Ethics in government and business

Canadians appear to hold the activities of those in government and in big business in low esteem. Media reports of several high-profile political and corporate instances of unethical conduct have reinforced the public's concern for the status of ethical conduct and honesty in government and in big business. The response by public and private sector managers to unethical conduct by employees is largely in the form of 'ethical rules' which both sectors agree provide a measure of certainty as to the ethical conduct expected from employees. Since research on ethics in the public and private sectors is limited and since ethics is a topic of increasing concern to both sectors, this thesis provides data that could assist managers in dealing with the issue of ethical conduct within their respective organizations. The purpose of this thesis is to compare the state of ethical conduct within public and private sector organizations in Canada. This is accomplished through a description and analysis of the approaches taken by the public and private sectors as well as the four professions of law, engineering, accountancy and medicine. Ethical conduct within the public sector focuses on the ethical behaviour of public servants rather than elected officials. The underlying intent of this thesis is to discover if contemporary ethical problems are similar in the public and iv private sectors with respect to the four ethical areas of conflict of interest, political activity, problem public comment and confidentiality. The comparative data on both public and private sector ethics are assessed and similarities and differences are identified. One major finding emerges from this study. Codes of ethics in both the public and private sectors are perceived by management to play an important role in the prevention of unethical conduct. A procedure for developing a code of ethics is presented along with recommendations as to the administration of a code of ethics. Finally, recommendations are made as to the role of education in ethics.

A crisis of social democracy : organized labour and the NDP in an era of neoliberalism

The NDP was founded out of the ashes of the Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation to cooperate with the Canadian Labour Congress to become the 'political arm of organized labour' in Canada. The NDP has long claimed they are the party which represents the policy goals of organized labour in Canada: that the NDP alone will fight for trade union rights, and will fight for Canadian workers. Divergent Paths is an examination of the links between the labour movement and the ND P in an era ofneo-liberalism. Provincial NDP governments have become increasingly neoliberal in their ideological orientation, and have often proved to be no friend to the labour movement when they hold office. The Federal party has never held power, nor have they ever formed the Official Opposition. This thesis charts the progress of the federal NDP as they become more neoliberal from 1988 to 2006, and shows how this trend effects the links between the NDP and labour. Divergent Paths studies each federal election from 1988 to 2006, looking at the interactions between Labour and the NDP during these elections. Elections provide critical junctions to study discourse - party platforms, speeches, and other official documents can be used to examine discourse. Extensive newspaper searches were used to follow campaign events and policy speeches. Studying the party's discourse can be used to determine the ideological orientation of the party itself: the fact that the party's discourse has become neoliberal is a sure sign that the party itself is neoliberal. The NDP continues to drive towards the centre of the political spectrum in an attempt to gain multi-class support. The NDP seems more interested in gaining seats at any cost, rather then promoting the agenda of Labour. As the party attempts to open up to more multi-class support, Labour becomes increasingly marginalised in the party. A rift which arguably started well before the 1988 election was exacerbated during that election; labour encouraged the NDP to campaign solely on the issue of Free Trade, and the NDP did not. The 1993 election saw the rift between the two grow even further as the Federal NDP suffered major blowbacks from the actions of the Ontario NDP. The 1997 and 2000 elections saw the NDP make a deliberate move to the centre of the political spectrum which increasingly marginalised labour. In the 2004 election, Jack Layton made no attempt to move the party back to the left; and in 2006 the link between labour and the NDP was perhaps irreparably damaged when the CAW endorsed the Liberal party in a strategic voting strategy, and the CLC did not endorse the NDP. The NDP is no longer a reliable ally of organized labour. The Canadian labour movement must decide wether the NDP can be 'salvaged' or if the labour movement should end their alliance with the NDP and engage in a new political project.

The Clemente Course in the Humanities and critical pedagogy : a comparative analysis of Earl Shorris and bell hooks on poverty, racism, imperialism and patriarchy

The Clemente Course in the Humanities is an anti-poverty intervention for adults who self-identity as "poor" and humanities instructors. The course was created in 1995 by journalist Earl Shorris, who based the curriculum on a Socratic method of pedagogy and the "great books" canon of Robert Hutchins. It began as a community-based initiative in urban US settings, but since 1997 Mayan, Yup'ik and Cherokee iterations have been created, as well as on-campus bridge courses for non-traditional students to explore college-level education in Canada and the USA. The course potentially conflicts with critical pedagogy because the critical theories of Paulo Freire and contemporary cultural studies reject traditional notions of both the canon and teaching. However, a comparison between Shorris' and bell hooks' theories of oppression reveals significant similarities between his "surround of force" and her "capitalist imperialist white supremacist patriarchy," with implications for liberal studies and critical pedagogy.

