The Business Community and the Poor: Rethinking Business Strategies and Social Policy

A bstract . Business represents a powerful set of social institutions which are of critical importance to the life prospects of the poor. The impact of business upon the poor, however, should not be confined to the usual theses concerning the macro economy and job creation. Rather, emphasis must also be placed upon specific enterprises and their strategic policies. Such policies are based on an enterprise's proper mission as a business, but also include the pivotal role business exercises in shaping poverty programs and processes of social change.     

Promising Futures: CMS,Post‐Disciplinarity,and the New Public Social Science

This paper considers the future prospects for Critical Management Studies and by extension management studies more generally. To explore these, two frameworks from the wider social sciences are deployed. The anchorpoint for the discussion is Michael Burawoy's work distinguishing types of scholarship on the bases of (a) conceptions of knowledge produced by social scientists, and (b) different audiences for that knowledge. Critical Management Studies is founded on critique but its future will be determined by how it makes its way across Burawoy's other domains of professional, policy and public scholarship. To examine this, I draw on John Brewer's recent articulation of the ‘new public social science’. Brewer's problem‐driven, post‐disciplinary approach conceives the public value of social science as its conservation of moral sentiments and sympathetic imagination towards each other as social beings, and its ethical concern about the humanitarian future of humankind. The new public social science is normative and partisan, transgressive, scientific, and impactful. I argue that this provides a potentially fruitful template to guide future management studies. This is a future in which Critical Management Studies – as management studies' critical and emancipatory conscience – has a central role to play.     

Social Change: Measurement and Theory*

Societal change, which takes a variety of directions and forms and in no way can be assimilated or reduced to a single dimension, is often accompanied by a perception of insufficient understanding and lack of control. There is a frustrated need for mastering complexity and instability, separating the voluntary from the involuntary, the intended from the unintended, opportunities from risks, getting to the real causes and dominating the uncertain implications of social change. Social change catches us unprepared and confused. In this context statistics are generally considered a fundamental instrument of knowledge, but also part of the problem! In the public debate and in the specialized literature, the ability to measure social phenomena through current statistics and indicators is increasingly questioned. Data-it is claimed-are lacking, particularly longitudinal data; their quality (accuracy, relevance, timeliness, comparability, etc.) should be improved; indicators do not provide early warning signals, policy performance evaluation, and a precise indication of outcomes. Statistics cannot be used as a reliable and timely basis for decision making by individuals, organizations, governments, and for understanding these decisions. In some cases, statistics have been accused of giving a misleading and false picture of reality: do we measure the real extent of social exclusion and unemployment? Do we fully capture the quality of life and the degradation of the environment? Mismeasurement has been deemed by some commentators as being responsible for the wrong focus in inflation and stabilization policies, science and technology, unemployment and poverty. The productivity paradox, the informal economy, failure to measure welfare and the quality of urban life are instances where statistics do not seem to provide complete and satisfactory answers to the demand for information and knowledge. Our paper illustrates how, quite independently of measurement techniques and data production processes, the inadequacy of the conceptual framework may explain mismeasurement in relation to complex (multidimensional) and dynamic social phenomena. It is then to social theories, explanations and interpretations that statisticians need to turn, in order to come to grips with the new challenges in social measurement. We will develop this thesis looking at a few cases where measurement issues can be connected to both theoretical and empirical difficulties. The statistical gap which reveals itself in the mismeasurement or difficult measurement of social phenomena is closely interconnected with the social science gap. Only close collaboration between statisticians and social scientists can bring about continuous advancement in social science and quality improvement in social statistics.     

Integrating the Social Structure of Accumulation and Social Accounting Matrix with the Social Fabric Matrix

The purpose here is to elaborate on the social fabric matrix approach (SFM‐A), and to assess the possibility of integrating it with the social structure of accumulation and the social accounting matrix.The SFM‐A to analysis and policy evaluation allows for cultural values, social beliefs, institutions, attitudes, technology, and the ecological system to be modeled into a system. The guiding goal is to work toward a more complete model of the provisioning process.     

Gentrification,Social Justice and Personal Ethics

Gentrification, leading to displacement, is an increasingly recognized social problem. Individuals who are confronted with tight housing possibilities but have adequate incomes confront personal ethical issues on whether to act in ways that may contribute to displacement of lower‐income residents, and researchers working on housing issues may be particularly concerned. In order to work out an ethical position, clarity is first needed on the differences among the various aspects of gentrification. The working definition used here is that gentrification includes the danger of displacement. A public policy response is thus required to deal with its social injustices. Specific steps are suggested for the development of such policy. Secondly, the suggestion is made that the individual choice of whether to move in or not is, importantly, a personal ethical choice and should take into account both the economic and political impact of the move itself but also the contribution that can be made through collective and political action by an in‐mover to deal with the injustices of gentrification. However, it is also an ethical choice for the professions involved and their associations.     

