scholarly journals Educating for Sustainability: Perspectives and Critical Notes on Accounting Scholars’ Role in Higher Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara del Baldo ◽  
Maria-Gabriella Baldarelli

Abstract Education for sustainable development represents a relevant issue that allows Universities to lead and respond to social needs towards a more sustainable life and a complete change in the global paradigm of education and involvement of society. A crucial point for developing a culturally sensitive vision is to deepen the scholars’ genuine commitment to sustainability. A pillar of sustainability education should rest on authenticity, intended as coherence between the scholars’ research and teaching arguments relative to sustainability and the concrete behaviors held in their professional and personal spheres of life. Starting from this premise, the papers aims to inquire if there is a decoupling between the concepts scholars contribute to promote within the sustainability discourse and the real practice of sustainability in their personal and professional experience. “Is there a missing link between what scholars teach and study, thereby contributing to sustainability research and their daily choices and style of life?” After having presented the research design and the methodological approach adopted to empirically investigate the phenomenon the attention has been focused on the social and environmental accounting research literature, where some contributions claim for the presence of “blue meanies” that invade the world of scholarship, reflection, collegiality and hinder the development of challenges toward sustainability. The preliminary results of the explorative study suggest that a lot of tension related to education for sustainability improve the transfer of sustainable values and attitudes within the scientific community and the students, while several factors hinder sustainable behaviors in the daily professional and personal life of scholars, thus undermining relationships which are a pillar of sustainability.

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-83
Author(s):  
Mudjahirin Thohir

to be able to live normally, human being struggle to fulfill their basic needs. The human basic  needs are: biological, social, and integrative. Biological needs include: food, clothing, and shelter. Social needs include:  interact, cooperate, compete, and social order. Integrative needs include the need for: freedom in justice in accordance with the agreed common reference. So that regularity of life is realized, then guidelines are needes that are concidered true and good.  There are five types of guidelines as a reference, namely:  constitutive faith, cognitive, evaluative, ethical, and  expressive. This is a reference as the ideal culture of society.  Although there are such guidelines, but in real  practice (real clture) violations often occur, including because of individual or group interest. As in ilustraton, it can be seen in the world of football, the concept of fairplay is manifested in the form of inappropriate actions. Not  to mention in the political and economic world. From this angle the concepts of fairness and justice are always warmly studied.  This paper discusses about it from the social sciences perspective, especially anthropology. Keywords: Basic need; guideline; ideal culture; real culture; fairplay. Intisari Untuk dapat hidup secara normal, manusia berjuang untuk memenuhi kebutuhan dasarnya. Kebutuhan-kebutuhan dasar itu ialah kebutuhan biologis, sosial, dan integratif. Kebutuhan biologis meliputi pangan, sandang, dan papan. Kebutuhan sosial meliputi kebutuhan berinteraksi, bekerjasama, dan bersaing. Kebutuhan integratif meliputi nilai-nilai, agar kegiatan bekerja sama maupun bersaing didasari oleh koridor nilai-nilai dan norma hukum yang adil.  Untuk dapat memenuhi kebutuhan dasar tersebut, secara ideal (ideal culture) masyarakat manusia memerlukan pedoman yang dianggap benar dan baik. bermuara kepada lima acuan, yaitu: konstitutif, kognitif, evaluatif, etik, dan ekspresif. Meskipun sudah ada pedoman, tetapi dalam kebudayaan riil (real culture) yakni dalam tataran praktik kehidupan, pedoman-pedoman tadi sering dilanggarnya. Dari sinilah nilai dan norma-norma hukum, hampir selalu menjadi ajang perdebatan, sebagaimana ilustrasi konsep fair play dalam pertandingan sepakbola.  Tulisan ini mendiskusikan mengenai persoalan adil dan keadilan sosial ditinjau dari perspektif antropologis. Kata kunci: Kebutuhan dasar; acuan; budaya ideal; budaya riil; fairplay.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 666-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Avery ◽  
Birgitta Nordén

