Does Culture Matter? Measuring Cross-Country Perceptions of CSR Communication Campaigns about COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought several challenges to businesses and societies. In response, many corporations have supported local communities and authorities in the management of the pandemic. Although these initiatives, which can be considered forms of corporate social responsibility (CSR), were highly coupled with explicit CSR communication campaigns, little is known about whether these campaigns were effective. Previous research indicates that culture can shape people’s perceptions of CSR initiatives and communications, suggesting that businesses pay attention to careful consideration of cultural norms for effective CSR communication. However, the COVID-19 pandemic as a new CSR setting may challenge earlier findings. This study empirically investigates whether three cultural factors (individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance) affect public perceptions measured as recall of and favorability towards corporate COVID-19 response initiatives across six countries. Findings from a representative survey of adults across these countries show that respondents in individualistic and collectivistic countries recall these CSR communication campaigns about these corporate COVID-19 response initiatives quite differently, and these are related to differences in power distance and uncertainty avoidance. However, no difference was found in overall corporate favorability, indicating that cultural factors did not affect levels of favorability towards such initiatives. This, we argue, can be explained by the global dimension of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is the context of these CSR initiatives. This study contributes to CSR communication literature with empirical findings from a global pandemic setting. It offers businesses and managers empirical grounds to understand the communicative impact of COVID-19 response initiatives, which can inform future CSR actions.

The AI Carbon Footprint and Responsibilities of AI Scientists

This article examines ethical implications of the growing AI carbon footprint, focusing on the fair distribution of prospective responsibilities among groups of involved actors. First, major groups of involved actors are identified, including AI scientists, AI industry, and AI infrastructure providers, from datacenters to electrical energy suppliers. Second, responsibilities of AI scientists concerning climate warming mitigation actions are disentangled from responsibilities of other involved actors. Third, to implement these responsibilities nudging interventions are suggested, leveraging on AI competitive games which would prize research combining better system accuracy with greater computational and energy efficiency. Finally, in addition to the AI carbon footprint, it is argued that another ethical issue with a genuinely global dimension is now emerging in the AI ethics agenda. This issue concerns the threats that AI-powered cyberweapons pose to the digital command, control, and communication infrastructure of nuclear weapons systems.

STUDENTS’ FUNDRAISING PROJECTS IN THE SYSTEM OF FUTURE SOCIAL WORKERS PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

The need for the development and content of students’ fundraising projects in the system of social workers professional training is substantiated. Based on the analysis of educational programs in the field 231 Social work (BSW and MSW), a conclusion is formulated on the lack of subjects on social fundraising in the content of social workers training. The basic principles, ethical requirements and essence of fundraising activity of social workers in the field of social protection of various groups of clients are defined. It is concluded that this activity requires specially formed professional knowledge and skills of a fundraiser, as well as developed personal qualities of a specialist capable to affect the volume, complex, algorithm of providing these resources in the planning, implementation and reporting of a social project. The content of knowledge, skills and abilities of social workers on fundraising design is clarified. The procedure and algorithm for students to develop educational projects in the process of studying the subject «Social Fundraising» (idea formulation, budget design, communication with donors, project implementation, reporting) are presented. The scope of knowledge, skills (informational, operational, design, reflective) and soft skills in the process of development of students' fundraising competence is characterized. Examples of tasks on practical classes on social fundraising are given. Tasks are aimed at forming students' theoretical knowledge of the course «Social Fundraising» (knowledge of basic concepts, principles and ethical norms of fundraising activities in the social sphere), as well as practical skills (development of fundraising projects related to socially vulnerable segments of the population; opinions on the feasibility of implementing a social project in the local or global dimension, creating a database of potential donors of a social project, developing a budget and chronology of the project, organizing appropriate communications with potential donors, etc.).

A Showcase Study on ELF-oriented Classroom Practices in a General English Course

The lingua franca status of English in transcultural settings questions the orthodox pedagogical principles and mainstream approaches of English language teaching. To mirror the relationship between English as a subject matter and English as a globalised sociolinguistic phenomenon, some scholars call for revisiting the conventional approaches of pedagogy. Still, the response to the call for a transition from the monocentric methods of English language teaching is slow. Teachers have multiple concerns about how to incorporate a global dimension into a general English language course for undergraduates. The present study aims to address this gap by offering a practical example of how to address English as a lingua franca phenomenon in a general English language course. The study showcases classroom practices for raising awareness of today’s complexity of English use as a worldwide lingua franca. Ten Saudi undergraduates at a Saudi university participated in the study. The study shares the participants’ critical reflections on what they have learned from the course. Analysis of the participants’ reflections reveal that approaches based on complexity theory increased their familiarity with English linguistic diversities, developed their transcultural awareness and improved their ability to cope with English functional and contextual diversities. It is hoped that this showcase study can provide some guidance for the further implementation of a global dimension in other contexts.

