CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ROMANIA

The purpose of this paper is to identify the main opportunities and limitations of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The survey was defined with the aim to involve the highest possible number of relevant CSR topics and give the issue a more wholesome perspective. It provides a basis for further comprehension and deeper analyses of specific CSR areas. The conditions determining the success of CSR in Romania have been defined in the paper on the basis of the previously cumulative knowledge as well as the results of various researches. This paper provides knowledge which may be useful in the programs promoting CSR.Corporate social responsibility, Supportive policies, Romania

Content and end-state-based alteration in the practice of political violence since the end of cold war: the difference between the terrorism of the cold war and the terrorism of al Qaeda: the rise of the "transcendental terrorist"

For more than two generations the world was defined in international political terms by the label, the Cold War. This phrase was shorthand for many phenomena, including the division of the East and West into two blocs and the ideologicallybased definition of said blocs. Whilst we cannot state that the whole of the world was divided in an iron-clad fashion into two separate camps – the neutral and nonaligned nations representing a sizeable constituency – the fact remains that for North America, Western Europe, the USSR and the Soviet controlled satellite nations, the bipolarity of the Cold War geostrategic environment had an overarching impact upon several areas of policy, including national security, foreign affairs, defence and attitudes to the use of force. The influence of the bipolar stand-off had a significant shaping effect with regard to how government was organised on both sides of the Iron Curtain and on the ways in which threat perceptions were managed and influenced national policies concerning security. Fundamentally, the effect can be summarised as follows: Internally: National governments secured the law and order and domestic stability of their state system primarily through the agency of the police (or militia). These authorities were mandated to fight common crime and, in the West, to assist in the fight against terrorism. Additionally a threat was posed by the intelligence agents and subversives of the other bloc. As a result the domestic element of this threat was responded to with counter-intelligence agencies. Externally: The threat of a conventional war (World War III) meant that the armed forces of each bloc had to prepare for a possible bloc on bloc conflict in which classic concepts of territorial defence against an outside aggressor were central. The external threat was dealt with fundamentally by means of intelligence. It was not adequate to simply prepare domestically for a war with the other bloc. To be able to deter and to prepare against the opposition it was necessary to gather pertinent information (intelligence) on the enemy. This intelligence could be either technical and military in nature – for example the nature and capabilities of a new piece of military equipment fielded by the opposing army – or political and economic, such as the inner workings and intentions of the enemy’s political elite, or government and the state given industrial sectors. This distinction led to the fact that each type of information was gathered by a separate authority, the former being military intelligence and the latter being civilian intelligence

Values of the Human Person. Contemporary challenges

Contemporary knowledge is centered on the research on human dimensions. Philosophy should particularly appeal to values in the process of understanding the human nature. The valuable “becoming” of each human person requires growing ever more aware of his/her personal identity and of his/her role in this lifetime. In ethics, especially, values suppose moral choices or criteria on which a moral behavior is based. Max Scheler based his ethical theory on the distinction between goods and values. The “goods” are things to which we attach some physical worth, and the “values” are the object of emotional perception, of the “sentiment of value” and of the place they have in the hierarchy of values. Even if the human being attributes a certain worth to individual things, he/she is always searching for a universal value, which should exceed the contingency of that thing. This universal validity is a kind of ideal measure of the value of all empiric realities and it is articulated by a normative rationality. It forms a system of universal norms that contribute to the foundation of critical axiological judgments. What values are the most enhanced by our post-modern society? Are they the same as during the modern period? What would distinguish them from the values of other cultural periods of humankind? How do we react to the new challenges generated by technological progress and the media? How do the classical disciplines such as philosophy, religion, anthropology, and art respond to these new challenges? And how could they help us to better adapt the writings of certain significant personalities to the modern and contemporary culture? These are only a few questions this volume will address. It contains a large number of articles by authors from various countries and continents: philosophers, and theologians, as well as researchers in medicine, anthropology, and new scientific technologies. As the variety of topics is impressive, we tried to organize them into three thematic parts: “Part I: Fundamental Human Values. Contemporary Challenging Globalization,” “Part II: New Axiological Challenges in Technologies and Scientific Thinking,” and “Part III: Cultural and Spiritual Personalities: Possible Answers to Our Contemporary Changes.” In the following pages, we shall make a short presentation of each article in order to facilitate a quick familiarization with the entire volume

\u27So manie gallant gentlemen\u27: Imperial humanists and Tudor imperial identity

This thesis examines the intersection of imperialism, humanism and gender to argue that the Elizabethan period enabled imperial humanists to develop an identity for England as an empire of liberation rather than conquest. A subset of the imperial faction at Court, imperial humanists sought to reconcile activist and pragmatist agendas by marrying civic humanism with chivalry. Imperial humanists deployed this humanist chivalry--with an emphasis on temperance, wisdom, and justice--to elaborate a national mythos of pious restraint that denied avarice and oppression were inherent to extending English dominion overseas and envisioned empire as a virtuous pursuit for gentlemen. With increasing unemployment, land scarcity, and social unrest, imperial humanists feared the beginnings of a cultural devolution into barbarism that would make their island nation subject to domination by Spain. The solution imperial humanists advocated was a curriculum of humanist education among the gentry, a commitment to state service through the vita activa , a civilizing mission, and new overseas outlets for commodities, excess population, and military outposts

Visual and textual images of women : 1930s representations of colonial Bali as produced by men and women travellers

All kinds of travellers came to Bali in the 1930s. Many of them produced books and photographs, which later incited more visitors to come and see Bali for themselves. The works of these image-makers who travelled to Bali are the result of actual experience and recounted journeys. Their descriptions of Bali, although based on authentic experience, are also the result of literary and pictorial readings. Their accounts or representations are often enriched with material accumulated from fiction, biblical references, and scientific books, as well as paintings and photographs. These image-makers of Bali did not arrive without mental luggage. Both the textual and visual image-makers constructed images of the paradise according to their own fantasies and personal experience, as did the consumers of those images. The representation of Balinese women was thus heavily influenced by earlier travellers, photographers, and scholars. However, it is difficult to know who imitates whom and whose images can be cited as authentic. The previous readings or visual representations condition expectations in each traveller, so that she or he fashions images inspired by those already in circulation. The themes which recur over and over in photographs confirm existing stereotypical concepts. In other words, these representations influence perceptions of the 'other' that persist to the present day

Forensic cultures in modern Europe

This edited volume examines the performance of physicians, psychiatrists and other scientists as expert witnesses in modern European courts of law and police investigations. Its chapters discuss cases from criminal, civil and international law to parse the impact of forensic evidence and expertise in different European countries (Scotland, England, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, Portugal, Norway and the Netherlands) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They show how modern forensic science and technology was inextricably entangled with political ideology, gender norms, changes in the law and legal systems. New scientific ideas and technology, such as blood tests and DNA, helped develop forensic science, but did not necessarily lead to a straightforward acceptance of expertise in the courtroom. Discussing fascinating case studies, the chapters in this book highlight how the ideology of authoritarian and liberal regimes affected the practical enactment of forensic expertise. They also emphasise the influence of images of masculinity and femininity on the performance of experts and their assessment of evidence, victims and perpetrators, for example in cases of rape, infanticide and crimes of passion. This book is an important contribution to our knowledge of modern European forensic practices, which, as several chapters underline, sometimes surprisingly diverge from institutional regulations

(In)visible images : seeing disability in Canadian literature, 1823-1974

Despite the ubiquity of images depicting disability in the narratives that have contributed to the shaping of Canadian national identity, images of unconventional bodies have not drawn critical attention. My study begins to address this neglect by revisiting selections from Canada’s historical literary canon using Disability Studies theory. I examine eight Anglophone novels selected from the reading requirements list for field examinations in Canadian literature at the University of Saskatchewan. Because fictional representations inform the ways we interpret reality, I argue that the application of Disability Studies theories to a Canadian context provides new insights into the meaning of Canadian nationhood. The study begins with Thomas McCulloch. His Stepsure Letters provides a counter-discourse to the commercialized ethos of his time. The disabled Stepsure exemplifies the ideal citizen. While Gwen, in Ralph Connor’s Sky Pilot, presents a sentimentalized stereotype of disability, her role also foregrounds the imperative of human relationship. Connor’s Foreigner, on the other hand, intertwines disability with ethnicized difference to form images of subhumanity that the novel suggests must be assimilated and/or controlled. Lucy Maude Montgomery’s Emily trilogy echoes Connor’s later use of disability to embody a sinister Other that threatens the British-Canadian mainstream. In Such Is My Beloved, Morley Callaghan realistically depicts the power investments involved in configuring difference as social menace, defying the eugenic discourse of his day. While Malcolm Ross’s As for Me and My House seems to revert to the exploitation of disability as a trope for trouble, at the same time the story subverts convention by failing to affirm normalcy. In Ethel Wilson’s Love and Salt Water disability signifies the complexity and depth of humanity. In Mordechai Richler’s The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, betrayal and rejection of responsibility to Other is the source of human suffering. The marginalized figures of Adele Wiseman’s Crackpot, the last novel examined in this study, defy their abject roles, pronouncing the right of being within one’s difference.Defamiliarizing the function of portrayals of disability brings into consciousness biases that have been systemically naturalized. Exploring constructions of difference reveals constructions of normalcy. Just as interrogating Whiteness uncovers hidden processes of racism, questioning normalcy illuminates a discriminatory ableism. My reading reveals a struggle within the national imaginary between ableism and a desire for inclusive pluralism. Disability Studies readings may help to liberate the collective psyche from tyrannical impositions of normalcy to a greater realization of the richness of human diversity

Democratization through the looking glass

Democratization is a major political phenomenon of the current age. Democratization through the looking glass argues that our perspectives on democratization reflect the intellectual origins of the inquiry. How we see and understand it are influenced by what we 'bring to the table'. By considering democratization across a range of disciplines from anthropology and economics, to sociology, law and area studies, this volume offers a rich combination of analytical frameworks, distinctive insights and leading points of concern. On one level the book provides anyone interested in democratization with a wide-ranging distillation of the main themes, issues, and topics, concisely written by leading experts in their field. On a second level the book advances the case for a broadly-based comparative study which includes Europe and North America alongside developing regions, while maintaining the belief that a multi-disciplinary approach enhances our understanding of democratization far more than that of a narrow political science view. The book is aimed at students of politics willing to explore the boundaries of their subject and all social scientists who need an introduction to this important contemporary phenomenon