The Business of Being Kind

Author(s):  
Melissa L. Caldwell

If the activities of Moscow’s faith communities represent new approaches to public service in Russia, they have also inspired new modes of economic activity. In Russia’s neoliberal reality, need, deservingness, and affect have become opportunities for political and economic entrepreneurial investment. Both within their own communities of supporters and beyond in Moscow’s commercial sector, religious groups and religiously affiliated assistance programs compete and cooperate with private businesses and state agencies to promote and capitalize on the simultaneously civic and financial value of compassion. By addressing Russia’s “business” or “economy” of kindness and compassion, this chapter considers the forms of revenue, investment, profit, and surplus that are generated and the social, material, and ethical results produced by these profits and surpluses.

Author(s):  
Koji Yamamoto

Projects began to emerge during the sixteenth century en masse by promising to relieve the poor, improve the balance of trade, raise money for the Crown, and thereby push England’s imperial ambitions abroad. Yet such promises were often too good to be true. This chapter explores how the ‘reformation of abuses’—a fateful slogan associated with England’s break from Rome—came to be used widely in economic contexts, and undermined promised public service under Elizabeth and the early Stuarts. The negative image of the projector soon emerged in response, reaching both upper and lower echelons of society. The chapter reconstructs the social circulation of distrust under Charles, and considers its repercussions. To do this it brings conceptual tools developed in social psychology and sociology to bear upon sources conventionally studied in literary and political history.


1968 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 281
Author(s):  
Philip F. Detweiler ◽  
Mark M. Krug ◽  
Joseph S. Roucek

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 655-657
Author(s):  
Angela M. Labrador

The inaugural event for the newly established University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst Center for Heritage & Society, entitled “Heritage in Conflict and Consensus: New Approaches to the Social, Political, and Religious Impact of Public Heritage in the 21st Century,” was held in November 2009 at three locations in the northeastern United States. Workshop attendees participated in several organized sessions, day trips, informal discussions, and five plenary sessions with accompanying working sessions focused on four themes in international heritage practice: community; faith; diaspora; and burial, ancestors, and human Remains. The event was co-organized by two members of the UMass Amherst Center for Heritage & Society, Director Elizabeth Chilton and Coordinator of Projects and Policy Initiatives Neil Silberman, whose main goal was to establish a permanent working group of international representatives engaging with issues of heritage in conflict charged with setting research and policy agendas for the field.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
James G Carrier

The idea of moral economy has been increasingly popular in the social sciences over the past decade, given a confusing variety of meanings and sometimes invoked as an empty symbol. This paper begins by describing this state of affairs and some of its undesirable corollaries, which include unthinking invocations of the moral and simplistic views of some sorts of economic activity. Then, referring especially to the work of EP Thompson and James C Scott, this paper proposes a more precise definition of moral economy that roots moral economic activity in the mutual obligations that arise when people transact with each other over the course of time. It thus distinguishes between the moral values that are the context of economic activity and those that arise from the activity itself. The solution that the paper proposes to the confused state of ‘moral economy’ can, therefore, be seen as terminological, as the sub-title suggests, but it is intended to have the substantive benefits of a better approach to economic activity and circulation and a more explicit and thoughtful attention to moral value.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1050-1059
Author(s):  
И. Л. Сизова ◽  
Н. С. Орлова

В статье рассматриваются социальные процессы, сопровождающие реализацию политики «активного долголетия» в российской социальнотрудовой сфере. В первом разделе статьи кратко представляются основы концепции «активного долголетия» и обсуждаются возможные социальные механизмы ее применения. Особое место здесь отводится анализу социальных прав, которые формируют основу для разных моделей развития общественного благосостояния и качества жизни населения. Во втором разделе на базе парадигмы конструктивизма в социальных науках и теории символической власти П. Бурдьё предлагается авторский вариант изучения структур восприятия и оценивания населением реализованных государственных реформ. В третьем разделе представлены результаты эмпирического анализа серии полуструктурированных интервью с основными субъектами социально-трудовой сферы и текстов обращений граждан в органы государственной власти. В заключение интерпретируется символическая борьба вокруг восприятия политики «активного долголетия» в России. Авторы приходят к выводу о том, что ожидается новый всплеск программ социальной помощи пожилым и рост пассивности в их трудовом поведении. The article examines the social processes accompanying implementation of the policy «active aging» in the Russian social and labor spheres. The basic concepts of «active aging» are briefl y introduced and possible social mechanisms of its application are discussed in the first section of the article. Special importance is given to the analysis of social rights which form the basis for different models of the development of public welfare and the population’s quality of life. In the second section, author’s version of studying the perception and assessment structures by the population of the implemented reforms of the State are proposed on the basis of the paradigm of constructivism in the social sciences and the theory of symbolic power by P. Bourdieu. In the third section the results of an empirical analysis of a set of semi-structured interviews with the main subjects of the social and labor spheres and the texts of citizens’ appeals to government bodies are presented. In conclusion, the symbolic struggle around the perception of the «active aging» policy in Russia is interpreted. The authors conclude that a new surge in social assistance programs for the elderly and an increase in passivity in their work behavior are expected.


