Previous literature has shown contradictory results regarding the relationship between economic liberalism at the country level and firms' engagement in corporate social action (CSA). Because ...liberalism is associated with individualism, it is often assumed that firms will engage in mostly symbolic rather than substantive social and environmental actions; in other words, they will practice "greenwashing." To understand how cultural beliefs in the virtues of liberalism affect the likelihood of greenwashing, we disentangle the effects of the distinct and co-existing beliefs in the virtues of economic liberalism. We begin by conducting an exploratory qualitative analysis of managers' sentiments on this matter, based on a focus group methodology. We then use these investigative elements to articulate a comparison of the conflicting theoretical arguments: in liberal contexts, are firms, as social entities, inherently selfish or pro-active when it comes to CSA? We empirically test our hypotheses on a large-scale dataset. Finally, we show paradoxically that in countries where beliefs in the virtues of competition are strong, firms are more likely to greenwash, while in countries where beliefs in the virtues of individual responsibility are prominent, firms are more likely to focus on concrete actions. These findings suggest that in contexts where weak governments are seen as ideal, firms might feel the need to step into fill institutional voids, in contexts in which competitive mindsets dominate, this tendency is counterbalanced.
Despite growing research into domestic violence and abuse (DVA) in lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or trans (LGB and/or T) people's relationships, LGB and/or T people remain largely invisible in DVA ...policy and practice. Research evidence indicates that they primarily seek help from privatised sources such as counsellors/therapists and friends. The gap in knowledge about LGB and/or T victims/survivors' help-seeking reflects and reinforces the success of neoliberal trends in privatising social problems by promoting self-care and individual responsibility. Using qualitative data from a mixed-methods UK study, this article offers an ecological analysis of LGB and/or T victims/survivors' help-seeking decisions and barriers, demonstrating how cisgendered heteronormativity and LGBT invisibility permeate helpseeking at individual, interpersonal and socio-cultural levels. The conclusion argues for LGBT DVA to be recognised as a social problem rather than a private trouble. Recommendations are offered for necessary steps towards better recognising and supporting LGB and/or T victims/survivors.
Part of the normalization of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) is the premise that the children born from in vitro fertilization (IVF) are no different from their counterparts conceived ...spontaneously. However, interest in peri-conception health and new epigenetic understandings of biological plasticity has led to some questioning the presumed irrelevance of conception in vitro, and when doing so, describing IVF children as “apparently healthy.” Taking “apparently” and “healthy” seriously, this article explores how modes of attention—ways of naming and framing embryo potentiality—shape understandings of health and normality. I contend that understanding the politics of potentiality, and how they may emerge in a postgenomic age, requires an unpacking of various modes of attention and framing. Ethnographic findings from South Africa’s fertility clinics and emerging literature on epigenetic variation in IVF conception demonstrate how, under a genetic mode of attention, IVF clinics views “abnormality” as fated, unviable, and discardable. Exploring the possibility of answering the postgenomic questions to IVF reveals structural challenges to knowing long-term health implications. Incipient attempts within the fertility clinic at managing these questions shows various strategic techniques, such as leveraging epigenetics to marketable ends and shifts to individual responsibility.
•Economic, pro-social and pro-environmental factors can influence household participation in forest conservation programs.•Owning property titles, having large forested land, agricultural equipment ...and off-farm incomes favour participation.•Social networks, compliance with social norms of reciprocity, and a lack of trust in public institutions may increase participation.•Awareness of environmental problems and perception of the gains associated with conservation may increase participation.•Feeling some individual responsibility for environmental issues may increase participation in more restrictive agreements.
