Voluntary sustainability standards that establish global rules for firms’ environmental and/or social conduct and allow for verification of firm compliance via third-party certification hold the promise to govern firms’ sustainability conduct in a globalizing world economy. However, the recent proliferation of competing and overlapping global sustainability standards that have been developed by various stakeholders with different agendas, creates uncertainties for firms that likely reduce their propensity to adopt any standard. Without widespread adoption these standards cannot effectively govern firm conduct and (...) in contrast create barriers for firms’ access to export markets. We suggest that the uncertainties associated with competing standards and the effect of these uncertainties on standard certification decisions are especially large for firms in emerging economies because these firms lack access to information about current and future standards and the resources to obtain certifications to multiple standards. We theoretically propose and empirically identify three distinct sources of sustainability standard uncertainty: diversity of customer requirements, dynamism of customer requirements, and the unpredictability of the future evolution of standard and propose that each of these sources reduces firms’ propensity to obtain certification to any standard. Our empirical results based on certifications to food safety standards by a sample of 97 Mexican food exporting firms confirm that three distinct sources of sustainability standard uncertainty exist and that all of them negatively impact certification. We discuss ethical implications and offer recommendations for both suppliers as well as standard setting organizations. (shrink)

The recognition of Africa's contribution to American culture involves accepting an inheritance that is both part of the national heritage and part of the identity and cultural profile of each of our societies. By encouraging its complete assimilation into our history, this recognition also involves the study and dissemination of the culture, which in turn will enable the millions of Afro-Americans spread across the continent to participate in the process of building the future. Once properly recognized, this cultural heritage will (...) produce a rich form of métissage and generate pluralism. (shrink)

The Earth is facing pressing societal grand challenges that require urgent managerial action. Responsible management learning has emerged as a discipline to prepare managers to act as responsible leaders that can effectively address such pressing challenges. This article aims to extend current knowledge on RML in the domain of corporate sustainability through the application of threshold concepts, novel ideas which provide a doorway to new knowledge and transform a learner’s mindset. Specifically, after conducting a systematic review of the management literature, (...) we identify 33 CS threshold concepts that are useful for mainstream managers and practitioners in their RML process. We group them into six CS threshold concept themes that can help managers understand the complexities and interconnectedness that characterize CS. Finally, we map CS threshold concepts with key competences for effective RML. Therefore, our contribution relies on translating existing CS theoretical frameworks into transformative, specific, understandable and applicable pieces of knowledge that might help mainstream managers to embed CS principles in their daily management practices. (shrink)

Resumo Lida sem atenção, a avaliação do Poema de Parmênides por Nietzsche corre o risco de frustrar, mais do que estimular, os leitores não-iniciados em Filosofia. Pois, nela o filósofo não só ignora a pesquisa sua contemporânea sobre o Eleata, como insere o seu pensamento numa polêmica antiracionalista, recheada de equívocos e intuições infundadas. É nosso objetivo aqui tentar restituir credibilidade a esta avaliação, apontando as linhas que orientam o diálogo do crítico com o seu objeto tanto para o senso-comum, (...) como para o seu próprio pensamento.Carelessly read, Nietzsche’s evaluation of Parmenides frustrates rather than stimulates non-initiate readers in Philosophy. For the German philosopher ignores any current research on the Eleatic thinker, inserting his arguments in an anti-rationalist polemic, mostly based on unfounded intuitions. We aim at establishing the credibility of Nietzsche’s criticism on the grounds of common sense and of his own heraclitean influenced philosophy. (shrink)

We use this editorial essay as a call for a more effective use of new technologies, such as mobile apps and Web 2.0 tools, to educate students and other relevant stakeholders on business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability topics. We identify three overarching reasons that justify the need for new ways of teaching that further incorporate technology to foster the innovative thinking needed to tackle imminent societal grand challenges such as climate change and increasing inequality. First, we are facing (...) a new generation of millennials and Generation Z students who are digital natives and more likely to search for educational content on their electronic devices. Second, new technologies offer opportunities to reach students globally, helping to democratize education. Third, we posit that the intrinsic characteristics of societal grand challenges, which are complex, uncertain, and evaluative, can benefit from technology as an effective translator of multilayered concepts into more digestible action items. Our essay ends with a brief summary of the four essays included in the thematic symposium: “There is an App for that! The Use of New Technologies and Apps in Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Education.”. (shrink)

This photo-essay, entitled 'Our Stories: Cartography of a Conflict', is born from the fieldwork carried out in the scope of the research 'Past, Present and Future in the Voice of Women and Girls Affected by the Conflict in Cabo Delgado: A Feminist Analysis', as a way of naming and disseminating the diversity of voices of displaced women, and broadening the visibility of their stories, which have very often been reduced to statistics. The aim of this article is to share their (...) perceptions and demands, their stories and journeys in search of security and possible horizons for their re-existence. This photo-essay shows that women displaced and affected by the conflict need to be named, singularised in their aspirations, needs and struggles. Their life stories are the reason for this work. It is their pain and resilience, their desires, their invisible and visible powers, their strategies for rebuilding their lives, families and communities that we want to make known. Their voices need to be heard, read, understood and placed at the centre of all governmental and civil society interventions for reconstruction, humanitarian response and peacebuilding in Cabo Delgado. Each woman participating in this photo-essay has chosen to share her story and her face, and has decided how to be photographed and represented, with the desire that somehow their trajectories become sources of direct knowledge to guide the paths to Peace in the province. They want to be known and recognised in their dignity, in their determination and perseverance, as well as in their deepest needs. The story of each woman shared in this article is a local and national reference to build a nonviolent future in Mozambique. (shrink)

Vasco de QuirogaIt was precisely when printing became popular in Europe - which, for the first time in history, permitted the conservation and mass diffusion of ancient Greek, Arab, and Latin writings, a fact that signalled the beginning of the Renaissance - that the Letters of Amerigo Vespucci first appeared. These letters, like a revelation, speak of a novus mundus, a new world of unknown flora, fauna, and men, that contradicts the findings of Ptolemy‘s eminent Cosmography (published in 1478, in (...) Rome), Theophrastus's History of Plants (published in 1498, in Venice), and the hallowed treatises of Aristotle, which were then in fashion. (shrink)

Resenha de Frans de Waal. The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society. London: Souvenir Press, Paperback Edition, 2011.

After life itself, freedom is man's most precious and esteemed possession; and consequently it is the most worthy causes; and when there is doubt about someone's freedom, one owes it to oneself to answer in favor and to judge in favor of freedom. This precept is equally true for Blacks as for Indians.Bartolomé de Las Casas, Tratados, 1552Our America has not fully realized the extent of the African continent's influence on the cultural and ethnic genesis of Latin America. This aspect (...) of its history remains foreign to it and almost consciously denied: a denial that is the legacy of a racial complex created by the European mentality during the course of the Conquest. One of the characteristics of American humanism, however, lies within the valorization of the multi-ethnic origins of Latin American culture; this is why one cannot ignore the breadth of the African contribution to the American identity and the circumstances that determined this contribution. (shrink)

The recognition of Africa's contribution to American culture involves accepting an inheritance that is both part of the national heritage and part of the identity and cultural profile of each of our societies. By encouraging its complete assimilation into our history, this recognition also involves the study and dissemination of the culture, which in turn will enable the millions of Afro-Americans spread across the continent to participate in the process of building the future. Once properly recognized, this cultural heritage will (...) produce a rich form of métissage and generate pluralism. (shrink)

El presente artículo expone la investigación que se está llevando a cabo en la tesis doctoral que lleva por título “La presencia de la mujer artista en las exposiciones barcelonesas (1888-1936)” cuyo objetivo es cuantificar la participación de estas en exposiciones individuales y colectivas en la ciudad y analizar la consideración social y fortuna crítica que lograron a partir de su recepción en el público y en la crítica de la época.

This paper investigates the determinants of the diffusion of the international environmental management system standard ISO 14001 within the chemical industry using a panel of 126 different countries during the period 2000 to 2003. We investigate how institutional pressure originating from different stakeholders such as governments, businesses, and the civil society and forces related to trade will drive the diffusion. Our results show that the level of community involvement within a particular country and the previous experience of businesses with voluntary (...) standards such as Responsible Care and ISO 9000 impacts ISO 14001 adoption in chemical firms. (shrink)

