Thinking about generations, conjuncturally: A toolkit

Since the early twentieth century, generation has been a recurrent concept in social analysis. In spite of successive bouts of critique and periods of relative neglect, the category has never been abandoned. In this article, drawing inspiration from a broad range of thinkers – such as José Ortega y Gasset, Karl Mannheim, Antonio Gramsci, Pierre Bourdieu, Raymond Williams and Stuart Hall – we review and fine tune our conceptual toolkit regarding generations, making more explicitly visible its affordances for social analysis in times of crisis. We focus on the problem of intergenerational overlap of contemporaneity and the contradictions that emerge from it. We argue that the notion of coevalness can help us resolve some of these contradictions – for example, the lag between contemporaneity and generational awareness – and introduce, through its horizontal connotations, a decolonising ethical stance. Favouring a processual understanding of generation, we recommend ‘conjunctural analysis’ as the most flexible analytical framework for resolving the intersectional contradictions and overlaps of generational categorisation.

HR and Ethics. A relationship that is work in progress

<p>In this ever-changing business world, the role of HR has become significantly imperative due to the increasing focus on aligning people of the organisation with the overall business strategy, particularly in an era when unethical behaviour is not tolerated. However, considering the complexity of the HR profession, it has been questioned what the role of HR is. With the changing future of work, this question has become more prevalent considering the influence of factors such as globalisation, automation and generational changes. Various scholars have claimed that HR professionals should be undertaking four distinct roles of administrative expert, strategic business partner, change agent and employee champion, which consequently leads to a role-conflict for HR professionals, hence influencing their decision-making within organisations, particularly in ethical situations. Using Ulrich (1997) model as a benchmark, this thesis aims to explore the relationship between HR and ethics, focusing on the role-conflict that HR professionals experience in organisations, along with the best practices they use to cope with the role-conflict in ethical situations and the influence of these best practices on the future of HR. Employing a qualitative method approach, this study uses in-depth semi-structured interviews with top-tier HR professionals working in organisations who are continually striving to build their ethical stance. The sample of this study was particularly important, as it was crucial to choose HR professionals who would make strong subject matter experts and provide rich and in-depth perspectives with regards to working in HR. The findings indicate that though there is a visibility and recognition of role-conflict within the profession, it wasn’t regarded as a strong issue compared to what was reflected in the literature. Furthermore, support from the organisation leaders and a strong organisation culture along with following a fair, and consistent process allows for the role-conflict to be diminished, particularly in an ethical situation. The thesis also found that the profession is increasingly becoming more strategic, with the operational HR duties delegated to the line managers, and hence illustrating the emergence of two new roles of ‘mentor’ and ‘analyst’. The study contributes to the existing literature by proposing a new model for the HR profession by considering the various roles they are required to undertake and the significance for all the roles to work concurrently with each other for HR to truly succeed. Several implications such as re-training and a creation of an independent body for HR professionals, along with a strong organisational culture that allows HR to thrive, and the recognition of them gaining a seat at the management table are discussed, followed by an overall conclusion of what the future of the HR profession is.</p>

HR and Ethics. A relationship that is work in progress

<p>In this ever-changing business world, the role of HR has become significantly imperative due to the increasing focus on aligning people of the organisation with the overall business strategy, particularly in an era when unethical behaviour is not tolerated. However, considering the complexity of the HR profession, it has been questioned what the role of HR is. With the changing future of work, this question has become more prevalent considering the influence of factors such as globalisation, automation and generational changes. Various scholars have claimed that HR professionals should be undertaking four distinct roles of administrative expert, strategic business partner, change agent and employee champion, which consequently leads to a role-conflict for HR professionals, hence influencing their decision-making within organisations, particularly in ethical situations. Using Ulrich (1997) model as a benchmark, this thesis aims to explore the relationship between HR and ethics, focusing on the role-conflict that HR professionals experience in organisations, along with the best practices they use to cope with the role-conflict in ethical situations and the influence of these best practices on the future of HR. Employing a qualitative method approach, this study uses in-depth semi-structured interviews with top-tier HR professionals working in organisations who are continually striving to build their ethical stance. The sample of this study was particularly important, as it was crucial to choose HR professionals who would make strong subject matter experts and provide rich and in-depth perspectives with regards to working in HR. The findings indicate that though there is a visibility and recognition of role-conflict within the profession, it wasn’t regarded as a strong issue compared to what was reflected in the literature. Furthermore, support from the organisation leaders and a strong organisation culture along with following a fair, and consistent process allows for the role-conflict to be diminished, particularly in an ethical situation. The thesis also found that the profession is increasingly becoming more strategic, with the operational HR duties delegated to the line managers, and hence illustrating the emergence of two new roles of ‘mentor’ and ‘analyst’. The study contributes to the existing literature by proposing a new model for the HR profession by considering the various roles they are required to undertake and the significance for all the roles to work concurrently with each other for HR to truly succeed. Several implications such as re-training and a creation of an independent body for HR professionals, along with a strong organisational culture that allows HR to thrive, and the recognition of them gaining a seat at the management table are discussed, followed by an overall conclusion of what the future of the HR profession is.</p>

