number of distinct moral questions and ?nds their answer in the dignity of the person, both as an agent and as a patient (in the sense of the recipient of action). Characteristically one's view of the human being ultimately shapes one's outlook on these matters. This book addresses questions that divide a culture of life from a culture of death as well as a number of questions debated within the Catholic tradition itself. The Edge of Life offers a critique of the new bio-ethic, represented by such notable authors as Peter Singer; it also attempts to shore up some of the dif?culties leveled by critics against the traditional ethic as well as to answer some questions disputed by those within the tradition. This book does not treat the basic principles of morality but rather many of their applications and suppositions. (For an account of contemporary debates within the Catholic tradition on these matters, see Kaczor 2002). Rather, The Edge of Life seeks to address a number of disputed contemporary questions touching upon human dignity at what has been called "the margins of life. " The ?rst section of the book treats the dignity of the human person as recipient of action and as agent. Chapter two examines various accounts of when a human being becomes a person.
At long last, here is the definitive practical guide to sexuality materials in libraries and an annotated bibliography of nearly 600 recommended books for school and public libraries. Cornog and Perper, the preeminent experts on sexuality materials for libraries, provide guidelines for materials selection, reference, processing, access, programming, and dealing with problems of vandalism and censorship. The bibliography, organized into 5 topics and 48 subtopics, annotates a collection of recommended books and nonprint materials on sexuality information for children and adults, most published since 1985. Recommended works represent a wide variety of views, including Christian and conservative. Part I offers detailed guidance for selecting and processing sexuality materials, including vertical files, audiovisuals, and periodicals, and for doing reference on sexuality topics; lists a full range of topics and viewpoints that libraries should collect; addresses a variety of processing and access issues such as cataloging, programming, and vandalism; discusses how to deal with censorship issues relating to sexuality materials in the library; and reviews the history of libraries and sexuality materials. Part II, the annotated bibliography, is organized into 5 broad topics-sexuality and behavior, homosexuality and gender issues, life cycle issues, sex and society, and sexual problems-which are then divided into 48 subtopics. Each title is compared and contrasted with similar titles. Titles for young people include grade level appropriateness. Specialized acquisition sources are also listed for each of the 48 subtopics. Cornog and Perper point out that the key to selection of materials is balance and representativeness of a wide range of viewpoints. They have gone to great lengths to provide a wide variety of materials and viewpoints and to seek out interesting and valuable materials from large and small publishers and organizations. This is the definitive guide on sexuality information for public and school libraries.
Using previously unpublished material from the National Archives,
David Thomas, David Carlton, and Anne Etienne provide a new
perspective on British cultural history. Statutory censorship was
first introduced in Britain by Sir Robert Walpole with his
Licensing Act of 1737. Previously theatre censorship was exercised
under the Royal Prerogative. By giving the Lord Chamberlain
statutory powers of theatre censorship, Walpole ensured that
confusion over the relationship between the Royal Prerogative and
statute law would prevent any serious challenge to theatre
censorship in Parliament until the twentieth century. |
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