Universal Basic Income and Work in Catholic Social Thought

Catholic social thought (CST) has obvious resonance with universal basic income proposals, due to the tradition’s insistence on basic needs as human rights, comfort with government redistribution, and preference for programs that promote the agency of individuals and local communities, among other similarities. However, some CST scholars believe basic income challenges dearly held values of the tradition. This essay examines both views, concluding that basic income can comport with CST’s view of work, correctly understood.     

Work Is Love Made Visible: A Meditation on Grace

How work is understood and undertaken is a function of particular philosophical and theological assumptions. A meditation on work from the perspective of Catholic social thought must begin with the key articles of the Christian faith, namely, belief in the Trinity and belief in the Incarnation. Human dignity is profoundly grounded in this divine reality. Human persons are made in the image of a triune God and are given a particular vocation to fulfill. The Christian life is a summons to perfect love. Christians are called to love God above all things and to love all others and all of creation for the sake of God. God’s grace elevates Christian disciples to a new level of being, providing them with the supernatural help they need to be co-creators with him. This mandate is specified more finely by examining the specific commands Jesus gives as to the work that must be done. Jesus sends his followers to reproduce and take care of creation, to be holy, to bear fruit that will last, to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, and to evangelize. In this way, the political economic order is formed according to God’s plan for the world and takes a considerably different shape from the structures that arise from dominant secular premises.     

Catholicism and Economics: Towards a “Deeper Reflection on the Nature of the Economy and its Purposes”

Many of the problems neoclassical economic theory has in explaining the real world stem from its narrow view of human nature—the “rational economic man” model, which forces economists to exclude social and historical context. Every social theory starts with a view of human nature that necessarily comes from outside the social sciences. Philosophy and theology are the sources of our ideas about the nature of humans, society, and the good that humans pursue. Catholic Social Thought has a rich understanding of human nature, which includes both the uniqueness of persons and their inherently social nature. Starting from this foundation, economists can develop a deeper understanding of the nature of the economy. Catholic Social Thought does not offer a different economic theory or model, but it does provide an alternative vision upon which more adequate and realistic economic theories can be constructed.     

The True Meaning of ‘Social Justice’: A Catholic View of Hayek

Hayek's well‐known dismissal of the concept of ‘social justice’ is examined and questioned. While basically agreeing with Hayek's critique, the author argues that we should not entirely reject this concept, although it is often used in a vague and emotional way – ‘social justice talk’. Drawing on the tradition of classical liberalism and Catholic social teaching, he makes the case for the true meaning of social justice, which applies to the basic legal and institutional framework of a society rather than the distributional outcomes of market processes.     

Workplace Religious Displays and Perceptions of Organization Attractiveness

Workplace religious expression has become an intensely debated topic across news outlets and social media. However research on what constitutes acceptable vs unacceptable workplace religious display is sparse. At a time when EEOC claims involving religion are on the rise there is a clear need for study in this area. In this study participants in two samples read 27 scenarios where an interviewer engaged in a Christian religious display during a job interview. We used Christian religious displays for their ease of recognition in an American sample. Participants rated each workplace religious display in terms of likelihood of occurrence and organization attractiveness. In both samples organization attractiveness ratings were more negative than expected in a predominantly Christian sample signifying that while individuals may value their ability to express their religion they may not appreciate such displays from those who represent an organization. Verbal and physical religious displays received more negative ratings compared to scenarios that spoke to shared experiences such as displaying pictures of one’s children in a religious ceremony. Application in organizations and HR implications are discussed.     

Human Nature from a Catholic Perspective

Catholic views on personhood and human nature include emphasis on the dignity of each person, from womb to tomb. The claims made for this inviolable dignity invariably stem from the recognition that all human beings, regardless of their state of dependency, are made in the image of God and are thus the bearers of certain moral rights. But in our fallen state that image is wounded and needs to be repaired. Hence, Christians need to learn to recapitulate the life of Christ in their own lives by growing through the stages of human life according to the model that He presents to us. There are not only individual but corporate aspects to this growth. Catholic Social Teaching offers insights on the corporate and social condition in which we find ourselves. It has a healthy respect for the economic laws of the market and for the technical intricacies of efficient decision‐making processes in local, national, and world economies, but out of respect for human nature there are moral norms that need to be respected and that may never be violated. On the topic of property and private ownership, considerable attention is given to the very purpose of private property (namely, to provide individuals with a kind of independence that enhances their ability to do their duties to their dependence and that extends their freedom). But always correlated with this defense of private property is a sense of the social demands on private property that come from the common good and the communal purpose of all earthly goods.     

