The future of video analytics for surveillance and its ethical implications

The current state of the art and direction of research in computer vision aimed at automating the analysis of CCTV images is presented. This includes low level identification of objects within the field of view of cameras, following those objects over time and between cameras, and the interpretation of those objects’ appearance and movements with respect to models of behaviour (and therefore intentions inferred). The potential ethical problems (and some potential opportunities) such developments may pose if and when deployed in the real world are presented, and suggestions made as to the necessary new regulations which will be needed if such systems are not to further enhance the power of the surveillers against the surveilled.

Can adherence to dietary guidelines address excess caloric intake? An empirical assessment for the UK

The facilitation of healthier dietary choices by consumers is a key element of government strategies to combat the rising incidence of obesity in developed and developing countries. Public health campaigns to promote healthier eating often target compliance with recommended dietary guidelines for consumption of individual nutrients such as fats and added sugars. This paper examines the association between improved compliance with dietary guidelines for individual nutrients and excess calorie intake, the most proximate determinant of obesity risk. We apply quantile regressions and counterfactual decompositions to cross-sectional data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (2000-01) to assess how excess calorie consumption patterns in the UK are likely to change with improved compliance with dietary guidelines. We find that the effects of compliance vary significantly across different quantiles of calorie consumption. Our results show that compliance with dietary guidelines for individual nutrients, even if successfully achieved, is likely to be associated with only modest shifts in excess calorie consumption patterns. Consequently, public health campaigns that target compliance with dietary guidelines for specific nutrients in isolation are unlikely to have a significant effect on the obesity risk faced by the population.

An ethical turn in African mining: voluntary regulation through fair trade

In recent decades there has been an ethical turn in expectations of how African mineral production and trade should be conducted. Good labour conditions, the absence of conflict and mining’s potential for securing economic, social and environmental benefits are being demanded in the jewellery trade. As a consequence the quality of precious and semi-precious metals and gemstones is now being judged on their ethical credentials in addition to their aesthetic and mineral qualities. Mineral production for industrial manufacture, particularly in the electronics industry, is also coming under scrutiny. Adding value through ethics is closely associated with the use of voluntary (non-state) regulation. This includes standards and associated certification and labels, which have been widely adopted by the minerals and metals sector in efforts to ensure improvements in the social and environmental conditions of production and to enable access to the profitable and expanding global ‘ethical market’. In this chapter, we focus on ethical trading schemes that incorporate voluntary regulation, by using artisanal gold mining in Tanzania and the sale of gold through international fair trade markets as an exemplar to consider the development dynamics that emerge from ethical schemes.

Informed, uninformed and participative consent in social media research

The use of online data is becoming increasingly essential for the generation of insight in today’s research environment. This reflects the much wider range of data available online and the key role that social media now plays in interpersonal communication. However, the process of gaining permission to use social media data for research purposes creates a number of significant issues when considering compatibility with professional ethics guidelines. This paper critically explores the application of existing informed consent policies to social media research and compares with the form of consent gained by the social networks themselves, which we label ‘uninformed consent’. We argue that, as currently constructed, informed consent carries assumptions about the nature of privacy that are not consistent with the way that consumers behave in an online environment. On the other hand, uninformed consent relies on asymmetric relationships that are unlikely to succeed in an environment based on co-creation of value. The paper highlights the ethical ambiguity created by current approaches for gaining customer consent, and proposes a new conceptual framework based on participative consent that allows for greater alignment between consumer privacy and ethical concerns.

Site-specific and geographical segmental social, environmental and ethical disclosures by the Ghanaian mining sector

Purpose: This paper explores the extent of site-specific and geographic segmental social, environmental and ethical reporting by mining companies operating in Ghana. We aim to: (i) establish a picture of corporate transparency relating to geographic segmentation of social, environmental and ethical reporting which is specific to operating sites and country of operation, and; (ii) gauge the impact of the introduction of integrated reporting on site-specific social, environmental and ethical reporting. Methodology/Approach: We conducted an interpretive content analysis of the annual/integrated reports of mining companies for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011 in order to extract site-specific social, environmental and ethical information relating to the companies’ mining operations in Ghana. Findings and Implications: We found that site-specific social, environmental and ethical reporting is extremely patchy and inconsistent between the companies’ reports studied. We also found that there was no information relating to certain sites, which were in operation, according to the Ghana Minerals Commission. This could simply be because operations were not in progress. Alternatively it could be that decisions are made concerning which site-specific information is reported according to a certain benchmark. One policy implication arising from this research is that IFRS should require geographic segmental reporting of material social, environmental and ethical information in order to bring IFRS into line with global developments in integrated reporting. Originality: Although there is a wealth of sustainability reporting research and an emergent literature on integrated reporting, there is currently no academic research exploring site-specific social, environmental and ethical reporting