The effectiveness of incentive-based conservation programs depends on how they influence and interact with multiple motivations of the participants. Here, we studied an incentive-based program for forest conservation in Bolivia – called “Reciprocal Watershared Agreements” – that mixes material compensations with pro-social and pro-environmental motivations as a way to reduce crowding-out of intrinsic motivations and to increase participation. Based on a sample of 470 households who were offered the program, we studied household characteristics that influenced (i) the probability of participation in the program, (ii) the intensity of the participation, measured as the area allocated in the agreement, and (iii) the modality of participation, measured as the probability of participation in the different types of agreements. We found that owning property titles, having large forested land with low conservation opportunity cost, agricultural equipment and off-farm incomes seem to favour participation. In addition, the probability of participation increases with some pro-social factors, such as a deeper or older integration into social networks, and greater compliance to social norms of reciprocity. We also found that a lack of trust in public institutions can increase both the likelihood and the intensity of participation, as can certain pro-environmental factors, such as awareness of environmental problems, knowledge about potential solutions to solve them and perception of the gains associated with the conservation of ecosystem services. Finally, we found that feeling some individual responsibility for environmental issues and some difficulty in performing pro-environmental options may increase participation into more restrictive agreements. Our results thus highlight the factors that could increase uptake and factors on which programs might focus in order to have a greater impact on pro-environmental behaviours. They also suggest that incentive-based program can be designed to take advantage of pro-social and pro-environmental motivations as strongly as of economic ones.
Public stigma characterizes three leading health issues: prescription opioid addiction, obesity, and cigarette smoking. Attributions of individual responsibility are often embedded in negative public ...attitudes around these issues and can be important to stigma's development and reduction. Research suggests that narrative messages may hold promise for influencing attributions and stigma in these health contexts. Using a national sample of American adults from an online panel (N = 5,007), we conducted a survey-embedded randomized experiment, assigning participants to read one of six messages about one of three health issues. All participants read a statement detailing the magnitude of their assigned health problem, after which some respondents received a short inoculation message (serving as a comparison group) or a narrative message emphasizing external factors while acknowledging personal responsibility for the issue. Some participants also read a counter message emphasizing personal responsibility for the health issue to replicate competitive messaging environments surrounding these issues. Relative to those who received only the magnitude of problem message (comparison group 1) or the magnitude of problem and inoculation messages (comparison group 2), the narrative message reduced prescription opioid addiction stigma and increased attributions of responsibility to groups beyond the individual. Narrative effects were mixed for obesity, had no effect on attributions or stigma around cigarette smoking, and were generally consistent whether or not respondents received a counter message. Narrative messages may be a promising approach for shifting responsibility attributions and reducing public stigma around prescription opioid addiction, and may have some relevance for obesity stigma-reduction efforts.
Despite the sheer devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, vaccine hesitancy is a major barrier to a successful implementation of the vaccine. We apply two moderators to ...examine the associations of efficacy and expectancies with COVID-19 vaccine intention. Specifically, we use national survey data collected online in 2020 (N = 1264) and a moderated moderated mediation PROCESS model to examine 1) the associations between self-efficacy about COVID-19 and vaccine intention mediated by positive outcome expectancies and 2) moderating roles of individual responsibility and partisan media use. The findings show that the path from efficacy to expectancies is moderated by individual responsibility, while the path from expectancies to vaccine intention is moderated by liberal media use. Our findings support the strategic application of SCT to emphasize the role of personal responsibility in campaigns to encourage vaccination for the COVID-19 virus.
Zusammenfassung
Mobile Gesundheitstechnologien (mHealth) fördern den Trend hin zu Eigenverantwortung und Selbstmanagement. Ziel des Beitrags ist es, am Beispiel von Diabetes mellitus Typ 2 (T2DM) die ...Diskussion zu mHealth, Eigenverantwortung und Gerechtigkeit – welche es bisher nur in Ansätzen gibt – aus einer Public-Health-ethischen Perspektive zu vertiefen. Dabei zeigt sich, dass mHealth im Bereich T2DM soziale Gesundheitsgerechtigkeit einerseits verbessern, andererseits aber auch soziale Gesundheitsungerechtigkeiten verschärfen kann. Aus einer gerechtigkeitsfokussierten, Public-Health-ethischen Perspektive auf T2DM-mHealth ist es notwendig, besser zu verstehen, ob und wie vulnerable Bevölkerungsgruppen bei mHealth-Entwicklung und -Einsatz mitbedacht werden, wie sie die Nutzung der Technologie erleben, welche sozialepidemiologischen Auswirkungen der zunehmende Einsatz von mHealth haben kann, welche gesundheitlichen Ungleichheiten im Bereich T2DM ungerecht sind, inwieweit die Eigenverantwortung in die Hände der Nutzenden gelegt werden soll und wo die Grenzen der Eigenverantwortung liegen. Die Berücksichtigung der sozialen Diversität und der sozialen Determinanten von Gesundheit ist ein stetiger Prozess und muss alle Phasen der Entwicklung und des Einsatzes von mHealth durchziehen.