1993 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merrill J. Melnick

It is argued that the social forces of urbanization, individualism, interpersonal competition, technology, and geographical mobility have brought greater and greater numbers of strangers into people's everyday lives and have made the achievement of primary, social ties with relatives, friends, neighbors, and workmates more difficult. As a result, many are forced to satisfy their needs for sociability in less personal, less intimate, less private ways. It is proposed that sports spectating has emerged as a major urban structure where spectators come together not only to be entertained but to enrich their social psychological lives through the sociable, quasi-intimate relationships available. The changing nature of the sociability experience in America presents sport managers with interesting challenges and opportunities. A number of recommendations are offered for maximizing the gemeinschaft possibilities of sports spectating facilities. By giving greater attention to the individual and communal possibilities of their events, sport managers can increase spectator attendance while rendering an important public service.


2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 511-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan D. Hyde

Randomized field experiments have gained attention within the social sciences and the field of democracy promotion as an influential tool for causal inference and a potentially powerful method of impact evaluation. With an eye toward facilitating field experimentation in democracy promotion, I present the first field-experimental study of international election monitoring, which should be of interest to both practitioners and academics. I discuss field experiments as a promising method for evaluating the effects of democracy assistance programs. Applied to the 2004 presidential elections in Indonesia, the random assignment of international election observers reveals that even though the election was widely regarded as democratic, the presence of observers had a measurable effect on votes cast for the incumbent candidate, indicating that such democracy assistance can influence election quality even in the absence of blatant election-day fraud.


2019 ◽  
pp. 7-12
Author(s):  
N. Vnukova

Problem setting. The development of innovative entrepreneurship is a strategic task of the state’s financial and economic policy. The high NBU discount rate and other risks slow the pace of this growth and limit the proper financial support for innovative entrepreneurship. Analysis of resent researches and publications. The problems of financial support of entrepreneurship was devoted to the work of O.O. Drugov, R. Pukala, materials of the Round Table “Economic and legal problems of development and promotion of economic activity in modern conditions”, etc. Target of research. To facilitate access to finance, global practice demonstrates the importance of applying national and regional programs related to either the direct financing of individual business projects or the creation of favorable conditions for attracting funding. Article’s main body. Examples of world practice for introducing programs to facilitate access to innovation entrepreneurship was considered. According to the statistical reporting, the sources of financing of scientific development by sectors of economic activity was identified, the use of entrepreneurs’ funds is analyzed, the priority of Kharkiv region in implementation of programs of support of innovation implementation was established. Conclusions and prospects for the development. The programmatic approach used to develop innovative entrepreneurship at the local level is an important component of these transformations, but needs to be expanded through funding, in particular through venture funds and other startup startups with international donors. The intrinsic features of small business entities require government support for innovation, which should be facilitated through access to funding from a variety of sources. When expanding the use of regional assistance programs, their methodology should be changed to enhance the capacity to develop innovative entrepreneurship.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Muh Kadarisman ◽  
Aang Gunawan ◽  
Ismiyati Ismiyati

Transportation is the backbone in creating social welfare in Jakarta. Therefore, if there are problems in the transportation system, it will have an impact on the smooth traffic flow and will ultimately hamper the achievement of public welfare. This study used a descriptive-qualitative method. This study refers to the theory proposed by Anderson (in Tachjan, 2006: 23) and Sarana, et al (2009: 9). The results of the study are as follows. Policy implementation transportation system in Jakarta has been able to improve the social welfare of most citizens, which means some people have to feel and enjoy the outcome of transportation development  in Jakarta. However, others have not optimally felt the positive impact of the policy. Even, it is perceived negatively; such as traffic jams which are almost evenly distributed throughout Jakarta causing high air pollution, hampered economic activity and generated high economic costs that social welfare was also weakened. This is reinforced by the increasing poverty rate in 2014 that reached 393,980 people thousand compared to previous years.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-373
Author(s):  
Irina V Sinova

The article deals with the issues related to the evolution of the use of women in the civil service at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries on the example of the Maritime Ministry on the basis of previously unpublished documents stored in the Russian state archive of the Navy and periodical press materials. The study of gender issues can be of scientific interest on the basis of its documents, as practically not in demand in research related to the women’s issue. As a result of the struggle of the public, there were some concessions on the part of the authorities related to the expansion of women’s access to fill certain positions in a number of areas that experienced a lack of certain qualifications, including public service, in the conditions of intensive bourgeois development. The article analyzes the legal acts regulating the work of women, especially in the public service. it is shown how the changes that took place in the Russian Empire influenced the transformation of the socio-economic situation of women in General, and, also, became a reflection of the social policy of the state. The article reveals the attitude of the heads of departments of the Ministry to the admission of women to the public service, as well as their opinion on the degree of necessity for the service itself in attracting women to it. The article deals with the arguments of men - heads of departments of the Ministry, related to the impact of women’s work on home life, on the family and on itself, which differed largely by philistine assessments, rather than progressive views. In fact, on the part of the authorities, concessions to women were more imaginary and forced than the result of an objective assessment of their equal opportunity to serve in the public system.


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