Testing the Limits of Antidiscrimination Law: The Business, Legal, and Ethical Ramifications of Cultural Profiling at Work

While courts have rarely ruled in favor of plaintiffs bringing discrimination claims based on identity performance, legal scholars have argued that discrimination on the basis of certain cultural displays should be prohibited because it creates a work environment that is heavily charged with ethnic and racial discrimination. Drawing upon empirical studies of diversity management, stereotyping, and group dynamics, we describe how workplace cultural profiling often creates an unproductive atmosphere of heightened scrutiny and identity performance constraints that lead workers (especially those from marginalized groups) to behave in less authentic, less innovative ways in diverse organizational settings

Corporate social responsibility disclosure by state-owned enterprises in Indonesia

Purpose: This article aims to investigate the extent to which State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in Indonesia disclose their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs to the general public. Design/Methodology/Approach: Quantitative design is used as the main method in the study. Corporate profiling is used for analyzing SOEs profile and program profiling is used to analyze the profile of CSR programs implemented by SOEs. Findings: The study concludes that, first, SOEs under study disclose their CSR programs to the general public. In terms of indicators it is difficult to conclude that CSR programs disclosed by SOEs signify corporate virtuous citizenship embedding the initial ideas of CSR. Practical implications: Practical implications of the study are two-folds. First, that SOEs in Indonesia, need to strengthen the institutional drivers of CSR, and put pressure on companies to move beyond philanthropy, rhetoric, legitimization, imagery, and public relations to substantive engagement in CSR and genuine attempts at change and development. Second, the implementation of CSR programs by SOEs is judicially liable to public auditing. Originality/Value: The value of this study strengthens arguments which hold that the implementation of CSR, even implemented by SOEs, functions more as corporate survival mechanism rather than for solving social and environmental problems.peer-reviewe

Extending sustainability from food to fashion consumption:the lived experience of working mothers

This report isa collection of the memos written in work package 1 of the LambdaRoad project, where the overall project objectives is to study the need and requirements for electronic communication (ecom) in the future transport system in Norway and develop a planning tool for ecom for the transport sector. lntroductory studies were performed in work package 1 and documented in this report. In particular we 1) have established va lue networks for ecom in Norway, 2) described the crucial terms in C-ITS ecom, including motivation for the planning tool, 3) established a comprehensive state of the art study for path loss models, a crucial part of the planning tool to be developed, 4) studied the literature to summarize the ecom requirements in the future transport system, and 5) conducted in-depth semi -structured interviews to reveal the requirements and needs of the planning tool in LambdaRoad for the project partners. Please note that some of the memos included might change during the rest of the project period, and that updates may occur

Race, Crime, and Institutional Design

Minorities are gravely overrepresented in every stage of the criminal process--from pedestrian and automobile stops, to searches and seizures, to arrests and convictions, to incarceration and capital punishment. While racial data can provide a snapshot of the current state of affairs, such information rarely satisfies questions of causation, and usually only sets the scene for normative theory

The Specter of Normative Conflict: Does Fairness Require Inaccuracy?

A challenge we face in a world that has been shaped by, and continues to be shaped by, racist attitudes and institutions is that the evidence is often stacked in favor of racist beliefs. As a result, we may find ourselves facing the following conflict: what if the evidence we have supports something we morally shouldn’t believe? For example, it is morally wrong to assume, solely on the basis of someone’s skin color, that they’re a staff member. But, what if you’re in a context where, because of historical patterns of discrimination, someone’s skin color is a very good indicator that they’re a staff member? When this sort of normative conflict looms, a conflict between moral considerations on the one hand and what you epistemically ought to believe given the evidence on the other, what should we do? It might be unfair to assume that they’re a staff member, but to ignore the evidence would mean risking inaccurate beliefs. Some, notably Tamar Gendler (2011), have suggested that we simply face a tragic irresolvable dilemma. In this chapter, I consider how these cases of conflict arise and I canvass the viability of suggested resolutions of the conflict. In the end, I argue that there’s actually no conflict here. Moral considerations can change how we epistemically should respond to the evidence

European Union regulations on algorithmic decision-making and a "right to explanation"

We summarize the potential impact that the European Union's new General Data Protection Regulation will have on the routine use of machine learning algorithms. Slated to take effect as law across the EU in 2018, it will restrict automated individual decision-making (that is, algorithms that make decisions based on user-level predictors) which "significantly affect" users. The law will also effectively create a "right to explanation," whereby a user can ask for an explanation of an algorithmic decision that was made about them. We argue that while this law will pose large challenges for industry, it highlights opportunities for computer scientists to take the lead in designing algorithms and evaluation frameworks which avoid discrimination and enable explanation.Comment: presented at 2016 ICML Workshop on Human Interpretability in Machine Learning (WHI 2016), New York, N

The role of the “Inter-Life” virtual world as a creative technology to support student transition into higher education

The shape of Higher Education (HE) in the UK and internationally is changing, with wider access policies leading to greater diversity and heterogeneity in contemporary student populations world-wide. Students in the 21st Century are often described as “fragmented”; meaning they are frequently working whilst participating in a full time Degree programme. Consequently, those in the HE setting are required to become “future ready” which increasingly involves the seamless integration of new digital technologies into undergraduate programmes of teaching and learning. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of the “Inter-Life” three-dimensional virtual world as a suitable Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) tool to support the initial stages of transition from school into university. Our results demonstrate that Inter-Life is “fit for purpose” in terms of the robustness of both the educational and technical design features. We have shown that Inter-Life provides a safe space that supports induction mediated by active learning tasks using learner-generated, multi-modal transition tools. In addition, through the provision of private spaces, Inter-Life also supports and fosters the development of critical reflective thinking skills. However, in keeping with the current literature in the field, some of the students expressed a wish for more training in the functional and social skills required to navigate and experience the Inter-Life virtual world more effectively. Such findings resonate with the current debate in the field which challenges the notion of “digital natives”, but the present study has also provided some new evidence to support the role of virtual worlds for the development of a suitable community to support students undergoing transition to university

A Roadmap for Change: Federal Policy Recommendations for Addressing the Criminilization of LGBT People and People Living with HIV

Each year in the United States, thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, Two Spirit, queer, questioning and gender non-conforming (LGBT) people and people living with HIV come in contact with the criminal justice system and fall victim to similar miscarriages of justice.According to a recent national study, a startling 73% of all LGBT people and PLWH surveyed have had face-to-face contact with police during the past five years.1 Five percent of these respondents also report having spent time in jail or prison, a rate that is markedly higher than the nearly 3% of the U.S. adult population whoare under some form of correctional supervision (jail, prison, probation, or parole) at any point in time.In fact, LGBT people and PLWH, especially Native and LGBT people and PLWH of color, aresignificantly overrepresented in all aspects of the penal system, from policing, to adjudication,to incarceration. Yet their experiences are often overlooked, and little headway has been madein dismantling the cycles of criminalization that perpetuate poor life outcomes and push already vulnerable populations to the margins of society.The disproportionate rate of LGBT people and PLWH in the criminal system can best be understoodin the larger context of widespread and continuing discrimination in employment, education, socialservices, health care, and responses to violence