Comments for Just World Institute

Comment on How sweatshops benefit workers and why they are unjust by M4 – Misty Karella – Business Ethics

M4 – Misty Karella – Business Ethics — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 08:36:32 +0000

[…] http://blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk/jwi/2013/11/24/how-sweatshops-benefit-workers-and-why-they-are-unjust/ […]

Comment on Free Money for All: Karl Widerquist’s Argument for Basic Income by Meet the Syllabus: engaging in current research – Teaching Matters blog

Meet the Syllabus: engaging in current research – Teaching Matters blog — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 13:11:08 +0000

[…] audience, some of which were then published on the Just World Institute website (see here, here and here). The blog post task was harder than it sounds since it involved a form of translation: from the […]

Comment on Let Sleeping Dogs Lie: Helder De Schutter on Intralinguistic Justice by Meet the Syllabus: engaging in current research – Teaching Matters blog

Meet the Syllabus: engaging in current research – