The Corporate Social Responsibility Movement - The Latest in Maginot Lines to Save Capitalism

The modem corporation bad a battle to be accepted as a legitimate institution. In England it was initially seen as a device which might lead to the undermining of individual responsibility, in the United States as subjugating the individual and individualism to the needs of the organization, and in Canada as offending the dignity of labour and endangering the political entente. In 1932, Berle and Means showed that most of the wealth in the United States was in the hands of corporations and a large proportion of that corporate wealth was controlled by a relatively small number of dominant corporations. Vigorous public debates ensued, the best known of which was the one carried on between Berle and Dodd. The issue was whether or not corporations should act with a social conscience. By the mid-1950s, Berle, who had argued that corporations should not have such a duty, had acknowledged that corporations had come to accept that corporate power was to be used by corporate directors and officials not only for the benefit of shareholders but also on behalf of the entire community

Observation of dipolar-induced spin dephasing in ionic solids using coherent optical-microwave spectroscopy

The observation of spin dephasing in an ensemble of dipolar coupled A and B spins is reported. In CaO crystals, the A-spin species are photoexcited S=1, F22+ centers and the group of B spins consists of S=1 / 2, F+ centers. Measurements were made at different temperatures and magnetic field strengths with use of coherent optical-microwave spectroscopy. For the first time, the results show that the A-spin dephasing is influenced by exchange narrowing in the B-spin ensemble

Energy and phase relaxation of phosphorescent F centers in CaO

In this paper we study the temperature‐induced homogeneous broadening of the no‐phonon line in the emission spectrum of the F center in CaO. The linewidth can be fitted to n(n+1), where n is the thermally averaged occupation number of phonons with a frequency of 90 cm^(−1). The results are characteristic of elastic scattering of pseudolocalized phonons at the defect site. These phonons also appear to dynamically couple the Jahn–Teller components of the F center in the photoexcited^3 T_(1u) state and thus give rise to a temperature dependence of the lifetime of this phosphorescent state. Finally, from experiments using laser‐selective excitation it is concluded that the zero‐phonon emission peaking at 571.1 nm does not originate in the F center

Corporate environmental responsibility and criminology

This article addresses corporate environmental responsibility (CER) and aims to present a criminological analysis of it. We studied the opinion of a number of principle actors involved in CER in Europe in order to determine how they perceive it in terms of its definition, aetiology and approaches. For each of these dimensions we relate back to a criminological framework to ascertain how it is positioned in the green criminological debate. We start out by providing information on what corporate environmental responsibility is and how it relates to corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. Then we outline the theoretical framework in accordance with the three central themes for the criminological analysis of CER: definition, aetiology and approaches. We also explain the method that was used (semi-structured interviews). Next, we present the results according to the same threefold structure. Finally we discuss these results in a last part, which is divided in two. First, we look at the challenges that the criminological perspective poses for CER in terms of definition, aetiology and approaches. The second part of the discussion turns the question around and wonders how CER could contribute to greening criminology