Purpose The paper aims to provide a conceptual map of how to mediate between sustainability theory and practice in higher education and how disciplinary divides can be bridged. It further looks at issues linked to knowledge views and drivers for institutional change that affect opportunities for whole institution development promoting action preparedness. Design/methodology/approach Taking its point of departure in the University Educators for Sustainable Development report UE4SD (2014, 2015), the paper discusses ways that ideas and interaction can be mediated in higher education settings, to connect sustainability research with vocational programmes. Different options are considered and compared. Findings Although the literature stresses both action orientation and the need for holistic transdisciplinary approaches, many institutional drivers limit opportunities for more integrating approaches. Research limitations/implications However, while conclusions may hold for universities at an overarching level, it is likely that certain research and teaching environments have been able to transcend such barriers. Practical implications Conceptually mapping the different forms that dialogue, interaction and flows of ideas take within higher education institutions has relevance for whole institution development for sustainability. Social implications Importantly, producing sustainability science with relevance to practice in various professions is a fundamental condition to support accelerated transitions to sustainability at societal levels. Originality/value The paper makes a significant contribution by focusing on concrete institutional pathways for knowledge exchange and negotiation that can support education for sustainability in higher education.


Traditional accounting has lost its instrumental ability of entailing the informational dimensions that are requested in the process of comprehending the phenomenon of identifying and reporting entity's activity in the context of sustainable development. The requirements for new information relate to economic, environmental and social sustainability of an entity. The purpose of this chapter is to outline the status of development in social and environmental accounting literature and to establish the main trends adopted by the most important accounting journals. It is based on the idea that besides the principles exposed in traditional accounting, the set of principles that underpin the role of the society and of the environment in a sustainable development context will develop a holistic vision of the economic entity. The authors view is consistent with the social and environmental accounting research that has emerged as a significant part of the contemporary accounting research literature.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7579
Author(s):  
Bottero Marta ◽  
Datola Giulia

The concept of sustainability is widely seen as fundamental to set up urban and territorial transformations. Sustainable development is a multidimensional and multi-perspective process that deals with the environmental, economic, and social dimensions, with the aim to find a balance among these. Despite this growing attention to sustainability the social perspective has been the less explored of these dimensions and only recently it is receiving consideration due the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aim at creating sustainable and inclusive cities and communities. In the SDGs, specific attention is focused on the improvement of the quality of life of inhabitants through specific actions dedicated to the valorization of cultural resources, to the protection of the environment, and also to promote the involvement of the local communities in setting policies and programs. The final objective is defining projects based on the social needs shared by the communities. This paper aims at exploring the social sustainability related to urban regeneration processes with particular attention to social cohesion and community engagement. Six different urban regeneration strategies, developed for the regeneration of an urban area located in Northern Italy and based on social housing interventions, have been evaluated in accordance with their social impacts on the stakeholders involved. The paper proposes a multi-methodological approach based on the combination of the stakeholder analysis with the NAIADE (Novel Approach to Imprecise Assessment and Decision Environments) methodology, a particular type of Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation. The stakeholder analysis has been applied to identify the actors to involve in the evaluation, whereas the NAIADE methodology has been implemented for the selection of the most preferable strategy. This method allowed the assessment of the different strategies through the comparison and the mediation between the technical and the social rankings, thus considering the stakeholder preferences in the final evaluation. The final result is coherent with the initial purpose and it demonstrates that the inclusion of the stakeholder is fundamental for the achievement of a consensus solution.


