Numéro 16 (1): 2019
Articles
Steve VINER
Rethinking a defense of sweatshops
ABSTRACT
In this paper, I criticize Benjamin Powell’s alleged comprehensive moral defense of sweatshops in his book Out of Poverty: Sweatshops and the Global Economy New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. I argue that his book is not comprehensive, for it fails to argue against his strongest moral opponent. Through two examples that I call “bullying” and “half rescue,” I argue that sweatshop employees are not being treated in accordance with the minimal moral treatment that they all deserve by virtue of the fact that they are persons. I also argue that we all have a moral duty to set up those institutions, policies and laws that can help sweatshop employees get this minimal moral treatment that they deserve. In addition, I contend that sweatshops no longer should be seen as the “first rung on the ladder out of extreme poverty.” Rather, it is more likely that sweatshops in today’s global economy keep the poor in poverty and cover up the fact that multinational enterprises can involve sweatshop employees in endless schemes that pit poor people against other poor people, ensuring that none of them will get the treatment that they deserve as persons.
Keywords: Powell, Sweatshops, Morality, Human Rights, Bullying, Half Rescue, Minimal Moral Treatment
Miladjo IVANOVIC
Stubborn realities, shared humanity : the state of humanitarian ethics today
ABSTRACT
This paper explores the current standing of humanitarian ethics from two different, and yet interrelated perspectives. The first argues that shortcomings of humanitarianism are symptoms of deeper social and political problems inextricably linked to the nature of humanitarian practices, while the second takes notion of humanitarian compassion as the primary moral (and political) disposition of the 21st century individual under critical scrutiny. By bringing inconsistencies of humanitarianism into the spotlight I show how humanitarianism has become a language that inextricably serves to govern human beings. Hence, by disclosing pathologies internal to the humanitarian system, I hope that I am at the same time pointing at things that a reimagined humanitarianism needs to avoid. Ultimately, I argue that this is only possible if we rethink the objectives and nature of humanitarian assistance today. Instead of falling prey to unhealthy dependencies of crisis relief and pathologies that it engenders, humanitarianism should focus on restoring the autonomy of those affected by humanitarian crises and foster further development of their social environment and individual capabilities. A satisfactory humanitarian regime should enable people to help themselves and their communities, particularly through improving their sustainability and resilience in the face of increasing global challenges and vulnerabilities.
Keywords: humanitarianism, humanitarian ethics, compassion, development, resilience, humanitarian sustainability
Christine KOGGEL
ABSTRACT
In this paper, I discuss accounts of agency, participation, and self-determination by David Crocker and Stacy Kosko because they acknowledge that relationships of power can determine who gets to participate and when. Kosko usefully applies the concept of agency vulnerability to the case of the self-determination of indigenous peoples. I examine the specific context of Canada’s history as a settler nation, a history that reflects attempts to denigrate, dismiss and erase Indigenous laws, practices, languages, and traditions. I argue that this history displays epistemic injustice in that the dominant collective interpretative resources of non-Indigenous Canadians have allowed the dismissal of the collective interpretative resources of Canada’s Indigenous peoples. This gap in collective interpretative resources can explain that Canada’s constitution, institutions, laws, and structures reflect the dominant collective interpretative resources of a colonizing nation, ones that have delineated and restricted the agency, participation, and self-determination of Indigenous Canadians. One important outcome of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and of its National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls is bringing the rich history of Indigenous collective interpretative resources and the networks of relationships shaped by them to light. By discussing examples from these reports, I give substance to the argument that foundational and structural injustices in settler nations are at bottom epistemic injustices, ones that have implications for accounts of agency, participation, and self-determination.
Keywords: agency; self-determination; epistemic injustice; Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
Shashi MOTILAL
An alliance beyond the human for ecological justice
ABSTRACT
This paper proposes to argue that ecological justice that is rooted in an ecocentric approach to nature is the key to achieving integral human development which goes beyond ‘development that is only worth our while’. Ecological justice is achievable if there is a clear understanding of relations at two distinct levels – one, the relation among humans and another between the entire human community and other elements of the ecosystem. These relations are the basis of the alliances that we form to address issues of integral human development. The focus of the paper is the second kind of alliance that is based on an understanding of the relation between the human and the non-human realm. However, an ‘alliance’ is normally formed between partners with equal standing. Is there a sense in which both humans and the non-human world can be considered to be ‘equal partners in an alliance? The paper considers how one might establish this by examining diverse philosophical viewpoints that have addressed the issue of the treatment of non-human animals for anthropocentric ends. It discusses whether equality between parties is necessary for the formation of an alliance drawing extensively from ethical theories and examples from the world. From rights approach, recipients of justice, to care ethics, several theories offer guidance to support what would constitute a ‘humane’ approach to non-human animals. While these approaches crucially pin the broad perspective, they have not explicitly considered the role of an alliance between humans and non-human animals in achieving a basic level of wellbeing for the latter. Taking cues from the different kinds of ‘ruling over’ from Stuart Gray’s understanding of the relation between humans and non-human nature, the paper seeks to establish that an alliance between humans and the non-human realm is possible even without committing to their equal status and this could form the basis of ecological justice and well-being.
