Today's sports commerce not only expands the number of international mega-sports events but also increases their value in effecting social change and promoting world peace. As athletes and spectators come together in ever-larger numbers, governments must collaborate with non-governmental, private, and non-profit sectors to develop and implement the business of sports commerce benefiting host nations and local communities. This research identifies the relationship between sports commerce and peace as worthy of greater (...) study. This article examines the role of international sporting events in contributing to social change in host countries and how these competitions may be able to create greater understanding among athletes and related individuals and increase knowledge exchange on a larger scale. The research analyzes several mega-sports events, including the Olympics and the role of the Special Olympics (SO) -the largest amateur sports organization in the world -dedicated to bringing sports experiences to intellectually disabled athletes. This article highlights the transformative power of SO worldwide competitions and finds peace through commerce principles in SO innovative policies and programs. Over four decades, the SO, and particularly its World Games, have led to global initiatives for increasing self-confidence, self-esteem, social acceptance, health and general well-being among intellectually disabled persons. This research offers insights into the ways in which other mega-sporting events could adopt what is unique to SO. An Appendix outlines mega-sports events for future research on sports commerce and peace. (shrink)

Peace Through Commerce (PTC) is expanding its influence on the formulation of business strategies for responding to challenges found in conflict and post-conflict zones. A review of practical guidance available on successful PTC business practices shows it is more general than particular and short on detailed recommendations. In addition, such recommendations say little about how globalization is transforming the forms and processes of global governance and their implications for PTC strategies. An assessment of the changing landscape of global (...) governance suggests that implementation of successful PTC strategies will face even greater challenges. However, the emergence of a 'global governance broker' model as an innovative, multi-sector, voluntary approach to organizing global governance suggests a new method for businesses to implement their PTC policies and programs. The 'global governance broker' approach is described and its implications for business as an alternative approach to formulating their PTC strategies and implementing their PTC policies and programs are considered. (shrink)

For many Enlightenment thinkers, discerning the relationship between commerce and peace was the central issue of modern politics. The logic of commerce seemed to require European states and empires to learn how to behave in more peaceful, self-limiting ways. However, as the fate of nations came to depend on the flux of markets, it became difficult to see how their race for prosperity could ever be fully disentangled from their struggle for power. On the contrary, it became (...) easy to see how this entanglement could produce catastrophic results. This volume showcases the variety and the depth of approaches to economic rivalry and the rise of public finance that characterized Enlightenment discussions of international politics. It presents a fundamental reassessment of these debates about 'perpetual peace' and their legacy in the history of political thought. (shrink)

Over the past 50 years, we have witnessed a revolution in the organisation and social understanding of elite sport. Elite sport has been commercialised. Top-level athletes have become professionals who often receive remarkable levels of income and sporting events, such as the World Cup, are multi-billion dollar exercises that attract enormous levels of sponsorship. Many sports, such as cricket, have been substantially revamped in order to make them more appealing to mass audiences and, accordingly, more beneficial to sponsors and (...) many clubs, such as Manchester United, have become corporations in their own right. (shrink)

Much attention has hitherto been paid to Hayek’s reference to Adam Smith’s “invisible hand”. In his view, this metaphor helped shed light on spontaneous social orders, that is orders that are unintentionally produced and which Hayek aims to account for, more precisely market order. However, an exclusive focus on this reference leaves questions unanswered: first, what does Hayek aim to account for, when examining these spontaneous social orders? In other words, what does he mean by “order” in this context? Second, (...) why does his investigation mainly focus on economic order? In order to address these questions, it is useful to bring to light another one of Hayek’s conceptual appropriations, namely that of “doux commerce”. An analysis of this conceptual borrowing by Hayek takes us deep into his defence and justification of liberalism. Nevertheless, to adequately grasp the significance of this appropriation, it is necessary to highlight the conceptual shifts Hayek applies to this theme, when he argues that “cash-nexus […] holds the Great Society together”, that is, constitutes the ultimate basis of peaceful order in modern society. (shrink)

