This study addresses the growing interest in the social impact assessment of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Using the benefit (value) transfer approach, this study seeks to demonstrate how the social return on investment (SROI) of a CSR inclusion initiative promoting disability sport participation can be assessed. Literature on CSR inclusion initiatives, social impact measurement, disability sport participation and disability interventions/organizations was reviewed and compared. This helped identify the stakeholders and social outcomes to include, and the assumptions for the financial (...) proxies and beneficiary percentages. Based on data provided by the Rugby Football League in England, an application to Inclusion Rugby League— a CSR inclusion initiative promoting disability sport participation—was then conducted. The SROI of Inclusion Rugby League is 3.39:1—a social return of £3.39 for £1 invested. Our research quantifies the positive social impact of a CSR inclusion initiative in monetary terms, providing insights for assessing SROI. This study informs future research on the social impact assessment of CSR initiatives, offering valuable guidance for organizations and their managers in making a case for further investments in CSR. Moreover, it encourages potential funders to engage in CSR initiatives. (shrink)

This study addresses the growing interest in the social impact assessment of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Using the benefit (value) transfer approach, this study seeks to demonstrate how the social return on investment (SROI) of a CSR inclusion initiative promoting disability sport participation can be assessed. Literature on CSR inclusion initiatives, social impact measurement, disability sport participation and disability interventions/organizations was reviewed and compared. This helped identify the stakeholders and social outcomes to include, and the assumptions for the financial (...) proxies and beneficiary percentages. Based on data provided by the Rugby Football League in England, an application to Inclusion Rugby League— a CSR inclusion initiative promoting disability sport participation—was then conducted. The SROI of Inclusion Rugby League is 3.39:1—a social return of £3.39 for £1 invested. Our research quantifies the positive social impact of a CSR inclusion initiative in monetary terms, providing insights for assessing SROI. This study informs future research on the social impact assessment of CSR initiatives, offering valuable guidance for organizations and their managers in making a case for further investments in CSR. Moreover, it encourages potential funders to engage in CSR initiatives. (shrink)

This paper analyses the adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration issued by the United Nations in 1985 (and later integrated into the laws of several countries with varying constitutional, socio-cultural, and economic conditions) and its connected Arbitration Rules, in order to highlight the adaptations carried out in its “localization” process. In particular, the paper investigates the influence of the socio-economic environment in which the legal norms were introduced on the style adopted in drafting the texts. The (...) examples are drawn from the norms enacted by Parliaments and arbitration chambers in various countries, whose texts show discrepancies due to different drafting traditions, legal contexts, linguistic specificities, and socio-cultural constraints. The analysis shows that, in spite of the growing efforts of the international community to guarantee greater and greater harmonization in legislation and procedures, specific linguistic and cultural aspects as well as local and social constraints still are a relevant conditioning factor. (shrink)

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has sparked significant debate and influenced mental health legislation reforms in many countries worldwide (Gill and Sartorius 2...

The following contribution focuses on the crucial role of technology in comprehending climate change and global warming. It emphasises that this phenomenon is imperceptible and enigmatic to traditional phenomenological approaches. To answer this, the text highlights the arguments scholars such as the late Don Ihde and Timothy Morton put forth about the imperative need to utilise technology to sensibly comprehend and raise awareness of this complex reality, each employing distinct conceptual frameworks. The essay examines how it is feasible to integrate (...) these emerging technological resources without disregarding the foundational assumptions that guide our sensory intuition, shaped by the influence of Husserl’s ideas. (shrink)

