Human rights and ethical reasoning : capabilities, conventions and spheres of public action

This interdisciplinary article argues that human rights must be understood in terms of opportunities for social participation and that social and economic rights are integral to any discussion of the subject. We offer both a social constructionist and a normative framework for a sociology of human rights which reaches beyond liberal individualism, combining insights from the work of Amartya Sen and from French convention theory. Following Sen, we argue that human rights are founded on the promotion of human capabilities as ethical demands shaped by public reasoning. Using French convention theory, we show how the terms of such deliberation are shaped by different constructions of collectively held values and the compromises reached between them. We conclude by demonstrating how our approach offers a new perspective on spheres of public action and the role these should play in promoting social cohesion, individual capabilities and human rights

The capabilities approach and worker wellbeing

Recently, scholars have attempted to apply the capabilities approach, as advanced by Amartya Sen, to the realm of labour. They argue that it provides a philosophical justification for a ‘development’ approach to labour regulation, supports the design of policies that promote workers’ wellbeing and validates the institution of worker participation mechanisms. For labour proponents, this is an exciting prospect. This article argues that despite its promise for expanding workers’ capabilities, certain ambiguities potentially impede the approach’s utility, particularly in developing countries. We suggest ways in which it can be refined and developed to better serve the interests of labour in these contexts, notably by promoting collective and not merely individual capabilities

Beveridge on idleness

Beveridge's wartime proposals to eliminate idleness relied on the precepts of Keynesian economics and substantial extensions in the powers of central government to regulate industry and labour. Using convention theory, this paper demonstrates how these stipulations proved politically untenable. With the disappearance of full employment in the 1980s, the labour market problems Beveridge encountered in his youth have re-emerged accompanied by old problems of working poverty. Established forms of labour market analysis are obsolescent and employment rights disappear. The paper suggests a more decentralized and variable analysis of relations between work and idleness may offer a way forward

What’s new with numbers? Sociological approaches to the study of quantification

Calculation and quantification have been critical features of modern societies, closely linked to science, markets, and administration. In the past thirty years, the pace, purpose, and scope of quantification have greatly expanded, and there has been a corresponding increase in scholarship on quantification. We offer an assessment of the widely dispersed literature on quantification across four domains where quantification and quantification scholarship have particularly flourished: administration, democratic rule, economics, and personal life. In doing so, we seek to stimulate more cross-disciplinary debate and exchange. We caution against unifying accounts of quantification and highlight the importance of tracking quantification across different sites in order to appreciate its essential ambiguity and conduct more systematic investigations of interactions between different quantification regimes

Wissensmanagement und Zukunft: Orientierungsnöte, Erwartungsfallen und „4D“-Strategie

Wenn heute im wachsenden Maße Zukunftsthemen diskutiert werden, so ist dies nur teilweise dem näherrückenden und zweifellos sehr symbolträchtigen Jahrtausendwechsel zuzuschreiben. Das zunehmende Interesse an der Zukunftsproblematik verdankt sich nämlich weniger dem kalendarischen Übergang in das 21. Jahrhundert, als vielmehr einer umfassenden und tiefgreifenden Krise, in der sich die Gesellschaften der Moderne befinden. In dieser Situation erscheint vielen Menschen die Zukunft erheblich ungewisser, als dies noch vor einem Jahrzehnt der Fall war, und auch in vielen Organisationen greifen zunehmend Orientierungsnöte Raum. Die Erwartung, das Wissensmanagement könne hier Abhilfe schaffen, ist berechtigt aber auch problematisch. Sie ist berechtigt, weil es in der Tat einen Beitrag dazu leisten kann, sich über die Breite, Tiefe und Richtung der angelaufenen Krise Klarheit zu verschaffen und nach praktikablen Wegen ihrer Bewältigung zu suchen. Sie ist jedoch insofern problematisch, als dieser Beitrag sehr leicht entweder über- oder unterschätzt wird. Die vorliegende Studie ist darauf fokussiert, einen Ansatz zur Diskussion zu stellen, auf den sich ein praxis- und zukunftsorientiertes Wissensmanagement stützen kann, ohne dabei in die gängigen Über- und Unterschätzungsfallen zu geraten. Er ist darauf ausgerichtet, die Krise, in der sich die Organisationen gegenwärtig befinden, synchron aus vier sich ergänzenden Perspektiven zu durchdenken und kann als Strategie des miteinander verbundenen Anders-, Zurück-, Quer- und Umdenkens oder, kürzer, als „4D- Strategie bezeichnet werden. Diese Strategie wird zunächst an Hand ausgewählter Beispiele skizziert und abschließend im Hinblick auf ihre Grenzen und Chancen resümiert.The growing interest in the future and in future studies we are currently observing can only partially be attributed to our coming close to the symbolically powerful change in milleniums. It must also be attributed to a broad and profound crisis of modernity which most highly developed societies are experiencing. It is due to this fundamental crisis that more and more individuals and groups are expressing great uncertainty about the future, far more so than was the case a decade ago. Not only individuals, but also organizations strongly express the need for guidance and orientation. There is wide-spread expectation that knowledge management could help in this context. This is justified since knowledge management can contribute to enhancing our understanding of the general direction, potential corridors of development, depth and breadth of the crisis. However, these expectations are also quite problematical since individuals and organizations easily tend to over- or underestimate the scope and significance of such a contribution. This paper presents an approach to knowledge management which tries not to over- or underestimate the scope of such a contribution. It guides organizations to systematically and simultaneously analyze complementary perspectives of dealing with the future labelled the 4D strategy. The paper describes these 4 elements of the strategy, illustrates their application by using case study material, and discusses chances and limits of the approach to enable organizations to better deal with an uncertain and turbulent future