The Value of Curating Music

This article examines the practice of concert organization from an ethical perspective. By examining the field in relation to the notion of value, it explores the processes by which curators produce live acts, and the issues they face when they do so. The central argument traces a trajectory from the material to the immaterial aspects. The first part (Context and Value) shows how financial and cultural matters are embedded into live music production, and frames curatorship as the articulation of their co-dependent relations. The second part (Praxis) explores how music curators breathe value creation in their work context, by comparing interviews with the directors of Venice Biennale Musica, London Contemporary Music Festival, and No-Nation. The third part (Risk and Ethics) introduces risk-taking as a unit of value measurement, and points out the force of the curatorial in its power to confer value.

Business zakat compliance in Algeria: an ethical perspective

Purpose This research aims to investigate the influence of political instability, trust and knowledge on the zakat compliance behaviour of Algerian business owners. Based on the lenses of the ethical theory mainly and by reference to Zakat Core Principles (that originally inspired from the Basel Core Principles), the paper aims to provide an understanding of how these factors affect zakat compliance in the Algerian context from an ethical perspective. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional research design was applied. Using self-administered questionnaires, a total of 575 business owners in Algeria participated in this study. The hypothesised model was tested by using the partial least squares structural equation model. Findings The study results support that the ethical approach can explain zakat compliance among Algerian business owners. Specifically, the results revealed that political instability, zakat knowledge and trust significantly influence zakat compliance. Practical implications The results offer meaningful insights for the zakat institutions in Muslim societies to enable them to formulate zakat collection policies, assess the level of societal trust in the zakat authority, evaluate the influence of political instability on Muslim entrepreneurs’ zakat compliance and strengthen the entrepreneurs’ zakat knowledge on the exigency of paying zakat to the authority. Originality/value This study breaks new ground by exploring the effects of political instability, zakat knowledge and trust on zakat payers’ compliance ethical decisions in developing countries such as Algeria. More significantly, this research contributes to the existing literature of the ethical theory specifically by investigating the effect of political instability on zakat compliance among Algerian business owners.

Human rights and children’s rights in worldview education in Finland

In this article we examine the profiling of human rights and children’s rights in religious education (RE) and its secular alternative in Finland. We use the term ‘worldview education’ to describe the combination of these subjects. We analyse what kinds of human rights and ethical issues are raised in Finnish worldview education. One specific focus is the explicit mention of human rights and children’s rights in the worldview education section of the Finnish national core curriculum (2014). We conclude that the curriculum gives plenty of space to human rights and children’s rights, and that this enables one to conceive of human rights as being an overarching ethical perspective in worldview education. Nevertheless, we indicate that the organisation of worldview education in Finland has some problems when it comes to the realisation of children’s freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

Atsakomybės subjekto steigtis technikos amžiuje: Hansas Jonas ir Bruno Latouras

This article opposes the attempts to marginalize ethical issues and defend the thesis of technosphere as an autonomous phenomenon in the Anthropocene. The author points out that by evading the question of ethical perspective and responsibility, the technological activity and its trace are naturalised, and any ethical decision is therefore turned into a technical decision. The comparison of the positions of two philosophers of technology (Hans Jonas and Bruno Latour) enables us to reflect on how technology mediates the constitution of the subject of responsibility in the tension of global and local perspectives. The article shows that Jonas’ “heuristics of fear” leads to the conscious practice of asceticism and the collective control of technical power, while Latour leaves open a possibility of talking about the shared action of a multitude of hybrid actors, in which both the ethical solution is already “contaminated” with the technical and the technical solution retains the trace of the ethical. By using the example of the reverse vending machine, it is shown how ethical motivation is inscribed into technical media, which uses the technological accumulation to link global and local perspectives for environmental purposes.

The Brahmavihāras and the Achievement of Nonegocentricity

This chapter characterizes the four brahmavihāras, or divine states: friendliness, care, sympathetic joy, and impartiality. Also addressed are their relationship both to their antitheses and to their “near enemies,” or the states that are similar enough to masquerade as these virtuous ones, yet differ because they are egocentric, and thus become a vice. The chapter examines the question of why morality is rational, including discussions of this topic in both Western and Buddhist thought, and its connections to egoism, and argues that the four divine states, when considered together, can be understood to constitute an analysis of a non-egocentric ethical perspective.

On the Impact of Inequality on Growth, Human Development, and Governance

Inequality is a major international development challenge. This is so from an ethical perspective and because greater inequality is perceived to be detrimental to key socioeconomic and political outcomes. Still, informed debate requires clear evidence. This article contributes by taking stock and providing an up-to-date overview of the current knowledge on the impact of income inequality, specifically on three important outcomes: (1) economic growth; (2) human development, with a focus on health and education as two of its dimensions; and (3) governance, with emphasis on democracy. With particular attention to work in economics, which is especially developed on these topics, this article reveals that the existing evidence is somewhat mixed and argues for further in-depth empirical work across disciplines. It also points to explanations for the lack of consensus embedded in data quality and availability, measurement issues, and shortcomings of the different methods employed. Finally, we suggest promising future research avenues relying on experimental work for microlevel analysis and reiterate the need for more region- and country-specific studies and improvements in the availability and reliability of data.

Obstetric Violence as an Infringement on Basic Bioethical Principles. Reflections Inspired by Focus Groups with Midwives

Background: obstetric violence is still far too invisible; the word “violence” generates rejection and obstetric violence is complex to define and typify, as it is a subjective experience. It has been widely analyzed from legal, sociological, and clinical perspectives, but not equally so from the bioethical point of view. This article sets out to take a more in-depth look at the experiences of midwives in order to describe the ethical perspectives of obstetric violence. We intend to describe the effects that malpractice and violence within obstetric care have on American and European bioethical principles. Methodology: A qualitative methodology of the phenomenological tradition was used: 24 midwives participated in three focus groups. Results and Discussion: four categories were arrived at; they are “the maleficence of forgetting my vulnerability”, “beneficence requires respect for my integrity and dignity”, “my autonomy is being removed from me” and “a problem of social justice towards us, women”. Conclusion: obstetric violence infringes on the main bioethical principles (non-maleficence, beneficence, autonomy, justice, vulnerability, dignity, and integrity). Beyond whether it is called violence or not, what matters from an ethical perspective is that, as long as women have such negative experiences during pregnancy and childbirth, obstetric care needs better humanizing.