God, Evil, Freedom. Reception and Interpretation of Dostoevsky in Luigi Pareyson and his Heirs

The essay aims to focus on reception and interpretation of Dostoevsky in the thought of Luigi Pareyson (1918-1991) and his heirs, who have developed a deep and original theoretical reading of Dostoevsky's work, able to bring out not only its ethical stance, but most of the essential aspects of his thought, and to investigate its current relevance. The reflection of Pareyson – who promoted the introduction of Dostoevsky's thought into the academic circles of Turin, being convinced that philosophy cannot avoid confronting the issues it explores – consists of three main moments: the experience of good and evil, the experience of freedom and the experience of God. Starting from consideration of Dostoevsky's characters as ideas, Pareyson proposes a new and coherent philosophical interpretation of his work, which can undoubtedly be compared to those of Ivanov, Berdjaev, Evdomikov, Šestov. His observations around the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor and the "refutation of Ivan" – which, according to him, constitute the most significant and theoretically prolific moments of Dostoevsky's production – seem unaffected by the flow of time and could still represent a valuable and indispensable contribution to the understanding not only of the great Russian author, but of human nature itself.

‘Hard-Boiled’ Detectives in Spain and Mexico: The Ethical Reorientation of a Genre

Hard-boiled’ fiction arose in the early decades of the twentieth century, uncovering connections among crime, wealth and power, and exposing moral fissures within U.S. capitalism. After French publisher Gallimard marketed translations of American crime fiction as noir, international writers started adjusting the ethical framework of the original authors as part of their ‘glocal’ adaptation of a global genre to local circumstances. The present article pushes past ‘glocal’ analysis of noir to propose a ‘transnational’ relationship, adapting Paul Giles’ definition of ‘transnational’ practice in which international authors reflect the genre back upon its American roots in order to illuminate the ‘silences, absences and blindspots’ in the original ethical stance. The ‘misreading’ of noir also permits a ‘misrecognition’ of local circumstances, exposing moral fissures throughout different societies. This article shows how series by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and Paco Ignacio Taibo II reveal ethical blindspots in American models by situating the detective within an emotional history of place (Barcelona for Vázquez Montalbán, Mexico City for Taibo II). Although these detectives ultimately cannot determine or perform the role of ethical citizen, their emotional-geographical bonds open up a critique of American ideals and pave the way for a reimagining of the ethical in the twenty-first century.

Ethical Design of a Robot Platform for Disabled Employees: Some Practical Methodological Considerations

This paper explains the process of developing a scenario involving the use of a robotic platform to enhance the work experience of disabled employees. We outline the challenges involved in revealing the potential unintended consequences of introducing elements of Artificial Intelligence, automation, and robotics into a socially and ethically complex and potentially fragile scenario, and the practical challenges involved in giving a voice to vulnerable users throughout the design process. While an ideal case scenario would involve the disabled employees as much as possible directly in the design process, this can, realistically, be a challenge. In this paper, we detail a methodological and analytic approach that is centered around ethnography and design fictions. It is designed to provide a deeper understanding of all the stakeholders involved in the scenario while encouraging ethical reflection. Based on our findings, we argue that, while it is relatively easy to adopt an a priori ethical stance through notions such as inclusivity and accessibility, there are risks involved in making such a priori prescriptions with respect to the perspectives of different stakeholders in an applied research project. More specifically, we highlight the importance of understanding the broad organizational and bureaucratic characteristics of a business or workplace when devising HRI scenarios and tasks, and of considering elements such as business models, operating philosophy, and organizational hierarchies in the design process.

