Introduction - research ethics : women, sex, and gender in biomedical research

The ethical governance of biomedical research is an area of intense international debate. Scholars argue about who should regulate and how, the appropriate role for ethics committees, what kind of research should be included, and who should be involved in monitoring compliance. A particular aspect of these debates concerns the inclusion of women as research participants and the efforts to ensure that researchers consistently investigate questions of sex and gender in health research. There is increasing evidence of the role of sex in the manifestation and course of some illnesses and their treatment. Moreover, evidence suggests that gendered expectations also affect health outcomes. This special issue investigates how researchers are addressing these issues and debates the appropriate roles of policy makers, ethicists, and lawyers in ensuring that sex and gender differences are taken into account in the development, conduct, and reporting of health research.

Teaching and assessing ethics and social responsibility in undergraduate science : a position paper

Institutional graduate capabilities and discipline threshold learning outcomes require science students to demonstrate ethical conduct and social responsibility. However, neither the teaching nor the assessment of these concepts is straightforward. Australian chemistry academics participated in a workshop in 2013 to discuss and develop teaching and assessment in these areas and this paper reports on the outcomes of that workshop. Controversial issues discussed included: How broad is the mandate of the teacher, how should the boundaries between personal values and ethics be drawn, and how can ethics be assessed without moral judgement? In this position paper, I argue for a deep engagement with ethics and social justice, achieved through case studies and assessed against criteria that require discussion and debate. Strategies to effectively assess science students’ understanding of ethics and social responsibility are detailed.

The value of respect in human research ethics: A conceptual analysis and a practical guide

In order to continue to maintain public trust and confidence in human research, participants must be treated with respect. Researchers and Human Research Ethics Committee members need to be aware that modern considerations of this value include: the need for a valid consenting process, the protection of participants who have their capacity for consent compromised; the promotion of dignity for participants; and the effects that human research may have on cultures and communities. This paper explains the prominence of respect as a value when considering the ethics of human research and provides practical advice for both researchers and Human Research Ethics Committee members in developing respectful research practices.

Community media production : access, institutions, and ethics

In policy terms, community media are known as the “third sector” of the media. The description reflects the historical expectation that community media can fulfill a need not met by the commercial and public service broadcasters. A defining element of this “need” has been the means to production for nonprofessionals, particularly groups not represented in the mainstream media. The historical construction of community media reveals production to be a guiding principle; both a means and an end in itself. This chapter examines the various rationales underpinning community media production, including empowerment, media diversity, and the independent producer movement. Using case studies from youth media, the chapter critiques producer-centric models of community media. In the contemporary media environment, production alone cannot meet the social needs that community media were established to address. Instead, I propose a rationale that combines both production and consumption ethics.

Criminological research and institutional ethics protocols : empowering the indigenous other or the academy?

Indigenous commentators have long critiqued the way in which government agencies and member of academic institutions carry out research in their social context. Recently, these commentators have turned their critical gaze upon activities of Research Ethics Boards(REBs). Informed by the reflections on research processes and by Indigenous Canadian and New Zealand research participants, as well as the extant literature, this paper critiques the processes employed by New Zealand REBs to assess Indigenous‐focused or Indigenous‐led research in the criminological realm.

Review: "Measuring and evaluating sustainability : ethics in sustainability indexes" by Sarah E. Fredericks, New York, Routledge, Routledge Studies in Sustainable Development, 2014

The concept of ‘sustainability’ has been pushed to the forefront of policy-making and politics as the world wakes up to the impacts of climate change and the effects of the rapid urbanisation and modern urban lifestyles (Yigitcanlar and Teriman 2014). Climate change and fossil fuel-based energy policy have emerged as the biggest challenges for our planet, threatening both built and natural systems with long-term consequences. However, the threats are not limited to the impacts of climate change and unsustainable energy system only – e.g., impacts of rapid urbanisation, socioeconomic crises and governance hiccups are just to name a few (Yigitcanlar 2010a). Along with these challenges, successfully coping with the enormous transformations that our cities, societies and the environment have been going through during the last few decades, and their...

Community arts and appropriate internet technology : participation, materiality, and the ethics of sustainability in the digitally networked era

This thesis delivers new knowledge about how Australian community arts practices of appropriate technology are shifting due to the internet. It reconfigures the sector's incumbent ethics of sustainability in response to emerging concerns about how the internet's material politics are affecting cultural participation.