This thesis is devoted to the exploration of the complexity of some mathematical problems using the framework of computable analysis and descriptive set theory. We will especially focus on Weihrauch reducibility as a means to compare the uniform computational strength of problems. After a short introduction of the relevant background notions, we investigate the uniform computational content of problems arising from theorems that lie at the higher levels of the reverse mathematics hierarchy.We first analyze the strength of the open and (...) clopen Ramsey theorems. Since there is not a canonical way to phrase these theorems as multi-valued functions, we identify eight different multi-valued functions and study their degree from the point of view of Weihrauch, strong Weihrauch, and arithmetic Weihrauch reducibility.We then discuss some new operators on multi-valued functions and study their algebraic properties and the relations with other previously studied operators on problems. In particular, we study the first-order part and the deterministic part of a problem f, capturing the Weihrauch degree of the strongest multi-valued problem that is reducible to f and that, respectively, has codomain $\mathbb {N}$ or is single-valued.These notions proved to be extremely useful when exploring the Weihrauch degree of the problem $\mathsf {DS}$ of computing descending sequences in ill-founded linear orders. They allow us to show that $\mathsf {DS}$, and the Weihrauch equivalent problem $\mathsf {BS}$ of finding bad sequences through non-well quasi-orders, while being very “hard” to solve, are rather weak in terms of uniform computational strength. We then generalize $\mathsf {DS}$ and $\mathsf {BS}$ by considering $\boldsymbol {\Gamma }$ -presented orders, where $\boldsymbol {\Gamma }$ is a Borel pointclass or $\boldsymbol {\Delta }^1_1$, $\boldsymbol {\Sigma }^1_1$, $\boldsymbol {\Pi }^1_1$. We study the obtained $\mathsf {DS}$ -hierarchy and $\mathsf {BS}$ -hierarchy of problems in comparison with the Baire hierarchy and show that they do not collapse at any finite level.Finally, we work in the context of geometric measure theory and we focus on the characterization, from the point of view of descriptive set theory, of some conditions involving the notions of Hausdorff/Fourier dimension and Salem sets. We first work in the hyperspace $\mathbf {K}$ of compact subsets of $[0,1]$ and show that the closed Salem sets form a $\boldsymbol {\Pi }^0_3$ -complete family. This is done by characterizing the complexity of the family of sets having sufficiently large Hausdorff or Fourier dimension. We also show that the complexity does not change if we increase the dimension of the ambient space and work in $\mathbf {K}$. We also generalize the results by relaxing the compactness of the ambient space and show that the closed Salem sets are still $\boldsymbol {\Pi }^0_3$ -complete when we endow $\mathbf {F}$ with the Fell topology. A similar result holds also for the Vietoris topology.We conclude by analyzing the same notions from the point of view of effective descriptive set theory and Type-2 Theory of Effectivity, and show that the complexities remain the same also in the lightface case. In particular, we show that the family of all the closed Salem sets is $\Pi ^0_3$ -complete. We furthermore characterize the Weihrauch degree of the functions computing Hausdorff and Fourier dimension of closed sets.prepared by Manlio Valenti.E-mail:[email protected]. (shrink)

In this paper, I defend the claim that objectivity, in classical phenomenology, is best read as an instituted invariant: not a static given but the diachronic achievement of cooperative validation within transcendental intersubjectivity, mediated by technics—above all, writing and inscription—that ensure the iterability, transmissibility, and public critique of sense. The essay unfolds in five movements. The first revisits Husserl’s critique of the mathematization of essences, showing how the very ideality of meaning depends on technical exteriorizations—above all writing—which sustain intergenerational communication (...) and open the space for a non-reductive account of objectivity. The second turns to Fink’s analysis of objectivation and mundanization, redefining science as a form of supra-individual habituality. The third expands on Merleau-Ponty’s notion of expressive technicity, in which linguistic and artistic expression institutes fields of objectivity through indirect language and style. A fourth section develops a comparative synthesis—sociogenesis, diachrony, technics—and formulates criteria for instituted objectivity (addressability, iterability, transmissibility, responsivity). The conclusion bridges classical phenomenology and contemporary debates on digital technics, arguing that what endures is not what withdraws from history, but what remains fit to be repeated, challenged, and renewed within it. (shrink)

Environmental journalism has been criticized by various special interest groups and some editors for advocacy and faulted for inaccuracies. Sources, in turn, many from the science communities, have been accused of inaccessibility, and public relations representatiws from both industry and environmental organizations are regularly blamed for unethical behaviors rangingfrom hyperbole to more serious discussion or omission of factual information. This article reports a preliminary study of ethical decision making among members of the Society of Environmental Journalists, identifying ethical motivation diljerences (...) using the Ethical Motivation Scale. The implications of the reported dominant extrinsic guides are discussed in light of a proposed protocol for ethical environmental communication. (shrink)

