What should be taught in courses on social ethics?

The purpose of this article is to discuss the concept and the content of courses on “social ethics”. I will present a dilemma that arises in the design of such courses. On the one hand, they may present versions of “applied ethics”; that is, courses in which moral theories are applied to moral and social problems. On the other hand, they may present generalised forms of “occupational ethics”, usually professional ethics, with some business ethics added to expand the range of the course. Is there, then, not some middle ground that is distinctively designated by the term “social ethics”? I will argue that there is such a ground. I will describe that ground as the ethics of “social practices”. I will then illustrate how this approach to the teaching of ethics may be carried out in five domains of social practice: professional ethics, commercial ethics, corporate ethics, governmental ethics, and ethics in the voluntary sector. My aim is to show that “social ethics” courses can have a clear rationale and systematic content

Advisory Board Members

For SSHRC funded projects, the Applicant, now Principal Investigator (PI), has responsibility for the direction of the project and all financial expenditures. Consistent with this requirement, the CBERN/SSHRC proposal contains two Governance elements. First, the Principal Investigator is required to report to an annual meeting whose membership includes co-applicants, now co-investigators, collaborators and partners, on financial expenditures, project activities and strategic planning. In addition, the proposal calls for the establishment of an Advisory Board, which is to meet at least twice yearly, in person at the Annual Meeting and by telephone conference mid-way through the year. Initial membership and structure of the Advisory Board was set out in the proposal

CBERN - The First Six Years: Challenges and Achievements

CBERN was created in 2006. Its mandate was to create a network able to address critically, persuasively and visibly the foundational role of ethics in business and economic development. The task facing the network was significant. The field was fractured by suspicion, hostility and lack of communication and trust between and among people and organizations in the private, public, voluntary and academic sectors. Research was siloed in the four different sectors and a variety of academic disciplines and sub disciplines. What is more, the role of business ethics in management education and academic research agendas was modest and relatively insubstantial. The challenge facing CBERN has been to address these challenges and build the foundations for change.A successful proposal for a $2.1 million Strategic Knowledge Clusters grant in 2006. The proposal was supported by approximately$300,000 in private sector financial and in kind commitments.Since its inception, CBERN has received an additional $152,000 in SSHRC grants with Dr. Cragg, CBERN’s Project Director and Principal Investigator, as the lead applicant;$125,000 in Schulich School of Business and York cash contributions; modest additional private sector funding, and significant additional in kind contributions from partners: firms, research centres, voluntary sector organizations, and volunteer interns. CBERN has been a partner on an additional 1,269,000 in SSHRC grants as well as aResearch & Dialogue in Support of Ethical Business Practices &Economic, Environmental and Social Sustainability 2 25 million dollar Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) grant for the Canadian International Institute for Extractive Industries and Development (CIIEID)

Teaching professional ethics in counsellor education in Aotearoa New Zealand

One mark of a profession is that it articulates a shared vision of the responsibilities involved in professional relationships, generally expressed in a Code of Ethics. But what are the processes involved in inducting new members into a profession and offering them opportunities to translate and grow personal ethics into professional ethics? The study on which this article reports aimed to investigate the practices employed by counsellor educators in Aotearoa New Zealand in ethics education. The study asked two organising questions: what is taught, and how is it taught? In reporting on the study, this article seeks to offer a contribution to dialogue about how ethics might be learned and taught in initial counsellor education. The article raises questions for further discussion. To what extent should the how and what of ethics teaching be woven together? How do we educate for a practice where we cannot know ahead of time whatambiguities will emerge? How much theory of ethics is needed for ethical practice? When do we begin to teach ethics? How well are we teaching an ethics of partnership that is relevant for Aotearoa

Ethics – research, engineering, design… they’re all the same aren’t they?

This paper considers how and to what extent product design ethics is understood by professionals in design practice and undergraduate students of product and engineering design and how, if at all, design ethics differ from engineering and/or research ethics. This paper reports on a study carried out at Bournemouth University with undergraduate students of Engineering Design and Product Design and with design professionals via the Institution of Engineering Designers. As part of their final year project work all undergraduate students at Bournemouth University are required to comply with the Bournemouth University Research Ethics Code of Practice [9] which means that students are aware of ethical principles in general and the study explored the extent to which students understand them in relation to design. The study also used the ‘LinkedIn’ discussion forum to get the perspective of design practitioners. The paper concludes that designers do seem to share a broadly common understanding of design ethics and that the main difference with design ethics is in the scope, complexity and the human interface. A definition of product design ethics is presented and the essence of a Statement of Principles for product design ethics proposed