To justify their activity, the first English mercantilists present commerce as a natural activity, which promotes peace between nations and contributes to the progress of civilization. In particular, they use the lex mercatoria, a notion inherited from the Middle Ages. The idea of a mutual trade of humanity, put forward in the writings of merchants, but also in an author like Grotius, contrasts with the theories of sovereignty linked to a national territory by political thinkers like Francis Bacon, (...) Thomas Hobbes and William Petty, or in some ways with a lawyer like John Selden. Paradoxically, while the constitution of colonial empires coincides with the rise of the great international trade, freedom of trade is presented by its defenders as an alternative to the antagonism between the states and the logic of domination induced by modern theories of imperium. This apparent contradiction between state logic and commercial humanism –or what appears to be such– seems to subsist in the modern resurgences of the lex mercatoria in the twentieth century. Yet, the idea of a source of the law independent of the state and rooted in the antiquity of customs, the uniformity of market practices or the jus gentium, is largely a fable, and an ideological construct aimed at concealing the reality of commercial practices. From this point of view, the fable of the lex mercatoria certainly plays an important role in the constitution of the commonplace of the doux commerce and the promotion of the freedom of trade by those who are, directly or indirectly, the main beneficiaries. (shrink)

Humankind is currently witnessing, and shaping, the most significant and rapid paradigm shift in human history - a paradigm shift of major demographic, economic, ecological, and geo-political dimensions. For the first time in human history - we are faced not with just one crisis - but a confluence of several crises; crises that are not related to a single tribe or community - a single nation -or a single region of the world - but are each global in scale. To (...) meet the challenges of these global crises will require an equally historic paradigm shift; a paradigm shift with a strong environmental ethic that restores ecological balance and integrity to our failing ecosystems, and that addresses the critical issue of climate change; a paradigm shift toward an economic system that brings about an end to poverty — and a paradigm that brings an end to war as a means to solving conflict, as it is only through a global family in harmony and peace with itself, that we can solve the unprecedented global issues facing our one common home, planet earth - and our one common future as a global family. The travel and tourism industry has, and will continue to play a vital and leading role toward this paradigm shift, and as the world's largest industry involving virtually every nation in the world — will be the central pillar of a Peace through Commerce movement. The dramatic growth of tourism in the past 60 years is one of the most remarkable economic and social phenomena of our time. The industry has grown from a total of 25 million international arrivals in 1950 to a projected 1 billion international arrivals in 2010, and a further projection to 1.6 billion by 2020. Beginning with the emergence of "Ecotourism" in the late 1980' s, there are an increasing number of tourism market segments which fall within a broad category that can be called "Peace Tourism," and classified within a framework that includes peace within ourselves, peace with others, peace with nature, peace with past generations, peace with future generations, and peace with our Creator. Since its birth in 1986, the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) has been promoting these values of tourism together with its vision of Travel and Tourism as the world's first "Global Peace Industry" - an industry that promotes and supports the belief that every traveler is potentially an "Ambassador for Peace." This "higher purpose of tourism" includes the key role of tourism in promoting international understanding and collaboration among nations; environmental protection and preservation of biodiversity; enhancing cultures and valuing heritage; contributing to sustainable development and poverty reduction; and healing wounds of conflict. (shrink)

Nations with legal environments that allow indigenous entrepreneurs to create legal businesses are more likely to be peaceful and prosperous nations. In addition to focusing on the role of multinational corporations, those interested in creating peace through commerce should focus on promoting legal environments that allow indigenous entrepreneurs to create peace and prosperity. In order to illustrate the relationship between improved legal environments and conflict reduction, this article describes a case study in which increased economic freedom led (...) to reduced violence in Northern Ireland between 1975 and 2000. (shrink)