Keywords: environmental justice, integral human development, ecological justice, alliance beyond the human realm, ruling over nature
Jessica PAYSON
Caring for structural vulnerabilities: Can we hear all the voices?
ABSTRACT
In this essay, I argue that care ethics faces a fundamental challenge in addressing structural vulnerabilities. I argue that one of its main strengths – its focus on alleviating individuals’ material needs – also generates a weakness regarding one of its other key aims – namely, respecting the voice of the concrete other. As a result, I will argue that a full application of care ethics in response to structural vulnerabilities must moderate or supplement its focus on material needs.
Keywords: Care Ethics, Structural Injustice, Structural Vulnerability
Holly LONGAIR
Unjustly dismissing an alternative: a case of epistemic injustice among epistemic frameworks
ABSTRACT
The concept of epistemic injustice has become a useful tool for understanding some of the wrongs and harms that result from the interplay of identity and knowledge. However, this paper proposes that analysis of epistemic injustice needs to consider not only the level of individual or institutional epistemic transactions, but also the level of epistemic frameworks. Drawing on Gaile Pohlhaus Jr. and Rajeev Bhargava, I examine the Cuban health care system and the epistemic framework it is based on as a case study of how prejudice that leads to the dismissal, discrediting and marginalization of such an epistemic framework can be an epistemic injustice.
Keywords: Epistemic injustice, Cuba, health care, epistemic frameworks
Numéro 16 (2): 2019
Articles
Eric PENOT
Pascal DANTHU
ABSTRACT
Clove has two commercial products: the clove bud and the essential oil. In Madagascar, clove and vanilla are first or second agricultural export product depending on price. It is the same in the Comores where clove and ylang-ylang essential oil occupy the first places in the country’s exports. Tanzania is in the top 3 of the world’s clove exporters. Incomes from cloves make a very significant contribution to food security in the production areas of the three countries: on the northeast coast of Madagascar (bud and essential oil), in the islands of Anjouan and Mohéli in Comoros (only bud), and in the islands of Pemba and Zanzibar in Tanzania that produce mainly bud and a little bit some essential oil. The aim of this paper is to analyze the structure and functioning of the clove industry in highly differentiated public policy contexts according to the three neighboring, competing and meantime complementary countries, since they fuel global demand, which mainly involves the Indonesian market which absorbs most of the Malagasy and Comorian exports.
KEYWORDS
Clove, governance of value chain, public policy impact, Madagascar, Comores and Zanzibar
Michel DION
ABSTRACT
Corporate moral discourse too often evolves without any philosophical foundation. It builds up its own rules and limitations of social acceptability. It does not bother with philosophical traditions. Corporate moral discourse then becomes « aphilosophical ». Nonetheless, it could benefit from a connectedness with various philosophies. In this article, we will see how some 20th century philosophies could shed new light on corporate moral responsibility and humanizing processes of the whole world : John Rawls, Hannah Arendt, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Emmanuel Mounier. The analysis of fifteen (15) corporate social responsibility/sustainable development reports from North America (USA and Canada), Europe (United Kingdom, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Spain) and Asia (Japan) will show the limitations of corporate moral discourse, from a perspective of conceptual unity and axiological coherence.
KEYWORDS
Corporate social responsibility, Humanizing processes of the world, Corporate moral discourse
Harshi GUNAWARDANA
Dammika TANTRIGODA
Anura KUMARA
An integrated 3D approach for effective mine risk education in post war-zone areas
ABSTRACT
International Mine Action Standards define Mine Risk Education (MRE) as activities that seek to reduce the risk of death and injury from mines and explosive remnants of war, by raising awareness and promoting safe behaviour. MRE systems and practices in post clearance areas in conflict affected regions worldwide promote two main types of activities, identification of explosive remnants of war and making the correct response ensuring individual safety as well as the safety of the community. This can be viewed as a two dimensional approach spanned by Identification and Response dimensions. This paper based on the findings from a recent empirical study conducted specifically in the northern Sri Lanka introducing Reconciliation as a third dimension to further improve the present two dimensional approach of mine risk education. The authors acknowledge that MRE has had a positive impact on war affected communities in global context. However, it needs considerable integration of a learning module which should reflect the different causes of life catastrophe risks are similar to mine risks in extreme scenarios- they constitute non-diversifiable risks, so that MRE helps maintain a significant effect and long- lasting impact on attitudes towards landmines and other explosive remnants of war at the community level.