No presente artigo analisarei as três principais objeções comumente empregadas para rejeitar o uso de violência em defesa de animais não-humanos. Existe a ideia de que a violência é inerentemente errada e sempre deveria ser repudiada – eu chamo isso de ‘Objeção do Pacifista Absoluto’. Há também a perspectiva de que a utilização de violência por ativistas interespécies acaba alienando o grande público do movimento pelos direitos dos animais não-humanos como um todo – eu me refiro a esse argumento como (...) ‘Objeção da Hostilidade Pública’. Por último, encontra-se na literatura dos estudos interespécies o argumento de que lançar mão de violência pró-não-humanos é contraproducente, pois táticas violentas seriam responsáveis pela criação de leis que protegem aqueles que exploram os animais não-humanos e criminalizam as ações de ativistas interespécies – essa é a ‘Objeção do Impacto Contraproducente Visível’. Após apresentar cada uma dessas objeções explicarei por que nenhuma delas é capaz de oferecer um argumento definitivo contra o uso de estratégias violentas em favor dos membros de outras espécies animais sencientes. (shrink)

É certamente difícil (para não dizer questionável) designar uma publicação acadêmico-científica como o “texto definitivo” sobre um determinado assunto – especialmente em se tratando de um campo de investigação tão diversificado e fluido quanto a bioética. Sempre existe a possibilidade de surgirem estudos posteriores ainda mais abrangentes, atualizados e penetrantes. Dito isso, se há um momento em que alguém poderia ser legitimamente tentado a considerar uma obra como merecedora desse epítome, talvez seja após mergulhar nas quase mil páginas que compõem (...) a mais recente edição de Bioethics: an anthology (doravante, ‘BAA’), organizada por Udo Schüklenk e Peter Singer (2022). Antes de mais nada, é essencial ressaltar que esta quarta edição de BAA mantém. (shrink)

No decurso das últimas décadas, uma notável revolução acadêmica de caráter global vem ocorrendo. Embora suas implicações ainda não tenham sido devidamente exploradas, a sua existência dificilmente poderia ser negada. Tal revolução concerne ao extraordinário crescimento do interesse das mais variadas áreas do conhecimento no estudo das relações entre seres humanos e os membros de outras espécies animais. Inquestionavelmente, a característica mais marcante dessa revolução em andamento é a miríade de publicações científicas sobre essa temática. De fato, a quantidade de (...) escritos é tamanha que a antropóloga norte-americana Margo DeMello se propôs a editar uma compilação bibliográfica com as principais pesquisas produzidas sobre o que ela denomina “estudos humano–animal”1. Human–Animal Studies: A Bibliography é o resultado dos esforços de DeMello. (shrink)

This article opens with a brief analysis of key features of the Mexican semi-authoritarian regime. It then moves to a discussion of the critical realist positions and features that inform the strategic-relational approach. Attention is paid to social interactions and causal relations that enable the SRA to trace patterns of punctuated evolution and to highlight the processes of transformation. Since ideal types serve to highlight key characteristics in specifc phenomena, processes and actors, some features of ideal types of the state (...) and of the transition from one type to another are also discussed. In particular, attention is paid to the Keynesian welfare national state and to the Schumpeterian workfare post-national regime ideal types elaborated by Jessop. For it is contended that the specific features of these ideal types could be of great help in broadening the debate on economic restructuring and political reforms in countries such as Mexico. Moreover, the SRA approach provides an insight into the endogenous features of social change and stresses the importance of networking for a strategic agenda as well. For the never-static dynamics of the processes of change the role of situated agents in context is fundamental, as it injects intentionality and acknowledges the contingency of the conditions that surround them. (shrink)

This article analyzes the adoption of voluntary environmental management programs by firms operating in Mexico. Mexican firms can obtain national certification (Clean Industry) and/or international certification (ISO 14001). Based on institutional entrepreneurship theory, we posit that the role played by first movers as institutional entrepreneurs is crucial if these programs are to become established with sufficient strength and appeal. This understanding is especially important in an environment where more than one program can be adopted. We tested several hypotheses on the (...) behaviors of 1328 facilities operating in Mexico, half of which (664) had certified environmental management programs. Of the 664 certified facilities, 217 were classified as early adopters. Three variables predicted the likelihood of a facility being an early adopter: (1) connected to international market, (2) in the maquila sector, and (3) linked to an industry association that offers free resources. (shrink)