Leadership Education Across Disciplines: The Social Science Perspective

The current article makes a distinction between pedagogical delivery and “disciplinary foundations” in our approaches to leadership studies. Although the liberal arts are helpful in the delivery of leadership content in the classroom, it is argued that the content, at its core, remains a social science enterprise. Therefore, leadership programs should help students understand how leadership works as a social phenomenon. The current article shows how the McDonough curriculum moves students beyond leadership training (with its focus on skill building), using a social science–based working definition of leadership. Leadership education provides the opportunity to organize the curriculum using the social science lenses. By moving the focus away from the leader and examining instead the complex interaction of multiple components, a deeper understanding of how leadership works under different contexts, influenced by a variety of societal norms and values can be obtained.     

Social mix policies in Paris: discourses, policies and social effects

Since the 1980s, the issue of social mix has become a public policy category in France. Enshrined in legislation, yet remaining controversial, it represents a major premise on which housing policies have been reconfigured. The concept of social mix is essentially based on who lives where, but it is also evoked in the context of urban renewal schemes for social housing estates, as well as in relation to new-build developments. A study of the bases of social mix policies conducted in Paris since 2001 in the context of the embourgeoisement of the capital shows the fundamental role of social housing stock. The City Council has become involved in policy decisions about both the location and the allocation of social housing. Particular attention has been paid to the middle classes in the name of the principle of ‘balancing the population’. In order to measure the effects of the policy, this article relies on an analysis of two City of Paris schemes that have the stated intent of creating social mix. One of these schemes consists of redeveloping a working-class neighbourhood, Goutte d'Or, while the other involves the new acquisition of social housing in various more affluent neighbourhoods in the capital. This comparative study of the population shows that, whether in a neighbourhood poised for gentrification or in a more affluent neighbourhood, this policy has major effects on forms of local social cohesion, setting in motion individual trajectories and reshaping social and/or ethnic identities.     

Two Views on Social Stability: An Unsettled Question

A bstract Emil Durkheim published The Division of Labour in Society as part of his strategy to create a place for sociology as a science independent from economics. The book describes how social cohesion and cooperation evolve spontaneously in the course of the process of the division of labour. Friedrich Hayek developed a theory of markets and competition which was later extended into a theory of society, in which spontaneous evolution is a central element. The main force behind this process is competition and the evolution of coordination. Both authors address the problem of social stability. Hayek rejects Durkheim's analysis as constructivistic, but his criticism is unjustified. Further analysis reveals many similarities between the two authors theories of societal evolution. A striking point of convergence is that Hayek's theory of markets is a network theory, and that sociological network theory is directly inspired by Durkheim's work. The main differences are Hayek's emphasis on the division of knowledge and on coordination as the fundamental stabilising forces as opposed to Durkheim's stress on the division of labour and cooperation. The network approach, together with an elaboration of Hayek's psychology, offer perspectives for integrating coordination and cooperation into a unified theory of social stability.     

Transferability and Naturalistic Generalization: New Generalizability Concepts for Social Science or Old Wine in New Bottles?

Interpretative qualitative social science has attempted to distinguish itself from quantitative social science by rejecting traditional or ‘received’ notions of generalization. Traditional concepts of scientific generalization it is claimed are based on a misguided objectivism as to the mechanisms operating in the social world, and particularly the ability of statements to capture such mechanisms in any abstract sense. Instead they propose new versions of the generalizability concept e.g. ‘transferability’, which relies on the context dependent judgement of ‘fit’ between two or more cases instances made by a researcher. This paper argues that the transferability concept, as outlined and argued by interpretativist methodologists, is thoroughly coextensive with notions of generalizability formalized for natural science and naturalistic social science by philosophers and methodologists of science. Therefore, it may be concluded that the interpretativist claim to a break with received scientific traditions is a premature one, at least with regard to the issue of generalization.     

Partnership Between Local Government and the Local Community In The Area of Social Policy

The article describes the background and history of one project aimed at developing a strategic social plan in the city of Eger. This initiative was based upon partnership between the municipal government, the local community and civil organizations in Eger. It offers an important perspective upon the potential, in the transitional nations of eastern and central Europe, for public-private partnership as an effective mechanism both to map social needs and to develop policies to address these needs. It also offers one particular approach to the development of such partnerships - the decision conferencing model. Such an approach takes public-private partnerships into an arena beyond that of policy implementation alone.     

From the New Deal to the New Federalism: Presidential Ideology in the U.S. from 1932 to 1982

A bstract . The essence of the Reagan mandate is neither taxation nor balanced budgets , rather the reduction of federal government controls and a corresponding growth in state and local controls. This concern is neither Right nor Left, but a response to a growing realization of ineptitudes and inefficiencies seen in all the highly developed industrialized nations. Hence, whether inspired by the "free-enterprise" doctrines of Reagan in the U.S. or the "socialist" approach of Mitterrand in France, the policy goal of advanced nations is clear: a shift in fiscal priorities and political controls to strike a more realistic balance. The emphasis is upon the social movement aspects of Reagan's New Federalism: the coalition of middle sectors and elite working classes, rather than the "big business" label usually assigned to this administration. Federalism, essentially a social policy, can succeed to the degree that there is an equitable sharing in economic hardships no less than economic gains. But fiscal favoritism, racial inequalities, class dislocations, and similar difficulties can produce its defeat.     