Just Reward: The Nature of Work and Its Remuneration in the Economics and Ethics of Henry George

Work is a fundamental reality of human existence. This essay examines in general terms the idea of work and labor, briefly explains the biblical foundation of George's perspective on work, and presents George's analysis on unemployment, technological change, and true competition. Finally, it discusses how access to the natural opportunities land provides liberates labor and advances the just distribution of wealth, connects these insights to Catholic Social Teachings (CST), and calls for more cooperation between these natural allies.     

THE BISHOP OF BRENTWOOD,MIGRANTS, THE MARKET AND THE PURSUIT OF GAIN

Employers who attempt to pay what others describe as a living wage may well undermine the opportunities available for migrants to experience economic flourishing. A market economy where profit is the prime motivation is an important contributor to the common good: this is clear in Catholic social teaching.     

Sociomateriality — Taking the wrong turning?

The claims for sociomateriality are reviewed and two key problems are isolated: a failure to be specific about technology and a neglect of broader social structures. These problems are located in the formulations of Barad. Her notion of agential realism is contrasted to an alternative perspective constructed using the resources of critical realism. The potential of the latter to contribute to the refreshing of the socio-technical tradition is outlined. This tradition offers more resources for the consideration of the important role of the material in contemporary organizing than sociomateriality, which is argued to be a wrong turning.     

The Throwaway Culture in the Economy of Exclusion: Pope Francis and Economists on Waste

An essential part of Pope Francis’s critique of the “economy of exclusion” is the concept of the “throwaway culture,” which is an attitude and a reality that goes beyond mere exclusion. Francis is building on critiques of consumerism (what John Paul II called “economism”) that noted both the environmental impacts of unnecessary waste and the social and human impact of reducing humans to mere consumers—the idea that happiness is shopping. Francis adds to this a concern for the people on the margins of society who are treated as disposable and for the consequences of climate change, both of which are connected to the throwaway attitude. This article looks at Francis’s views within the tradition of Catholic social thought and at how economists, especially Adam Smith, who provided the foundation for modern economics, looked at waste and consumerism.     

Social Accounting Research as If The World Matters

Abstract

This essay is intended as a self-reflective, auto-critique of the ‘social accounting community’. The essay is directed at the academic community of accountants concerned with social accounting. This `community' is predominantly concerned with English language accounting journals and is preoccupied with the social and environmental practices of the larger private sector organisations. The essay is motivated by a concern over our responsibilities as academics in a world in crisis and a concern that social accounting is losing its energy and revolutionary zeal. This community's social accounting endeavours have taken place in almost complete ignorance of the activities and developments in non accounting communities and, in particular, developments in the public and third sectors. The essay reaches out to the public and third sector work and literature as an illustration of one of the ways in which ‘our’ social accounting can try to prevent itself from becoming moribund.     

Natural Law and the Roman Catholic Tradition: The Importance of Philosophical Realism

The intellectual tradition of Roman Catholicism considers natural‐law theory as providing the philosophical machinery for articulating concepts central to thinking about moral theory, legal theory, and the social order. The thrust of this essay is to explicate the positions rooted in the writings of Aquinas on natural‐law theory, a theory with which a Georgist might find some stimulating similarities. Conditions necessary for natural‐law moral and legal theory are considered through an analysis of the central metaphysical concepts together with their historical development and contemporary significance.     