Global and national dimensions of the socio-economic inequality problem

The article is devoted to the study of socio-economic inequality as one of the key problems of the modern economic system. The author analyzes the evolution, scale and specificity of the manifestation of the phenomenon of inequality in the context of the intensification of economic globalization and the post-Fordist / neoliberal regime of capital accumulation in the global dimension. The national context of inequality is investigated on the example of Ukraine, as one of the post-Soviet countries, consistently implementing the principles of neoliberalism in practice throughout the post-Soviet period. The author pays attention to the study of the social consequences and changes in inequality in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that the intensification of negative trends in the development of society in the context of the corona-crisis is a natural consequence of the policy of the pre-pandemic period. The growth of poverty and inequality, as well as the generally negative consequences of the pandemic for the majority of the population, were largely the result of the depletion of state and public institutions in the context of neoliberalism. The way out of the current crisis lies in the implementation in practice of the public demand for building a more “equal” and just society in the interests of the majority of the population. The author bases her conclusions on a large array of domestic and foreign sources on this issue, as well as the results of public opinion polls. In particular, the article uses the data of sociological measurements of the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the sociological company Research & BrandingGroup, as well as the international research company Ipsos, conducted in 2020-2021.

Through Exchange: Karatani Compared With Marx

The following paper has as its object the political philosophy of K. Karatani, in particular its relationship with the work of Marx. Japanese philosopher, in fact, reinterprets some elements of Marxian theory in the light of Kantian categories, hybridizing the ethical and moral theory of the latter with the critique of the political economy of the former. The result of Karatani's project can be seen, in particular, in two works. With the first, Transcritique, Karatani moves into the realm of philosophy to construct a method that holds the two theoretical poles together. The concept of 'Transcritique', in fact, represents the junction between Kantian and Marxian insights. With the second work, 'The Structure of World History', the Japanese philosopher shifts the analytical focus from ethics to economics, proposing a different interpretation of capitalism and its historical cycles. The shift of the observation of the capitalist system from the sphere of production to that of exchange represents the analytical novelty. Carrying through to the end the methodology developed in the previous work, Karatani traces back to exchange all the productive, institutional and political dynamics produced over time. Cycles of accumulation thus become cycles of exchange. The author, in fact, determines a correspondence between the specific modes of exchange and the consequent political structures, highlighting the centrality that money occupies, both in the theoretical elaboration and in political reality. The prevailing mode of production, based on the exchange of commodities, relies on the absolute mobility of money and on the strength of the state political institution, which acts as a hinge between the global dimension of exchanges and the territorial need for the appropriation of surplus-value. Karatani's critique is embodied in a political proposal, articulated through two key figures: community and cosmopolitanism. With the first term, the philosopher opposes the materiality of human relationships based on reciprocity to the abstract equivalence of economic relationships. By the second term, he shows the need for an extended political practice in which the pursuit of local freedom goes hand in hand with the realization of global justice. The paper traces these themes both through direct exposure of Karatani's work and by offering critical comparisons with other authors who have addressed similar issues. Finally, the purpose of this paper is to emphasize the originality of the Japanese author's philosophical-historical work, suspended between utopia and pragmatism, also through criticism, in order to highlight its strengths and underline its potential weaknesses.

Migrant Care Labour, Covid-19, and the Long-Term Care Crisis: Achieving Solidarity for Care Providers and Recipients

Globally there is a care crisis in terms of the quantity of care needed for an aging population and the quality of both the care provided and work conditions of those providing this care. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and heighted this crisis of care. In this chapter we review the issue with a particular focus on long-term care (LTC) facilities and the type and skill mix of labour, including the degree to which immigrant workers are over-represented in this sector. We offer some conceptual reflections on elder care as a matter of social justice and ethics in terms of those needing and providing care. These concerns take on a specific global dimension when we understand the transnationalisation of care, or the care provisioning function of what are termed global care chains. We contextualise how this migrant labour is positioned within this sector through international comparisons of funding models for LTC, which also allows us to understand the structural conditions within which this globally-sourced workforce is positioned. We then highlight two significant contributing factors to the current LTC crisis that were intensified and exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic using Ontario, Canada, as an example: the role of the private sector and the unsustainable extraction of profits from this service, and the gendered and racialised devaluing of migrant labour so essential to the sector.

Digital Humanism and Global Issues in Artificial Intelligence Ethics

In the fight against pandemics and climate crisis, the zero hunger challenge, the preservation of international peace and stability, and the protection of democratic participation in political decision-making, AI has increasing – and often double-edged – roles to play in connection with ethical issues having a genuinely global dimension. The governance of AI ambivalence in these contexts looms large on both the AI ethics and digital humanism agendas.

An Upper Bound for the w-Weak Global Dimension of Pullbacks

Let [Formula: see text] be a commutative ring with identity and [Formula: see text] an ideal of [Formula: see text]. We introduce and study the [Formula: see text]-weak global dimension [Formula: see text] of the factor ring [Formula: see text]. Let [Formula: see text] be a [Formula: see text]-linked extension of [Formula: see text], and we also introduce the [Formula: see text]-weak global dimension [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text]. We show that the ring [Formula: see text] with [Formula: see text] is exactly a field and the ring [Formula: see text] with [Formula: see text] is exactly a [Formula: see text]. As an application, we give an upper bound for the [Formula: see text]-weak global dimension of a Cartesian square [Formula: see text]. More precisely, if [Formula: see text] is [Formula: see text]-linked over [Formula: see text], then [Formula: see text]. Furthermore, for a Milnor square [Formula: see text], we obtain [Formula: see text].