It is often argued that a shared culture, or at least shared cultural references or practices, can help to foster peace and prevent war. This essay examines in detail and criticizes one such argument, made by Patrick Leigh Fermor, in the context of his discussing an incident during World War II, when he and a captured German general found a form of agreement, a ground for peace between them, in their both knowing Horace's ode I.9 by heart in (...) Latin. By way of introducing the sixth and final installment of the Common Knowledge symposium “Peace by Other Means,” this essay proposes that Leigh Fermor's narrative be understood in terms of commerce, rather than consensus. It concludes by examining Ezra Pound's use of the word commerce in his poem “A Pact” to define his relationship with his “detested” and “pig-headed” poetic “father,” Walt Whitman. (shrink)

This article deals with a blind spot in Hirschman’s analysis in The Passions an the Interests: according to him, the topos of the doux commerce would have been erased from the collective consciousness during the 19th century, due to the social consequences of the industrial revolution. However, in the debates that animate the industrialist thinkers under the French Restoration (1814-1830), the association between civil peace and economic development takes on new topical and argumentative forms with the conceptual shift (...) from the “trading nation” to the “industrial society”. This shift is not indifferent: it has reconfigured the topography of the doux commerce. On the one hand, the theme of peaceful industry superimposed the workshop model (regarded as cooperative, productive and hierarchical) on that of commercial exchange (regarded as more egalitarian). On the other hand, it opened the prospect not only of a simple softening, but of a radical substitution of interest for passions and of a total elimination of conflict thanks to the peaceful exploitation of nature. However, the emergence of the social question sowed discord among industrialists: without rejecting the commonplace entirely, the Saint-Simonians separated from the liberals by detaching the theme of peaceful industry from the dogma of free competition. (shrink)

Post-conflict economies often prove daunting for foreign investors. Many of these nations are reaching out to diasporans, emigrants, and their descendants living abroad, for much-needed foreign investment capital. Little is known about why diasporans invest in their countries of origin. Recent scholarly inquiry regarding investment decision making has suggested that non-pecuniary, psychological concerns often motivate investment decisions. We develop a conceptual model identifying three types of investment return expectations — financial, emotional, and those related to social status — that may (...) drive diaspora investment interest. We contend that the psychological realities and social-status structure of the diaspora experience generate greater salience for non-pecuniary investment motivations, particularly when the origin country emerges from a period of conflict. We outline an agenda for future research and discuss the implications of our model for policies seeking to promote peace utilizing diaspora investment. (shrink)

Peace through Commerce literature has discussed how business can engage in more responsible behavior in order to mitigate conflict risk and promote conflict resolution. However, in many conflict situations, the question arises at what point does it become impossible for a firm to remain engaged on the ground and still function as an ethical business? This article discusses the role of divestment activist groups in changing institutional norms among MNCs operating in conflict situations. Institutional norms shift from firms (...) conducting "business as usual" without heed to conflict impact, to engagement policies promoting more responsible business practices, to divestment from conflict zones when circumstances are seen to preclude ethical business conduct. Engagement and divestment are explored as tools for discouraging unethical and promoting ethical business activity, considering conflict situations in South Africa and Sudan as case examples. (shrink)

Amusement, diversion, fun. This was the definition of sport offered by the first dictionary I consulted in preparation for this lecture, and if we accept it then there is at least a sporting chance that we will all be able to agree: mountaineering is a sport. But it is not a definition that sits easily with much of what sport is currently thought to be. This talk is part of a series on Philosophy and Sport timed to mark the London (...) Olympics, and amusement and fun are probably not the first words to spring to mind there, certainly not for the competitors. They may be a part of it, but I don't think it unreasonable to think more immediately of commerce, competition, achievement. So this evening I need to consider mountaineering within that context. I also want to make clear at the outset that I shall take mountaineering to mean not just the climbing of high snow-covered peaks, but mountain travel and exploration, and simply recreational mountain walking. There doesn't need to be anything technical involved. At the same time, I must include rock-climbing within my brief, and for at least two reasons. One is that rock-climbing and mountaineering are closely connected historically. In it's early years, alpine climbing often led to rock climbing, the latter being seen as geographically convenient training for ‘the real thing’ – namely, the annual alpine holiday. When I was a teenager in the 1970s the influence went the other way: I began with rock-climbing in the Lake District, and proceeded to alpine climbing. And secondly, rock-climbing and mountaineering are administratively and politically connected. I suspect that the former, which in Britain as often as not doesn't take place in mountains at all, now absorbs the major part of the public funds devoted to these matters. And it is predominantly on the British experience that I want to draw. (shrink)