This paper revisits an aspect of Charles Mills’s work that is usually overlooked, namely, his early engagement with the tradition of analytical Marxism, particularly in From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism (2003). This collection of essays is important not only because it marks Mills’s intellectual trajectory, but also because, as I aim to show in the following, it allows us to trace the source of Mills’s radicalism. I argue that Mills’s radicalism locates the causal source (...) of social change in the material conditions of oppression. I then show how this analysis of Mills’s radicalism can help in clarifying his critique of ideal theory and his insistence on the importance of nonideal theory. I end by considering the relation between class and racial oppression in Mills’s early Marxist work. (shrink)

Do environmental policy statements accurately represent corporate commitment to environmental sustainability? Because companies are not required by law to publish environmental policy statements or to verify that these statements are true using independent third parties, external stakeholders often wonder when a published commitment to a policy translates into actual policy implementation. The authors analyzed two independent databases to predict the circumstances under which large, leading-edge corporations in industry sectors will commit to and/or implement proactive corporate environmental policies and when it (...) is unlikely they will do so. The authors found that commitment to specific environmental policies does not vary greatly between industry sectors; however, policy implementation does. (shrink)

Durante a “febre brasileira”, parte do processo imigratório polonês para o Brasil, na última década do século XIX, diversos intelectuais poloneses acompanharam o deslocamento, instalação e adaptação dos patrícios nos estados do sul. Os intelectuais provindos a serviço de uma sociedade científica chamada Grupo de Lwów, localizado na parte austríaca da Polônia partilhada, vinham com ideais de analisar a presença dos poloneses já instalados e acompanhar a trajetória dos novos emigrantes. Ao produzirem textos, deixaram suas impressões sobre o Brasil e (...) seus habitantes, as quais analisamos com base nas representações da “cultura do imperialismo”, vigente no contexto do continente Europeu. (shrink)

La evidencia comparativa reciente sugiere que algunas especies no humanas sienten empatía hacia otros congéneres, la cual es una capacidad necesaria para la presencia y evolución de la moralidad. Por otro lado, la Hipótesis del Cerebro Social plantea relaciones entre la evolución de la neocorteza cerebral en primates y el tamaño de sus grupos sociales. Este artículo vincula estas ideas al señalar que: (i) la empatía y la moralidad son subproductos de la expansión de la neocorteza cerebral, y (ii) la (...) función de tales capacidades es facilitar la cooperación entre individuos, aumentando su cohesión social. Recent comparative evidence suggests that some nonhuman species feel empathy towards fellow group members and empathy is a necessary capacity for the presence and evolution of morality. On the other hand, the Social Brain Hypothesis suggests relationships between the evolution of brain's neocortex in primates and the size of their social groups. This paper links these ideas by suggesting that (i) empathy and morality are by-products of the expansión of brain's neocortex, and that (ii) the function of such capacities is to facilitate cooperation between individuals, increasing their social cohesion. (shrink)

Parmenides’ argument in the Way of Truth and Plato’s theory of Forms are usually seen as mighty metaphysical constructions. But what if they are motivated by the semantic complexity of the Greek verb ‘be’? This is the approach followed throughout this paper, mostly dealing with the debate on the emergence of a separate existential reading of ‘einai,’ and the problems arising from the use of the Latin verb ‘existere’ to translate it. The analysis of some sophistic puzzles provides examples of (...) this fused reading of the verb. They suggest that Plato’s philosophical program was intended as a correction of current sophistic views on reality and discourse, both through his theory of Forms, and the analysis of being and not being, carried out in the Sophist. (shrink)

La actual construcción de procesos museísticos propios de los pueblos indígenas gana espacio frente a los discursos colonialistas permeados durante mucho tiempo en los museos etnográficos. Se presenta una revisión de la literatura, combinada con el análisis de otras fuentes sobre museos etnográficos, pueblos indígenas y patrimonio cultural indígena brasileño. Actualmente los museos indígenas buscan acercar y participar a los pueblos indígenas, además del surgimiento de museos legítimamente indígenas, como el Museo Magüta de la etnia Ticuna, que reflejan una conciencia (...) y reafirmación de la identidad de estas poblaciones y del museo campo. (shrink)

Democratic plurality is the recognition of diversity and difference; above all, of the pragmatic use that citizens make of social discourse when they want to be part of the democratic dialogue. This is the thesis Habermas puts forth when he considers that the communicative pragmatic is the referent ..