Author(s):  
Paolo Riva ◽  
James H. Wirth ◽  
Kipling D. Williams

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Tsaaior

Scholarship negotiating African folktales and the entire folkloric tradition in Africa has always been constituted as harbouring fundamental lacks. One of these lacks is the supposed incapacity of oral cultures to produce high literature. However, it is true that folktales and other oral forms in Africa can participate actively in the social, political and cultural process. In this paper, we engage folktales told by the Tiv of central Nigeria and situate them within the dynamic of history, culture, modernity and national construction in Nigeria. The paper adopts a historicist and culturalist perspective in its interpretation of the folktales which were collected in particular Tiv communities. This methodological approach helps to crystallize the historical and cultural lineaments embedded in the people’s experiences, values and worldviews. It also constitutes a contextual background for the understanding of the folktales as they offer informed commentaries on social currents and political contingencies in Nigeria. It argues that though folktales belong to a pre-scientific and pre-industrial dispensation, they are part of the people’s intangible cultural heritage and are capable of distilling powerful statements which negotiate Nigerian modernity and postcolonial condition. The paper underscores the dynamism and functionality of folktales even in an increasingly globalised ethos.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Hava Rexhep

The aging is not only a personal but also a social challenge from several aspects, several dimensions; a challenge aiming to build system approaches and solutions with a long term importance. Aims: the main aim of this research is to investigate the conditions and challenges in the modern living of the old people, primarily in terms of the social care. However, this research is concentrated on a big group of the population and their challenges are the most intensive in the modern living. The investigation of the conditions and challenges in the aging are basis and encouragement in realizing the progressive approaches in order to improve the modern living of the old people. The practical aim of the research is a deep investigation and finding important data, analyzing the basic indicators of the conditions, needs and challenges in order to facilitate the old population to get ready for the new life. Methods and techniques: Taking into consideration the complexity of the research problem, the basic methodological approach is performed dominantly by descriptive-analytical method. The basic instrument for getting data in the research is the questionnaire with leading interview for the old people. Results: The research showed that the old people over 70-79 years old in a bigger percentage manifested difficulties primarily related to the functional dependency, respectively 39,33 % of the participants in this category showed concern about some specific functional dependency from the offered categories. The percentage of the stomach diseases with 38,33 % is important, as well as the kidney diseases with 32,83% related to the total population and the category of the old people over 80. Conclusion: The old people very often accept the life as it is, often finding things fulfilled with tolerance and satisfaction. However the health problems of the old people are characterized with a dominant representation. The chronic diseases and the diseases characteristic for the aging are challenge in organizing adequate protection which addresses to taking appropriate regulations, programs and activities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Laura Hall ◽  
Urpi Pine ◽  
Tanya Shute

Abstract This paper will reflect on key findings from a Summer 2017 initiative entitled The Role of Culture and Land-Based Healing in Addressing and Ending Violence against Indigenous Women and Two-Spirited People. The Indigenist and decolonizing methodological approach of this work ensured that all research was grounded in experiential and reciprocal ways of learning. Two major findings guide the next phase of this research, complicating the premise that traditional economic activities are healing for Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people. First, the complexities of the mainstream labour force were raised numerous times. Traditional economies are pressured in ongoing ways through exploitative labour practices. Secondly, participants emphasized the importance of attending to the responsibility of nurturing, enriching, and sustaining the wellbeing of soil, water, and original seeds in the process of creating renewal gardens as a healing endeavour. In other words, we have an active role to play in healing the environment and not merely using the environment to heal ourselves. Gardening as research and embodied knowledge was stressed by extreme weather changes including hail in June, 2018, which meant that participants spent as much time talking about the healing of the earth and her systems as the healing of Indigenous women in a context of ongoing colonialism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-64
Author(s):  
Ali Zurapov

In conditions of market competition, the fundamental goal of any commercial organization is to obtain the greatest profit, which directly depends on the amount of income received and expenses incurred. Current paper discuses  about main source of development of the material and technical base of the enterprise, replenishment of its own working capital, ensuring the social needs of the companies. Main objectivity is income factor in the stability of the existence and progress of the monopoly companies. In this regard, the management of the income of the organization is currently quite an urgent task for every giant entrepreneur. The article reveals the essence, purpose, objectives and measures in the field of enterprise revenue management. On the example of a particular enterprise, a dynamic and structural analysis of its revenues is carried out.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document