The private sector is vital to building and sustaining peace. These efforts are often recognized as “Business for Peace” or “Peace through Commerce.” Academic research on Business for Peace is almost twenty years old and tends to be theoretical. This paper is the first to present qualitative findings on businesses operating in an active violent conflict such as the case of Iraq. Companies in Iraq operate under the constant threat of violence and yet many still (...) try to enhance peace through operations. We interviewed more than 40 participants who were business owners, managers, government officials, and international policymakers who were active in the Iraqi theater. We discuss our findings that relate to the perception of company activities as peace enhancing into four categories: capacity building, rule of law, social cohesion, and local engagement. Our findings support the existing business and peace categories of rule of law and social cohesion. Our findings also suggest that current theory may be missing capacity building and local engagement as important business activities to promote peace. We conclude by noting the limitations of the paper and the need for more qualitative research. (shrink)

While Peace through Commerce (PTC) started as a conversation among a small group of scholars it has grown into an increasingly robust movement, giving rise to conferences, books, journal articles, and dialogue between scholars, managers, practitioners, government officials, and civil society actors, all of whom share an interest in the potential of commerce to foster greater peace. Because social movement scholarship explores the ability of collective interests to achieve social change it provides a useful lens through (...) which to consider PTC's maturation and, more broadly, the rise of scholarly conversations into social movements its. Increasingly, social movement theory has been used to describe and better understand a diverse range of social and organizational changes (Strang and II Jung, 2005) including academic endeavors (Hambrick and Chen, 2008). I draw on social movement theory to characterize the rise of PTC and to consider its future growth. I also suggest broader implications for the transition of academic dialogue as it attains movement status. (shrink)

Calls for greater corporate responsibility have resulted in the creation of various extralegal mechanisms to shape corporate behavior. The number and popularity of corporate responsibility standards has grown tremendously in the last three decades. Current estimates suggest there may be over 300 standards that address various aspects of corporate behavior and responsibility (e. g., working conditions, human rights, protection of the natural environment, transparency, bribery). However, little is known about how these standards relate directly to the notion of peace (...) through commerce and the reduction of violent conflict in the world. This article explores the relationship between corporate responsibility standards and peace through commerce. After a summary of the current state of standards with respect to the creation of peace and the reduction of violent conflict, I explore concerns regarding the effectiveness of standards in shaping corporate behavior and the potential future role standards could have in creating peace through commerce. (shrink)

Over 1000 companies have either curtailed or else completely ceased operations in Russia as a response to its invasion of Ukraine, a mass corporate exodus of a speed and scale which we’ve never seen. While corporate withdrawal appears to have considerable public support, it’s not obvious that it has done anything to hamper the Russian war effort, nor is it clear what the long-run effects of corporate withdrawal as a regularised response to war might be. Given this, it’s important the (...) evaluate the ethical merits of such a response. In this paper I critique what I take to be the two most common arguments given in favour of voluntary corporate withdrawal, which I label ‘the instrumental argument’ and ‘the clean hands argument’ respectively. After illustrating their shortcomings, I reframe corporations’ predicament as a ‘spattered hands’ case—one where they may do good by remaining in a war-waging state, but where they contribute indirectly to grave wrongdoing by doing so. Drawing on ideas from the ‘Business for Peace’ and ‘Business and Human Rights’ literature, I highlight the potentially positive role of corporate presence within war-waging countries, before highlighting four considerations which corporations ought to bear in mind when determining whether to withdraw, or whether it is the lesser evil to stay and to let their hands be spattered. (shrink)