Non-fatal and fatal overdoses are traumatic events that have been increasing over the past 20 years and disproportionately impacting rural communities in the United States. The human suffering caused ...by the opioid epidemic is rarely described in the empirical literature. The purpose of this article is to 1) define individual- and community-level overdose-related compassion fatigue (OCF), 2) review measurement of compassion fatigue (CF) and interventions to reduce CF, 3) discuss strategies that may reduce OCF and 4) briefly discuss policy implications. OCF is distress resulting from knowledge of or exposure to overdose-related harms, which at the community-level may prohibit collaboration and adaptive agency to effectively respond. When OCF occurs at a community-level, it could have negative consequences by eroding support for evidence-based services and fueling stigma-driven policies that blame people who use drugs. Empathy underlies both OCF and vicarious resilience by allowing one to understand the suffering caused by overdose deaths and to witness the joy of addiction recovery. Using the risk environment framework, OCF at the micro- and macro-levels of the social environment, may increase rural communities’ vulnerability to harm by emphasizing individual responsibility for reducing overdoses rather than community-level infrastructure and resource management. Additional research is needed to develop a measure of OCF and to confirm whether OCF is associated with increased stigma and decreased support for harm reduction in rural areas.
Purpose
The paper aims to investigate how accounting techniques, when embedded within data-driven public-sector management systems, mask and intensify the neoliberal ideological commitments of ...powerful state and corporate actors. The authors explore the role of accounting in the operationalisation of “instrumentarian power” (Zuboff, 2019) – a new form of power that mobilises ubiquitous digital instrumentation to ensure that algorithmic architectures can tune, herd and modify behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employ a qualitative archival analysis of publicly available data related to the automation of welfare-policing systems to explore the role of accounting in advancing instrumentarian power.
Findings
In exploring the automation of Australia's welfare debt recovery system (Robodebt), this paper examines a new algorithmic accountability that has emerged at the interface of government, technology and accounting. The authors show that accounting supports both the rise of instrumentarian power and the intensification of neoliberal ideals when buried within algorithms. In focusing on Robodebt, the authors show how the algorithmic reconfiguration of accountability within the welfare system intensified the inequalities that welfare recipients experienced. Furthermore, the authors show that, despite its apparent failure, it worked to modify welfare recipients' behaviour to align with the neoliberal ideals of “self-management” and “individual responsibility”.
Originality/value
This paper addresses Agostino, Saliterer and Steccolini's (2021) call to investigate the relationship between accounting, digital innovations and the lived experience of vulnerable people. To anchor this, the authors show how algorithms work to mask the accounting assumptions that underpin them and assert that this, in turn, recasts accountability relationships. When accounting is embedded in algorithms, the ideological potency of calculations can be obscured, and when applied within technologies that affect vulnerable people, they can intensify already substantial inequalities.
The discussions on the future of work are pulled between technological optimism and the increasing concerns regarding the precarity brought about by the gig economy. Often, these scenarios fail to ...meaningfully engage and account for the workers’ experiences, whose agency in effectively shaping their working future is denied and obscured behind discourses of autonomy, entrepreneurship and individual responsibility. In the context of the increased use of gamification strategies by platforms to both monitor and incentivise couriers, this article examines the capacity of playful methods to act as effective forms of engagement and mobilisation amongst gig workers. A workshop with this aim was run online in April 2021, at the end of the third Covid lockdown in the UK, using a role-playing card game with food couriers in Manchester. It drew on ethnographic data to explore how to support empathy and solidarity amongst couriers, how to facilitate the creation of a shared pool of knowledge about the job and how to reconfigure other stakeholders’ roles to improve working conditions. We finally offer some ideas to take the game beyond the workshop space suggesting several pathways for the future: a face-to-face game using printed cards, an open-source version of the game and collaborating with trade unions to reach more couriers.
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