Estado del arte sobre neuromarketing aplicado a los estudios políticos

El neuromarketing aplicado a los estudios políticos dio como resultado el surgimiento del neuromarketing político, gracias al desarrollo de diferentes estudios e investigaciones. Se trata de un campo de estudio que estudia e investiga los procesos cerebrales referentes al comportamiento político y la toma de decisiones en la actividad política mediante el uso de herramientas neurocientíficas. Tanto por el interés de académicos, científicos, como también de los candidatos o actores que hacen parte de campañas electorales, o políticos gobernantes incluso, el neuromarketing político ha ido creciendo y cada vez son más los aportes que se realizan en la materia.

Del moviment de l'Escola Nova a la coordinació d'escoles 3-12 : historia amb molt de futur. 'Del movimiento de la Escola Nova a la coordinación de escuelas 3-12 : toda una historia con mucho futuro'.

Resumen del autor en catalán

La comprensió de la lectura i l'avaluació del professorat. 'La comprensión de la lectura y la evaluación del profesorado'.

Reflexiona sobre los resultados del informe PISA del 2003. Se argumenta que además de evaluar a los alumnos se debería evaluar a los maestros y su trabajo.

Controvèrsies a l'entorn de l'autonomia educativa. 'Controversias en el entorno de la autonomía educativa'.

Resumen basado en del autor

Fem i construïm una nova educació pública.'Hagamos y construyamos una nueva educación pública'.

Análisis sobre las VII Jornadas 0-12 celebradas el año 2006 en Barcelona. Se escogieron doce temas como representación de algunos referentes de identidad de la renovación pedagógica de la escuela..

Materials i recursos.'Materiales y recursos'.

Análisis de los materiales y recursos didácticos que los maestros utilizan. En el artículo se reflexiona sobre la utilidad y la finalidad de éstos teniendo en cuenta la individualidad del alumnado y la metodología de los maestros..

Les escoles de nova creació : generadores de noves cultures. 'Las escuelas de nueva creación : generadoras de nuevas culturas'.

Debates a partir de la temática de la acogida, la participación de la comunidad y la gestión del currículum. A partir de cada tema se plantearon cuestiones y cómo incide cada una de las temáticas en el proyecto educativo del centro.

Dictagol : els dictats sobre la història del futbol. 'Dictagol : los dictados sobre la historia del fútbol'.

Cuaderno dirigido a educación primaria y a los primeros ciclos de educación secundaria, que pretende ser una herramienta para el profesorado. El cuaderno recoge una serie de lecturas, dictados, sobre la historia del futbol. De esta forma mientras el alumnado aprende a escribir y utilizar correctamente la lengua, adquiere conocimientos sobre el fútbol y su historia.

Las Claves de la participación estudiantil en la universidad española

La participación estudiantil, o más bien la baja participación estudiantil, es una realidad generalizada en las diferentes universidades españolas y, pese a algunas acciones realizadas para mejorarla, todavía no se ha generalizado a una cultura de participación activa en la que el estudiantado se integre plenamente en la gestión y vida universitaria, más allá de lo académico. Pero ¿cuál es la clave de la participación? Parece que la implicación es un factor importante alrededor del cual se articularían 4 elementos: el contexto social, la motivación, la formación y la repercusión percibida. Ésta y otras cuestiones son las que se pretenden analizar en la presente comunicación

Actituds polítiques de Sobrequés

Sobre el compromís polític de Santiago Sobrequés i les diferents etapes per les que va passar, relacionades amb les circumstancies generals del país

(Re)shaping the South Bank: the (post)politics of sustainable place-making

While the private sector has long been in the vanguard of shaping and managing urban environs, under the New Labour government business actors were also heralded as key agents in the delivery of sustainable places. Policy interventions, such as Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), saw business-led local partnerships positioned as key drivers in the production of economically, socially and environmentally sustainable urban communities. This research considers how one business-led body, South Bank Employer’s Group (SBEG), has inserted itself into, and influenced, local (re)development trajectories. Interview, observational and archival data are used to explore how, in a neighbourhood noted for its turbulent and conflictual development past, SBEG has led on a series of regeneration programmes that it asserts will create a “better South Bank for all”. A belief in consensual solutions underscored New Labour’s urban agenda and cast regeneration as a politically neutral process in which different stakeholders can reach mutually beneficial solutions (Southern, 2001). For authors such as Mouffe (2005), the search for consensus represents a move towards a ‘post-political’ approach to governing in which the (necessarily) antagonistic nature of the political is denied. The research utilises writings on the ‘post-political’ condition to frame an empirical exploration of regeneration at the neighbourhood level. It shows how SBEG has brokered a consensual vision of regeneration with the aim of overriding past disagreements about local development. While this may be seen as an attempt to enact what Honig (1993: 3) calls the ‘erasure of resistance from political orderings’ by assuming control of regeneration agendas (see also Baeten, 2009), the research shows that ‘resistances’ to SBEG’s activities continue to be expressed in a series of ways. These resistances suggest that, while increasingly ‘post-political’ in character, local place shaping continues to evidence what Massey (2005: 10) calls the ‘space of loose ends and missing links’ from which political activity can, at least potentially, emerge.