我国公共决策专家咨询机制研究

我国的公共决策在理论上缺少完整的可以借鉴的专家决策咨询制度,在实践中表现为形式化严重,很难取得预期的效果。在当前强调公共决策专家咨询的制度建构上,应该高度重视决策者和咨询专家的行政伦理和职业道德规范,加强决策者和咨询专家的自律,从而使公共决策专家咨询成为一种必然选择和社会共识,提高我国公共决策的水平和质量。     

对农民工社会保障问题的思考

在科学发展下努力建设社会主义和谐社会的今天,农民工日益成为我国劳动力市场的一大主力军,一个发展国民经济不可或缺的部分,但农民工群体存在的问题特别是社会保障问题很不尽人意,正视农民工社会保障问题并积极探讨解决对策势在必行。文中从我国农民工社会保障的必要性和现状分析,提出了一些建设性对策。     

Cultural Values and Social Planning: A Control Theory Approach to Satisfying a Social Welfare Criterion

A bstract . A method of social planning is presented which can be used to fulfill a social welfare criterion with normative values. The purpose is to show how a social welfare model which includes cultural norms can be optimized using classical control theory. Current literature stresses the importance of incorporating social indicators in welfare economics. Given a social welfare function which actively includes a hierarchy of cultural values , control theory can be used to set social policy to reach social goals. The approach is to define a set of desired cultural norms at some future time and then determine the social policy necessary to reach this state. Control theory is used to find the social plan consistent with attaining the set of desired values.     

The Evolution of the Allied Social Science Associations

The organization of the meetings of the approximately 50 economics associations of the Allied Social Science Associations has evolved over the past 140 years, beginning with meetings of the American Social Science Association in 1865, which included social scientists from political science, history, sociology, and economics. Out of this association, the separate disciplines formed their own organizations beginning in the 1880s. Though several of these associations continued to meet together until the 1930s, each discipline gradually separated its meetings from those of the others. During the 1940s, however, other newly formed economics associations began meeting at the same time and place as the AEA, and the Allied Social Science Associations evolved out of these meetings. Though the name of the organization includes “social science,” the associations meeting together are predominately, if not completely, economics associations. These associations, however, profess many different approaches to the study of economics. This paper traces the evolution of these meetings and attempts to come to some conclusions concerning the significance of this association, the most important of which is the role of the ASSA in providing a broad and tolerant platform and a vehicle through which different points of view toward economic theory and policy can be discussed.     

浅谈科学技术对社会发展的影响

科学对于伦理,不能起直接的作用但是能起到间接的影响。它能够提供解决道德论题所需要的事实的信息,能为相对价值的判断提供某种基础。随着生命技术的突飞猛进,我们发现一些被普遍接受的伦理原则却导致道德矛盾,一些适用大多数情况的伦理理论,在特定情况下也不再适用。科学技术在社会中是有两面性的,既有好的一面也有不好的一面。要发挥科学技术的最大社会价值,伦理就是我们必须要考虑到的一大因素。     

Networks,Regional Development and Democratic Control

The networking literature has burgeoned in recent years within a complex cross‐disciplinary field and particularly in economic geography and regional planning. Networks have been analysed both as organizational expressions of globalization, linked to claims about the rise of the network society, and as territorial and cultural systems of exchange. Concepts of networks and networking have been accepted as positive, and sometimes also as progressive or radical within both social science and policy discourses. In this article we analyse regionally embedded economic networks and the EU’s urban and regional policy networks as a new mode of administration, at a variety of spatial scales. Little attention has been paid to the theoretical implications of using the concept of network as a social metaphor or to the operation of actually existing networks, as a result of conceptualizing networks in ways that deny their constitutive inequalities, asymmetries and democratic deficits. This darker side has been pushed into the shadows by the rhetorical emphasis on the benefits claimed for networked organizational forms.     

从交易费用和社会分工看物流外包

第三方物流的出现和存在必然有其合理性,文中从经济学和社会学两个方面,通过交易费用理论和社会分工理论解释第三方物流这一这会经济现象存在的合理性,从而说明了企业尽可能采用物流外包而放弃自营物流的必要性。     

Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Entrepreneurship

Milton Friedman argued that the social responsibility of firms is to maximize profits. This paper examines this argument for the economic environment envisioned by Friedman in which citizens can personally give to social causes and can invest in profit‐maximizing firms and firms that give a portion of their profits to social causes. Citizens obtain social satisfaction from corporate social giving, but corporate giving may not be a perfect substitute for personal giving. The paper presents a theory of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and shows that CSR is costly when it is an imperfect substitute. When investors anticipate the CSR, shareholders do not bear its cost. Instead, the entrepreneurs who form the CSR firms bear the cost. Shareholders bear the cost of CSR only when it is a surprise, and it is to such surprises that Friedman objects. A social entrepreneur is willing to form a CSR firm at a financial loss because either doing so expands the opportunity sets of citizens in consumption‐social giving space or there is an entrepreneurial warm glow from forming the firm. Firms can also undertake strategic CSR activities that increase profits, and a social entrepreneur carries strategic CSR beyond profit maximization and market value maximization. The paper also examines the implications of taxes and the effect of the market for control for the sustainability of CSR.