Continuity and change in the evolution of work and human resource management

This essay is a brief review of the evolution of work and human resource management, an evolution that parallels the development of civilization. Both continuity and change are apparent in the role of work in society and in its management. There has been continuity and change down through the centuries in motivation to work, in the sense of equity, and in how work is organized. For instance, early on much of work was self-service; it is moving in that direction again. Tradition and sentiment shaped the work organization. Gradually, tradition and sentiment were replaced by rationality. Currently, we see in the sociotechnical design of work the continuity as well as a coming together of both the rational and the socioemotional aspects of work in organizations. Looking at the past may help human resource managers to frame the issues involved and the expectations of future developments.     

关于旧城更新思想方法的几点思考

针对我国旧城更新过程存在的深层问题,阐明了旧城区与城市可持续发展、城市特色、城市活力、社会和谐等方面的关系。从社会、文化、地域空间、功能、传承与认同等多视角归纳总结了旧城区在城市发展中的地位与价值。在此基础上提出了以科学发展观为指导、综合协调的旧城更新思想。并从建立目标广泛、可持续发展的人居环境,社会经济发展与物质规划相协调的规划机制,原住居民与复合化功能,有机更新与循序渐进,以人为本与社区理念引入五个方面提出了旧城更新的原则与方法。     

Property rights out of anarchy? The Demsetz hypothesis in a game of conflict

The Demsetz hypothesis states that secure claims to property arise when the value of creating those rights is sufficiently high. This paper examines the conditions under which this holds in an anarchy equilibrium in which players may allocate labor to production, to conflict, or to the public good of secure claims to property protection. In a simultaneous choice Nash equilibrium, no secure claims to property are created. However, if players play a sequential choice game in which secure claims to property protection occurs in the first stage, then the strategic benefit of reducing others’ subsequent conflict allocation causes secure claims to property to arise. Secure claims to property in a social contract are imperfect, but for sufficiently high productivity of resources, the social contract welfare dominates autocracy.     

Human Work in Catholic Social Thought

In Catholic Social Thought, work is at the center of issues related to morality and economic life. It is simultaneously objective and subjective. Workers are the real agents of production, and therefore labor should have priority over capital. The able‐bodied have a moral obligation to work to obtain the things they need, but everyone has a claim on the basic necessities of life. Hence the property claims of the well‐to‐do are not to exclude the poor from what they need. The property‐right claim of stockholders depends on the firm serving work and the interests of workers. In unions, workers' natural right to form associations aligns with the right to participate in decisions affecting their lives. Numerous groups and organizations have some degree of complicity in workplace injustice and some degree of responsibility to address it.     

The CAPITAL in Social Capital: An Austrian Perspective

In recent decades economists started discovering the importance of the social dimension of economic interactions. Contemporary economics has borrowed several sociological concepts for its own use, among the most important being the concept of social capital. However, this transfer within disciplines did not occur without a loss—the nature of social capital in economics remains confused and obscure. The purpose of this article is to clarify it, specify the possibilities for its use, and discuss their limits. It is argued that economics once also possessed a view of human beings that was more “socialized” than the modern neoclassical Homo oeconomicus, and that this more “socialized” view still exists in the Austrian school of economics. Because this tradition of economic thought has also developed an elaborate capital theory, it can serve as an ideal source where we can look for inspiration in the current social capital debate. First, social capital is (re)defined along these lines as an individual's asset connected with recognized reciprocity (as opposed to interactions usually classified as “altruistic”). Then major critical claims about the relation between social and physical capital are answered and the connection between social capital, trust, and social norms is described.     

Elite Compacts in Africa: The Role of Area‐based Management in the New Governmentality of the Durban City‐region

Through reflection on the practical post‐apartheid (re)alignment of competing rationalities across the Greater Durban urban region, this essay teases out the interface between traditional and modern settlement management systems, and explores how governance cleavages are being renegotiated and mediated. It is suggested that, in building an integrated method of operating across the fragmented city‐regional scale and navigating the competing interests involved, the practice of African urbanism is being defined. Without making any claims for what may or may not be uniquely African city‐regional dynamics at the boundaries of tradition and modernity, what is clear from the Durban case is that both conventional city‐regional literature and new city‐regional ideas have glossed over the complexity of finding solutions to tensions between poor communities, urban managers, elected local authorities and the traditional rural elites of the functional city‐regions of Africa.