Relating Across Difference : A Case Study in Transformative Learning

This chapter examines the process of “transformative learning” for the 2008 cohort of the St. Thomas More College–Intercordia Canada (STM/IC) international community service-learning program. My primary data comes from the eight students who were part of that cohort, when I was their program coordinator. That data later became the heart of my Master’s thesis and was approved by the Research Ethics Office of the University of Saskatchewan. In this chapter I focus on three of those eight participants, outlining the critical elements of their experiences that were conducive to their transformative learning. To be sure, my sample size is too small to draw generalizable conclusions, but the quality of information I received from these students and their colleagues, coupled with the follow-up conversations I had with other educators and with the accompanying literature, supports the value of reflecting at length here about these students’ comments. I have chosen to highlight the experiences of these three participants because together they provide a range of experiences that best enables an analysis of the conditions that both did and did not lead to transformative learning. This case study suggests that transformative learning occurs through: the dynamics of vulnerability, a discovery of persisting differences within inter-personal relationships, and an experience of welcome and hospitality in the host environment. In contrast to other studies that focus on the enhanced capacities, skills and subsequent employability of participants through international education, transformative learning for these students required a relinquishing of securities, a disorientation and critical interrogation of the self, and enhanced receptivity to the newly recognized Other. Moreover, consistent with the critical-humanistic educational philosophy shared in different ways by the participants of the STM/IC program, this study suggests that international community service-learning can most responsibly contribute to good global citizenship through the construction of relationships of solidarity across difference.

Ethics in project management : some Aristotelian insights

Purpose My aim is to introduce, in the project management field, an Aristotelian ethics lens moving beyond the classical deontological and consequentialism approaches underlying the current ethical practices and codes of ethics and professional conducts. In doing so, I wish to pose the premises of a debate on the implications of a conscious ethical perspective for the structure and agency relationship within the project management field Design/methodology/approach Project management is a knowledge field on its own right. However the current perspectives applied to make sense and develop the field (modernism vs. postmodernism) leads to dichotomous thinking rather than recognizing the merits and contextual validity of both sides. I call for Aristotelian Ethics as a way of moving beyond this dichotomous thinking. I introduce briefly Aristotelian Ethics and its consequences in term of relation theory – practice, means and ends, facts and values, and finally politics (i.e. being part of a community of practitioners). Then I illustrate some consequences for the field taking PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and APM Code of Professional Conduct as supports for discussion Findings I suggest a need for revisiting and/or redesigning the codes of ethics and professional conducts for project management according to an Aristotelian perspective, in order to move beyond the normative limitations of classical deontological (conflict between competing duties, exemplified by PMI Code) or consequentialism (focusing on the "right" outcome to the detriment of duties, exemplified by APM Code) approaches (both, in fact, leading to a disconnection means and ends, and facts and values). This implicates shifting our view from the question "what is my duty?" to the questions "why should I undertake my duty?" and "how ought I act in this situation?" Practical implications Raising Professional Bodies, Industry and Education institutions awareness and consciousness and leading them to rethink about codes of ethics and the implications for the way they conceive practice and research, bodies of knowledge, credentialing, education... Originality/value To the best of my knowledge, this kind of discussion has not yet been conducted within the project management field, and considering the implication of project management in our life and for the well being of the society, an ethical debate may present some value(s)

More than just friends? Facebook, disclosive ethics and the morality of technology

Social networking sites have become increasingly popular destinations for people wishing to chat, play games, make new friends or simply stay in touch. Furthermore, many organizations have been quick to grasp the potential they offer for marketing, recruitment and economic activities. Nevertheless, counterclaims depict such spaces as arenas where deception, social grooming and the posting of defamatory content flourish. Much research in this area has focused on the ends to which people deploy the technology, and the consequences arising, with a view to making policy recommendations and ethical interventions. In this paper, we argue that tracing where morality lies is more complex than these efforts suggest. Using the case of a popular social networking site, and concepts about the morality of technology, we disclose the ethics of Facebook as diffuse and multiple. In our conclusions we provide some reflections on the possibilities for action in light of this disclosure.

Book Review : "The Media Gaze: Representations of Diversities in Canada by Augie Fleras". Vancouver and Toronto: UBC Press, 2011.

The Media Gaze effectively shatters the assumption that Canada, in all its political correctness, is a cultural mosaic free of discrimination and prejudice. While great strides have been made to reduce blatant racism and sexism in Canadian media, Fleras illustrates how discriminatory and oppressive discourses are still very present in news, television, and film.He brings to light the structural, institutional, and practice-oriented means by which the media is systemically biased toward privileging mainstream audiences while misrepresenting minority groups in the public eye...

Give way to great charms of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

A travel article about Halifax, Nova Scotia. MOTORISTS in Nova Scotia are so polite it's almost a shame to leave, writes Kari Gislason. By the end of my second day in Halifax, I begin to develop deep concerns about the safety of the locals, or the Haligonians as they're known. I wonder how they ever leave their fair city or, perhaps more to the point, how they ever make it back...

Food trail through Jasper, Lake Louise and Calgary in Canada

A travel article about food and landscape in Alberta. IN THE remote islands off Canada's east coast, I was given an old rule of survival: If you get lost in the forest, follow the bear tracks and eat what the bears eat, except skunk cabbage. There was no second rule for what to do about the bear, should he also appear. No matter. "Do this and you'll live," it says, "just as we did in the past."...