_La vita felice: Argomenti a favore e contro l'oggettività fenomenologica e l'oggettivazione nelle riflessioni di Giovanni Piana ed Enzo Paci_ Questo lavoro si concentra su alcune delle riflessioni più pregnanti di Enzo Paci e Giovanni Piana a proposito dei temi dell’oggettività e dell’oggettivazione a partire dal commento di alcuni passaggi della proposta fenomenologica di Edmund Husserl. Ne _La crisi, _soprattutto, Husserl si concentra sulla polemica inerente alla possibile matematizzazione delle essenze, che egli ravvisa all’opera nella filosofia moderna e che lentamente (...) conduce a uno stato di _crisi, _appunto. In questo testo, Husserl denuncia pertanto l’applicazione di un metodo ritenuto illecito secondo la sua proposta di rettifica fenomenologia, che discrediterebbe il valore dell’intuizione e dell’acquisizione storica e progressiva del sapere. Questo studio riprende i punti salienti di questa revisione teorica seguendone il commento poi offerto da Paci e Piana che si concentra, in modo del tutto originale, su una potenziale lettura e interpretazione politica di queste posizioni, e sulle quali questo contributo pone particolare attenzione. (shrink)

How water is perceived and represented has an impact on the relationships between a given society and its water infrastructure. Historians have identified a shift in the perception of water during the nineteenth century, which was connected to the development of chemistry. From an understanding based in Hippocratic medicine and natural history that treated it as an infinite variety of substances, water eventually became understood as a simple compound consisting of oxygen and hydrogen. This resulted in the abstraction of water (...) from its social and environmental contexts, with consequences for the way water was managed. This article aims to demonstrate that such a view gives a mistaken intellectual coherence to a fragmented and conflicted process, which involved continuities, an adaptation of old frameworks to new social priorities, and fine changes in scientific thinking and practices. This paper examines the scientific and political debates concerning water infrastructure, surveys and analyses on water quality, medical reports and political measures in nineteenth-century Italy. Ultimately, the reduction of ‘waters’ to ‘water’ in Italy was more about determining who had the authority to assess water quality in the process of creating and stabilizing new power relations between the public and the private spheres than about the abstraction of water from its social and environmental contexts. (shrink)

This paper undertakes a thorough examination of the impact of Edmund Husserl’s The Origin of Geometry on the philosophical development of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It aims to analyse the pivotal conceptual intersections between the two thinkers, highlighting the innovative ideas that emerged in Merleau-Ponty’s work as a response to Husserl’s text. Additionally, this study seeks to clarify the unique factors that contribute to the originality of Merleau-Ponty’s ideas, exploring how he both engages with and transcends Husserlean’s thought in his own writings. (...) By closely investigating these relationships, the paper aspires to offer a deeper understanding of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophical contributions while situating them within the broader context of existential and phenomenological discourse. (shrink)

This paper reconstructs a phenomenological itinerary from existential analysis to legal normativity and back to ontology, taking coexistence as its guiding concept. Focusing on Nicola Abbagnano and Sergio Cotta, it argues that coexistence is not a secondary social notion but the original structure through which existence, meaning, and normativity are constituted within Italian phenomenology. In Abbagnano's early existential phenomenology, coexistence grounds intersubjectivity, historicity, and commitment, while already carrying an intrinsic normative tension. Although this does not yet amount to a theory (...) of law, it discloses the existential conditions that make normativity intelligible. Cotta's philosophy of law is then read as a systematic development of this framework. Through socionomy and ontological or primary justice, law appears as a diffusive and parifying practice oriented towards preserving coexistence among finite beings. The paper thus offers a phenomenological account of legal normativity rooted in relational and historical coexistence. (shrink)