Spiritual capital: the co-evolution of an ethical framework based on Abrahamic religious values in the Islamic tradition

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate how values from within Abrahamic religions could be adopted to improve liberal market economies’ (LMEs’) corporate governance business practices. Design/methodology/approach – The concept of spiritual capitalism is explained from an Islamic perspective by adopting three universal Abrahamic values to critically analyse LMEs and offer an ethical alternative to current capitalism concerns. Findings – It is found that LMEs can be improved by considering all stakeholders, putting ethics before economics, and introducing shared risk/reward plus lower debt. Originality/value – The paper compares LMEs/Co-ordinated market economies (CMEs)/Islamic countries economies (ICEs) within an ethical framework for LMEs.

Ethics of care in supporting disabled forced migrants: interactions with professionals and ethical dilemmas in health and social care in the South-East of England

This article explores the interactions between disabled forced migrants with care needs and professionals and the restrictive legal, policy and practice context that health and social care professionals have to confront, based on the findings of a qualitative study with 45 participants in the South-East of England. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 forced migrants who had diverse impairments and chronic illnesses (8 women and 7 men), 13 family caregivers and 17 support workers and strategic professionals working in social care and the third sector in Slough, Reading and London. The legal status of forced migrants significantly affects their entitlements to health and social care provision, resulting in prolonged periods of destitution for many families. National asylum support policies, difficult working relationships with UK Border Agency, higher eligibility thresholds and reduced social care budgets of local authorities were identified as significant barriers in responding to the support needs of disabled forced migrants and family caregivers. In this context, social workers experienced considerable ethical dilemmas. The research raises profound questions about the potential and limitations of health and social care policies, provision, and practice as means of protection and support in fulfilling the human rights of forced migrants with care needs.

A battle of elephants: (I)legitimate ethical voices?

In this paper, we aim to distil myriad stakeholder voices through a Foucaudian theoretical apparatus in the establishment of ethical stakeholder voices amidst a takeover of a Ghanaian National Bank with ownership control by the state National Pension Fund and Insurance Company. Resonating with Foucault’s position that, the prove and an actual practice of ethical principles despite risk is non-existent within a democracy, this paper reveals how stakeholders in a takeover further their own interest to the neglect of the very germane societal expectation of a salient stakeholder role. We further fill an existing gap within the stakeholder literature that posit of stakeholders as always possessing the right and ethical voices. We conclude that, despite Foucault’s last lecture of The Courage of Truth: The Government of the Self and others having proven of a robust apparatus in distilling ethical voices from non-ethical within the realm of a democratic field, its idealist nature demands a counterfactual position.

The mediating effect of environmental and ethical behaviour on supply chain partnership decisions and management appreciation of supplier partnership risks

Green supply chain management and environmental and ethical behaviour (EEB), a major component of corporate responsibility (CR), are rapidly developing fields in research and practice. The influence and effect of EEB at the functional level, however, is under-researched. Similarly, the management of risk in the supply chain has become a practical concern for many firms. It is important that managers have a good understanding of the risks associated with supplier partnerships. This paper examines the effect of firms’ investment in EEB as part of corporate social responsibility in mediating the relationship between supply chain partnership (SCP) and management appreciation of the risk of partnering. We hypothesise that simply entering into a SCP does not facilitate an appreciation of the risk of partnering and may even hamper such awareness. However, such an appreciation of the risk is facilitated through CR’s environmental and stakeholder management ethos. The study contributes further by separating risk into distinct relational and performance components. The results of a firm-level survey confirm the mediation effect, highlighting the value to supply chain strategy and design of investing in EEB on three fronts: building internal awareness, monitoring and sharing best practice.

Ethical turn in international development

The ethical turn in international development relates to a tendency to question the deleterious impact of international development action on local populations and environment. As a consequence, new courses of action are proposed in order to generate socially just and environmentally sustainable global change. This tendency is most prominent in relation to the development impacts of globalization of production and trade but also appears across a wide range of development sectors.

The ethical dimensions of global change

This chapter briefly examines the connections between ethics and the politics of global environmental change. I contrast ethical conceptions of the environment with more conventional characterizations of the environmental challenge, in order to indicate some of the core issues and related questions about which ethical theorists engaging with the global environmental change discourse tend to be concerned. I also offer a brief discussion on the key challenge of ethics on global institutional governance of environmental change.