While tourism's positive contributions to societies have long been debated, commerce based tourism activities can strengthen peaceful societies by adhering to sustainable tourism principles. This study utilizes content analysis to examine 136 tourism practices from four major awards programs for their contributions to sustainability and peace. Specific practices which illuminate each of these contributions are highlighted. The findings reveal the most common initiatives focus on environmental quality, economic development, and community nourishment efforts, with substantially less focus on initiatives (...) to engage citizen diplomacy and increase transparency. The use of awards programs to further sustainable tourism is discussed, and suggestions for future research in this important area of study are shared. (shrink)

Recent research has focused on business as a mediating institution that can influence society while engaging in the traditional profit-making and value generation functions. This work includes Professors Fort's and Schipani's arguments about how business may be able to play a role in promoting more peaceful societies, and other research addressing how businesses might serve a role in reducing violence in society and the workplace. Although there is a significant body of scholarship on the role of business in reducing violence (...) in society, there is little research on concrete steps for businesses to take to achieve this goal. This article attempts to begin to fill that void. As identified by Fort and Schipani, business may promote more peaceful societies by encouraging a sense of community. We argue that one way to reach that goal is for business to provide what we denote as complementary alternative benefits (CABs), to its workforce. In this article, we advocate for businesses to offer CABs which focus on sustaining the health, reducing the stress, and improving the camaraderie of its workforce. We argue that business can use these benefits to promote a healthy, less-stressed, and collegial workforce that is less prone to resolve conflicts by violence. Further, we examine the role business plays in promoting more peaceful societies and how employer-initiated stress reduction programs are consistent with both business ethics and peace-building principles. Finally, using case studies we demonstrate how CABs may also reduce costs related to absenteeism and turnover, and thus improve the bottom line. (shrink)

À l'heure où le débat sur la fin de vie resurgit, Bernard Sportès nous ouvre de nouveaux horizons, dépasse les arguments simplistes et nous aide à comprendre tabous et angoisses. Son analyse, ancrée dans son expérience des fins de vie, nous rappelle que cet accompagnement ultime doit bien rester un soin. Sa vision humaniste se refuse à ces morts administrées selon des critères médicaux prédéfinis, auxquelles il oppose une mort accompagnée, assistée jusqu'aux derniers instants. Cette proposition, nouvelle dans ce vieux (...) débat, prend acte de l'évolution de nos mœurs et place le respect de la volonté au-dessus de toute autre considération. Prééminence d'une volonté trop souvent confondue avec de simples opinions. Émerge ainsi la possibilité qu'une aide à mourir s'inscrive dans la poursuite d'une prise en charge. Le législateur devra l'organiser dans la confiance en la maturité des soignants et des patients, s'éloigner du réglementaire, encourager une pensée collective et supervisée. Nos fins de vies réclament une République fraternelle qui n'abandonne personne, une médecine d'équipe qui résiste au modèle industriel où on l'entraine. Bernard Sportès nous livre finalement un message simple : nous ne mourrons pas mieux tant que nous n'aurons pas bâti cette médecine de la personne qu'il décrit et propose."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

The concept of the culture of peace has been developed under the UNESCO auspices by prominent academicians, scientists and artists. The challenge is to replace the culture of conflict, which is oriented towards violence and conflict resolution by force, by the culture of peace. Its underlying basics are non-acceptance of violence, devotion to democratic principles, promotion of freedom, justice, and solidarity ant tolerance, mutual respect for others’ cultures, ideologies, beliefs and other humanistic values. As far as sport is (...) concerned from this point of view, there are numerous issues, such as: Whether sport is one of the educatingelements of the culture of peace, that is one of those elements of society which provide for development and establishment of such culture To what extent and how effectively sport has actually served this purpose Whether there is a conflict between competition which is inherent in sport and the role of sport in development of the culture of peace Whether competition which can be especially fierce on the international level can impact negatively the objectives which the culture of peace is called to attain etc. Unfortunately the research into the culture of peace has very little mention of sport as one of the phenomena affecting this culture. The bibliography on the culture of peace published in 1999 does not have any reference to sport in this respect. During the last few years the author with a group of his colleagues have started working on analyzing sport as a factor of establishment and development of the culture of peace. The principal results of this analysis are as follows. (shrink)