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is considered by many to have made the most sweeping changes affecting corporate governance since the Securities and Exchange Acts of 1933 and 1934. About 4 years after its passing, however, many governance experts question whether the time and expense of compliance engender any real reforms. This article examines whether corporations have restructured their boards in response to the enactment of Sarbanes-Oxley and finds evidence that companies are implementing changes that should strengthen the monitoring ability (...) of their boards. (shrink)

How well do scientists communicate to members of the mass media? A communication scholar reviews potential barriers to the essential dialogue necessary between those in the sciences and journalists who report science to the public. Suggestions for improving communication within this relationship, in spite of professional process differences, are offered, emphasizing adherence to shared ethical standards.

Reaching in the A-not-B situation is not the product of a single person, but rather of a person-person system. We argue that models of embodied cognition distributed over persons may be necessary to capture the essential qualities of evolving behaviors, even those as simple as perseverative reaching.

Nationalism and patriotism are two of the most powerful forces shaping world history. In this paperback edition of a highly successful, wide-ranging study, Maurizio Viroli shows exactly why patriotism is a political virtue and nationalism a political vice.

"Capital is a semiotic operator": this assertion by Félix Guattari is at the heart of Maurizio Lazzarato's _ Signs and Machines_, which asks us to leave behind the logocentrism that still informs so many critical theories. Lazzarato calls instead for a new theory capable of explaining how signs function in the economy, in power apparatuses, and in the production of subjectivity. Moving beyond the dualism of signifier and signified, _Signs and Machines_ shows how signs act as "sign-operators" that enter (...) directly into material flows and into the functioning of machines. Money, the stock market, price differentials, algorithms, and scientific equations and formulas constitute semiotic "motors" that make capitalism's social and technical machines run, bypassing representation and consciousness to produce social subjections and semiotic enslavements. Lazzarato contrasts Deleuze and Guattari's complex semiotics with the political theories of Jacques Rancière, Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, Paolo Virno, and Judith Butler, for whom language and the public space it opens still play a fundamental role. Lazzarato asks: What are the conditions necessary for political and existential rupture at a time when the production of subjectivity represents the primary and perhaps most important work of capitalism? What are the specific tools required to undo the industrial mass production of subjectivity undertaken by business and the state? What types of organization must we construct for a process of subjectivation that would allow us to escape the hold of social subjection and machinic enslavement? In addressing these questions, _Signs and Machines_ takes on a task that is today more urgent than ever. (shrink)

Fostering research integrity (RI) increasingly focuses on normative guidance and supportive measures within institutions. To be successful, the implementation of support should be informed by stakeholders’ experiences of RI support. This study aims to explore experiences of RI support in Dutch, Spanish and Croatian universities. In total, 59 stakeholders (Netherlands n = 25, Spain n = 17, Croatia n = 17) participated in 16 focus groups in three European countries. Global themes on RI support experiences were identified by thematic analysis. (...) Themes identified were: ‘RI governance and institutional implementation’, ‘RI roles and structures’, ‘RI education and supervision’, and ‘Infrastructure, technology and tools supporting daily practice’. Experiences of support differed between countries in relation to: the efforts to translate norms into practice; the extent to which RI oversight was a responsibility of RE structures, or separate RI structures; and the availability of support close to research practice, such as training, responsible supervision, and adequate tools and infrastructure. The study reinforces the importance of a whole institutional approach to RI, embedded within local jurisdictions, rules, and practices. A whole institutional approach puts the emphasis of responsibility on institutions rather than individual researchers. When such an approach is lacking, some stakeholders look for intervention by authorities, such as funders, outside of the university. (shrink)