Equivalence, Justice, Injustice – Health and Social Care Decision Making in Relation to Prison Populations

Prisons represent sites of singular healthcare need–characterized by high levels of distress and disorder. In many jurisdictions, practitioners are ethically charged with delivering healthcare that is “equivalent” to that available in the wider community. This claim has been much debated–yet the emergence of a global coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the arguments in a particularly stark manner. In the following conceptual analysis, we explore the emergent discourse of the coronavirus and consider its particular significance for prison healthcare decision making and the concept of equivalence. For example, both the coronavirus pandemic and practice of prison incarceration induce a sense of varied temporality: The discourse of prison is replete in this area–such as the concept of “hard time.” Alongside this, the discourse in relation to coronavirus has highlighted two competing modes of temporal understanding: The political–where the pandemic is conceptualized as has having a discrete “beginning and end”, and the scientific–where the “new normal” reflects the incorporation of the “novel” coronavirus into the wider ecology. The impact of these disparate understandings on the prison population is complex: “Locking down” prisoners–to safeguard the vulnerable against infection–is relatively simple, yet it has traumatic repercussions with respect to liberty and psychosocial health. Easing lockdown, by contrast, is a difficult endeavor and risks collision between the temporalities of prison–where “hard time” is accentuated by separation from the “real world”–the political and the scientific. Whither then the concept of equivalence in relation to a field that is definitively non-equivalent? How can practitioners and policy makers maintain a just ethical stance in relation to the allocation of resources when it comes to a politically marginalized yet manifestly vulnerable population? We argue that further debate and consideration are required in this field–and propose a framework for such discussion.

Responsible Writing of Violence: A Study of Select Partition Stories

This paper analyzes select Partition stories such as Bhisham Sahni’s “Pali,” K. S. Duggal’s “Pakistan Zindabad,” Ishmat Chughtai’s “Roots,” S.H. Vatsyayan’s “The Avenger,” and Atin Bandhopadhyay’s “Infidel” which realistically portray the cataclysmic times of the Subcontinent in 1947. The paper shows that though the stories depict some chilling scenes, they concentrate more on the psychological impact of violence on the characters and the positive aspects of humanitarian gestures seen during the dismal days in South Asian history. With much tact, the authors approach the subject and document the dreadful events of the Subcontinent’s painful past. Also, while dexterously registering the public resistance to the unspeakable horrors of Partition violence, the authors also honestly present their own ethical stance on the events. The article argues that the authors have documented the tragic history in a mature and convincing manner by presenting its balanced and holistic picture by employing an impartial and unbiased perspective. The texts stand as testimonies to the writers’ sense of responsibility at recording tragic incidents not only because of their objective and holistic approach but also because of their cautious use of language so that they do not trigger any further violence through their writing.

Varia: The Enduring Power of the Classical World View

For the poet, prophet, and politician, as for the lover, the king, and the anthropologist, the human is the measure of all things. Philosophers and psychologists define us as a perceiving consciousness, an object determined by the environment, a subject not only capable of heroic individualism but also of esoteric understanding. For some, our measure is beyond things and our true worth lies not only in the here and now but rather in our freedom to transcend the bounds of self and prevail beyond the limits of temporality. For the artist, whose creative consciousness aims to redeem the human image from the constraints of brute anonymity, the questions about our status must be asked if not finally answered. The article considers the role that the classical world view plays in the process of artistic redemption. It looks at the Judeo-Christian and Classical legacies and their interpretations. Nineteenth-century Russian literature and religious philosophy are then analysed. The article winds up with a reading of select poems by Osip Mandelstam as special attention is paid to the ethical stance of the poet when confronted with the dictates of totalitarian power.

Fathoming postnatural oceans: Towards a low trophic theory in the practices of feminist posthumanities

As the planet’s largest ecosystem, oceans stabilise climate, produce oxygen, store CO2 and host unfathomable biodiversity at a deep time-scale. In recent decades, scientific assessments have indicated that the oceans are seriously degraded to the detriment of most near-future societies. Human-induced impacts range from climate change, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, eutrophication and marine pollution to local degradation of marine and coastal environments. Such environmental violence takes form of both ‘spectacular’ events, like oil spills and ‘slow violence’, occurring gradually and out of sight. The purpose of this paper is to show four cases of coastal and marine forms of slow violence and to provide counter-accounts of how to reinvent our consumer imaginary at such locations, as well as to develop what is here referred to as ‘low-trophic theory,’ a situated ethical stance that attends to entanglements of consumption, food, violence, environmental adaptability and more-than-human care from the co-existential perspective of multispecies ethics. We combine field-philosophical case studies with insights from marine science, environmental art and cultural practices in the Baltic and North Sea region and feminist posthumanities. The paper shows that the oceanic imaginary is not a unified place, but rather, a set of forces, which requires renewed ethical approaches, conceptual inventiveness and practical creativity. Based on the case studies and examples presented, the authors conclude that the consideration of more-than-human ethical perspectives, provided by environmental arts and humanities is crucial for both research on nature and space, and for the flourishing of local multispecies communities. This paper thus inaugurates thinking and practice along the proposed here ethical stance of low-trophic theory, developed it along the methodological lines of feminist environmental posthumanities.