It is 2 a.m. I am very sick. I am not sure how long I have been hospitalized. The last two or three days have been a blur, a parade of procedures and people. I had a bloody debridement for a severe, large, and grossly infected stage four wound‐the first wound I have had since I was paralyzed in 1978. I know the next six months or longer are going to be exceedingly difficult. I will be bedbound for months, dependent (...) upon others for the first time in my adult life. As these thoughts are coursing through my mind, a physician I have never met and the registered nurse on duty appear at my door. As they put on their gowns I am weary but hopeful. Surely there is something that can be done to stop the vomiting. The physician examines me with the nurse's help. Like many other hospitalists that have examined me, he is coldly efficient. At some point, he asks the nurse to get a new medication. What transpired after the nurse exited the room has haunted me. Paralyzed me with fear. The hospitalist asked me if I understood the gravity of my condition. He grimly told me I would be bedbound for at least six months and most likely a year or more. That there was a good chance the wound would never heal. If this happened, I would never sit in my wheelchair. I would never be able to work again. Not close to done, he told me I was looking at a life of complete and utter dependence. He went on to tell me I was on powerful antibiotics that could cause significant organ damage. He informed me I had the right to forego any medication, including the lifesaving antibiotics. If I chose not to continue with the current therapy, I could be made very comfortable. I would feel no pain or discomfort at all. Although not explicitly stated, the message was loud and clear. I can help you die peacefully. (shrink)

This paper explores the effects of performativity on the culture of a Scottish secondary school, Lochview High School. This is set against a backdrop of the Scottish education policy context which in recent years has been heavily focused on reducing the poverty-related attainment gap, namely through the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC). The analysis of the empirical data is supported by a cultural and ecological framework which emphasises the interwoven and complex nature of the school system. In particular, the paper provides (...) a critique of accountability and performative agendas which often run counter to other national agendas, such as the SAC. Through observations, staff interviews (teachers and senior management), and student interviews, task-based activities and group discussions, the data suggests performative and accountability measures are inextricably woven through the education system within which Lochview is situated. Despite this, Lochview provides a case study of a school which successfully navigates competing agendas. However, it is not without its struggles, but the school community often finds rewards and benefits in the positive school culture which develops as a result of responding to the local community’s needs. (shrink)

In an attempt to learn from COVID-19, this essay features six responses to the question: what did COVID-19 teach us, expose in us, or purge out of us when it comes to spiritual formation in Christ? Each response was written independently of the others by one of the coauthors. Diane J. Chandler focuses in on how COVID-19 exposed grievous inequities for ethnic groups in the American church and broader society. Kelly M. Kapic reminds us of the goodness of human finitude (...) and how COVID restrictions have forced many of us to embrace our limitations. Siang-Yang Tan reflects on eight lessons he has learned during this pandemic year in his role shepherding a local church. James C. Wilhoit calls us to consider the structures that are needed for local church leadership to make wise and godly decisions in times of crisis. Richard Peace draws our attention to what might be learned from the forced monasticism brought about by COVID-19 quarantines. Finally, Ruth Haley Barton pauses to consider the interdependence of human life that has been dramatically illustrated by this pandemic. While these six responses certainly do not exhaust all there is for the church to learn from COVID, we present them in the spirit of “O Lord, teach us what we do not see” and hope they will inspire your own reflections. (shrink)

In this article, the author aims to demonstrate how Agamben’s concept of Homo Sacer is ideally epitomized by a soldier in war. A soldier in war holds a peculiar position, as killing of soldiers is considered neither illegal by laws nor immoral by ethics, and so a soldier is not considered to be legally or morally “guilty” in the usual sense of the word if he or she kills another soldier in war. The author analyzes the notion of Homo Sacer (...) – a figure representing a human that can be killed without the killer being punished, but at the same time someone who cannot be sacrificed – and further demonstrates that a soldier in war can be said to hold precisely such a status. The reason why a soldier cannot be sacrificed resides in the fact that he has already been “sacrificed to war” by his own society, in exchange for the safety of all other members of society. Perceiving a soldier as Homo Sacer provides a novel explanation and an additional argument for the moral symmetry of combatants, one of the pillars of non-revisionist Just War Theory, as all soldiers can be understood as persons sacrificed by their own societies. (shrink)