KEYWORDS
Explosive Remnants of War, Mine Risk Education, Reconciliation, Risk
Aziliz ROUSSEAUX
Leïla LOUSSAÏEF
Karen DELCHET-COCHET
Manipulation perçue des marques et résistance, une proposition de profils de consommation
ABSTRACT
This article aims to identify the different consumer profiles that resist to the perceived manipulation of brands. If there is no consensus on a definition of manipulation, it is established that its perception may give rise to resistance on the part of the consumer. The qualitative study conducted with 14 consumers highlights two strategies, combative or resigned, and brings out four profiles of resistant consumers: the experienced, the reserved, the optimizer and the indifferent.
KEYWORDS
Manipulation, résistance, consumer, brands, qualitative study
Bruno BOIDIN
L’émergence est-elle compatible avec le développement durable ? : le cas du Plan Sénégal Emergent
ABSTRACT
This article seeks to examine the role of sustainable development in the Plan Sénégal Emergent (Emerging Senegalese Programme). We conducted simultaneously a survey of institutional documents dedicated to PSE and a qualitative study with socioeconomic actors. The results show that PSE is based on an orthodox conception of sustainable development and focused on a weak sustainability approach. Regarding the qualitative study, interviewees are sceptical about PSE and have priority expectations in terms of social services, employment and healthy environment. Grey areas and ambiguities of PSE are finally discussed.
KEYWORDS
Sustainable development; emergence; Senegal.
Eleie Adédokoun ADEDODJA
Gnanderman SIRPE
Corruption et pauvreté dans les pays de l’UEMOA
ABSTRACT
Corruption and poverty are conceptually related issues in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the causal relationship between corruption and poverty in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Based on a dynamic panel model of the eight (8) of the Union covering the period from 1995 to 2015 using the Generalized Moment Method (GMM), the results obtained suggest that there is a causal relationship bidirectional in the sense of Granger between corruption and poverty within the Union. To achieve this, we suggest reducing the supply of corruption by improving the salaries of civil servants and instituting effective controls and sanctions for corrupt practices; the progressive depoliticization of the administration and the real independence of the judiciary.
KEYWORDS
Corruption, poverty, WAEMU
François-Régis MAHIEU
Jean-Marcel KOFFI
Salif KONE
ABSTRACT
The widespread democratization in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa, driven by France since 1990 as a conditionality of development aid, has since come up against numerous constraints. The difficulty of appropriating the very principle of democracy is a real limit to its practical implementation, particularly because of the voting paradox associated with it. The resulting socio-economic challenges imply the state’s capacity to guarantee fundamental citizen rights, not only formal but also in terms of equitable distribution and transmission within and between generations of capabilities.
KEYWORDS
French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa, capabilities, fragility, paradox of democratic voting
Boniface KOMENA
Inégalités, pauvreté et soutenabilité des ressources naturelles dans l’Ouest de la Côte d’Ivoire
ABSTRACT
In this article, we analyze inequalities of rights and access to natural resources in forest and land sustainable management in reference to the context of colonial and post-colonial policy. The article shows that in western Ivorian forest, degraded forest and land resources is inherent in socio-economic inequalities that underpin poverty of local populations, especially regarding inequalities of rights and access.
KEYWORDS
Poverty, inequalities, sustainable management, natural resources
POLÍTICA DE CONFIABILIDAD
ETHICS, ECONOMICS & COMMON GOODS, vol. 19, No. 1, enero-junio 2022, es una publicación semestral editada por la Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla A.C., calle 21 Sur 1103, Col. Santiago, C.P. 72410, Puebla, Puebla. Tel. (222) 2299400, https://ethicsand-economics.
Editor responsable: Manuel Alejandro Gutiérrez González. Reserva de Derechos al Uso Exclusivo No. 04-2022071213543400-102, ISSN en trámite, ambos otorgados por el Instituto Nacional del Derecho de Autor. Responsable de la última actualización de este número, Universidad Tecnológica de Querétaro, TSU María Guadalupe García Guerrero, Av. Pie de la Cuesta 2501, col. Nacional, fecha de última modificación, 30 de julio de 2022.
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