The debtor-creditor relation, which is at the heart of this book, sharpens mechanisms of exploitation and domination indiscriminately, since, in it, there is no distinction between workers and the unemployed, consumers and producers, working and non-working populations, between retirees and welfare recipients. They are all "debtors," guilty and responsible in the eyes of capital, which has become the Great, the Universal, Creditor.--from The Making of the Indebted Man Debt -- both public debt and private debt Has become a major concern (...) of economic and political leaders. In The Making of the Indebted Man, Maurizio Lazzarato shows that, far from being a threat to the capitalist economy, debt lies at the very core of the neoliberal project. Through a reading of Karl Marx's lesser-known youthful writings on John Mill, and a rereading of writings by Friedrich Nietzsche, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, and Michel Foucault, Lazzarato demonstrates that debt is above all a political construction, and that the creditor/debtor relation is the fundamental social relation of Western societies.Debt cannot be reduced to a simple economic mechanism, for it is also a technique of "public safety" through which individual and collective subjectivities are governed and controlled. Its aim is to minimize the uncertainty of the time and behavior of the governed. We are forever sinking further into debt to the State, to private insurance, and, on a more general level, to corporations. To insure that we honor our debts, we are at once encouraged and compelled to become the "entrepreneurs" of our lives, of our "human capital." In this way, our entire material, psychological, and affective horizon is upended and reconfigured. How do we extricate ourselves from this impossible situation? How do we escape the neoliberal condition of the indebted man? Lazzarato argues that we will have to recognize that there is no simple technical, economic, or financial solution. We must instead radically challenge the fundamental social relation structuring capitalism: the system of debt. (shrink)

We investigate the uniform computational content of the open and clopen Ramsey theorems in the Weihrauch lattice. While they are known to be equivalent to $\mathrm {ATR_0}$ from the point of view of reverse mathematics, there is not a canonical way to phrase them as multivalued functions. We identify eight different multivalued functions and study their degree from the point of view of Weihrauch, strong Weihrauch, and arithmetic Weihrauch reducibility. In particular one of our functions turns out to be strictly (...) stronger than any previously studied multivalued functions arising from statements around $\mathrm {ATR}_0$. (shrink)

Since 2002, legislation in Spain has allowed for the creation and documentation of end-of-life decisionmaking. Over the intervening years, the actual implementation of such documents is very low. Through extensive analysis of the literature, this article explores the current status of the use of and attitudes toward advance directives in Spain and then proposes strategies for improvement in their implementation.

We study the existence and the distribution of “long” chains in the Weihrauch degrees, mostly focusing on chains with uncountable cofinality. We characterize when such chains have an upper bound and prove that there are no cofinal chains (of any order type) in the Weihrauch degrees. Furthermore, we show that the existence of coinitial sequences of non-zero degrees is equivalent to CH $\mathrm {CH}$ upper C upper H. Finally, we explore the extendibility of antichains, providing some necessary conditions for maximality.

Introduction to New Realism provides an overview of the movement of contemporary thought named New Realism, by its creator and most celebrated practitioner, Maurizio Ferraris. Sharing significant concerns and features with Speculative Realism and Object Oriented Ontology, New Realism can be said to be one of the most prescient philosophical positions today. Its desire to overcome the postmodern antirealism of Kantian origin, and to reassert the importance of truth and objectivity in the name of a new Enlightenment, has had (...) an enormous resonance both in Europe and in the US. Introduction to New Realism is the first volume dedicated to exposing this continental movement to an anglophone audience.Featuring a foreword by the eminent contemporary philosopher and leading exponent of Speculative Realism, Iain Hamilton Grant, the book begins by tracing the genesis of New Realism, and outlining its central theoretical tenets, before opening onto three distinct sections. The first, 'Negativity', is a critique of the postmodern idea that the world is constructed by our conceptual schemas, all the more so as we have entered the age of digitality and virtuality. The second thesis, 'positivity', proposes the fundamental ontological assertion of New Realism, namely that not only are there parts of reality that are independent of thought, but these parts are also able to act causally over thought and the human world. The third thesis, 'normativity,' applies New Realism to the sphere of the social world. Finally, an afterword written by two young scholars explains in more detail the relationship between New Realism and other forms of contemporary realism. (shrink)