I address an argument in value theory which threatens to render nonsensical many debates in modern ethics. Almotahari and Hosein’s :1485–1508, 2015) argument against the property of goodness simpliciter is presented. I criticise the linguistic tests they use in their argument, suggesting they do not provide much support for their conclusion. I draw a weaker conclusion from their argument, and argue that defenders of goodness simpliciter have not responded adequately to this milder conclusion. I go on to argue that moral (...) philosophers ought to abandon the property of goodness simpliciter and focus their attention on the property of being a good state of affairs. I defend this property against Almotahari and Hosein’s criticism, and give reasons to think it is at the heart of moral theory. (shrink)

Question: Where, when and under what circumstances did the two of you get to know each other?Fischer: It was in the early seventies, in Frankfurt, after the dissolution of the gauche proletarienne and while there were still leftist groups in Germany. It must have been 1972. Question: Was that a private visit?Glucksmann: We had private discussions. We also participated in rallies and demonstrations.Question: That was in the late phase of the student movement.Fischer: We kept in contact through my old room-mate, (...) Daniel Cohn-Bendit. He was our link to France, so to speak.Question: And was this the link between the French and the German Left that existed then? (shrink)

Volume 18, Issue 2, May 2024, Page 123-125.

Dans un célèbre petit volume, Les passions et les intérêts, l’économiste Albert O. Hirschman retrace la formation, aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, de ce qu’il nomme la « doctrine du doux commerce », qui est constitutive de la pensée libérale et qui fut développée alors « en faveur du libre essor des activités lucratives privées ». Selon Hirschman, une première version du doux commerce met en exergue les effets pacificateurs du commerce, en insistant pour ce faire sur (...) une opposition entre intérêt... (shrink)

This paper details the implementation of the Clinical Ethics Needs Assessment Survey (CENAS) through a pilot study in five units within Hamilton Health Sciences. We describe how these pilot sites were selected, how we implemented the survey, the significant results and our interpretation of the findings. The primary goal of this paper is to share our experiences using this tool, specifically the challenges we encountered conducting a staff ethics needs assessment across different units in a large teaching hospital, and the (...) facilitators to our success. We conclude with a discussion of the limitations of this study, our plans for using the results to develop a proactive ethics education strategy, and suggestions for other organizations wishing to adapt the CENAS to assess their staff ethics needs. Our secondary goal is to advance the “quality agenda” for ethics programs by demonstrating how a tool like the CENAS can be used to design more effective educational interventions, and to support strategic planning and proactive priority-setting for ethics programs. (shrink)

Presents a plethora of approaches to developing human potential in areas not conventionally addressed. Organized in two parts, this international collection of essays provides viable educational alternatives to those currently holding sway in an era of high-stakes accountability.

As ethics committees and programs become integrated into the “usual business” of healthcare organizations, they are likely to face the predicament of responding to greater demands for service and higher expectations, without an influx of additional resources. This situation demands that ethics committees and programs allocate their scarce resources (including their time, skills and funds) strategically, rather than lurching from one ad hoc request to another; finding ways to maximize the effectiveness, efficiency, impact and quality of ethics services is essential (...) in today’s competitive environment. How can Hospital Ethics Committees (HECs) begin the process of strategic priority-setting to ensure they are delivering services where and how they are most needed? This paper describes the creation of the Clinical Ethics Needs Assessment Survey (CENAS) as a tool to understand interprofessional staff perceptions of the organization’s ethical climate, challenging ethical issues and educational priorities. The CENAS was designed to support informed resource allocation and advocacy by HECs. By sharing our process of developing and validating this ethics needs assessment survey we hope to enable strategic priority-setting in other resource-strapped ethics programs, and to empower HECs to shift their focus to more proactive, quality-focused initiatives. (shrink)