A key factor in the decision to convert a publicly owned company to private status is the expectation that value will be created, providing the firm with rent. These rents have implications regarding the property rights of the firm’s capital-contributing constituencies. We identify and analyze the types of rent associated with the newly private firm. Compared to public firms, going private allows owners the potential to partition part of the residual risk to bond holders and employees, rendering them to be (...) co-residual risk bearers with owners. We propose that new promotion-based contracts with bond holders and employees, reflecting their particular investments, be negotiated as the firm migrates from public to private status. These contracts should acknowledge the firm’s intent to maximize shareholder value and its need to take the risks necessary to do so, but support that the firm’s survival not be undermined due to its possibly opportunistic owners. (shrink)

This paper continues the program connecting reverse mathematics and computable analysis via the framework of Weihrauch reducibility. In particular, we consider problems related to perfect subsets of Polish spaces, studying the perfect set theorem, the Cantor–Bendixson theorem, and various problems arising from them. In the framework of reverse mathematics, these theorems are equivalent, respectively, to $\mathsf {ATR}_0$ and $\boldsymbol {\Pi }^1_1{-}\mathsf{CA}_0$, the two strongest subsystems of second order arithmetic among the so-called big five. As far as we know, this is (...) the first systematic study of problems at the level of $\boldsymbol {\Pi }^1_1{-}\mathsf{CA}_0$ in the Weihrauch lattice. We show that the strength of some of the problems we study depends on the topological properties of the Polish space under consideration, while others have the same strength once the space is rich enough. (shrink)

Community-based mental health care providers are increasingly contacted by external researchers for research study recruitment. Unfortunately, many do not possess the resources or personn...

A discussão envolvendo a eutanásia levanta atualmente importantes questões no campo da Bioética. Alguns a enxergam como um instrumento de alívio para os que perderam a dignidade de viver; outros a vêem como algo similar ao suicídio assistido. O termo "eutanásia" deriva do grego euthanasía e significa "boa morte", ou seja, uma morte sem sofrimento – mais precisamente, uma morte a fim de evitar um sofrimento desnecessário. Atualmente utilizam-se várias classificações para a eutanásia: eutanásia ativa e passiva; eutanásia voluntária, não-voluntária (...) e involuntária. Muitos autores se referem ainda aos termos distanásia, mistanásia e ortotanásia. Entretanto, o presente trabalho tem por objetivo fixar o olhar apenas sobre a eutanásia voluntária (que em alguns casos também é ativa), já que esta enfrenta – talvez injustamente – uma situação de muita controvérsia e polêmica. Uma das razões para a não-aceitação da eutanásia voluntária reside no dogmatismo religioso. Outra razão é o paternalismo de alguns médicos contrários à eutanásia, que impedem que seus pacientes exerçam sua autonomia. O respeito pela autonomia da pessoa conjuga-se com o princípio de dignidade da natureza humana, aceitando que o ser humano é um fim em si mesmo, não somente um meio de satisfação de interesses comerciais, industriais, de terceiros, ou dos próprios profissionais e serviços de saúde. A autonomia deve ser compreendida como um espaço para a liberdade moral do indivíduo, estritamente ligada à dignidade humana. (shrink)

Physicians have long been interested in menstruation, which bears a tight relation to the mystery of femininity itself. At the end of the XIXth century, physicians were as prejudiced as the rest of the population as far as periods were concerned : they thought for instance that menstrual blood was impure. Physicians however were not unanimous. For some of them, menstruation was essential to the equilibrium of women. For others on the contrary, monthly periods were a time of physical and (...) mental disorders. This opinion reveals the deepness of the prejudice against women : physicians just gave a so-called scientific backing to what was commonly thought, i.e. that women were ill creatures, tightly submissive to their biological fate. (shrink)

The migration of publicly-held companies to private status through use of private equity has been both lauded and lambasted. While agency theorists praise the public-to-private or PTP firm as being an efficient form of corporate governance, others suggest that going private allows owners and managers to extract, rather than add, value.We contribute by developing a categorization of the potential sources of value for the PTP firm. We analyze the effects of each source of value, and find that there are specific (...) negative effects for non-equity stakeholders associated with several sources. Our analysis indicates that the degree to which value is added versus extracted will vary across firms; yet, all will tend to engage in some value extraction. Policy implications are discussed. (shrink)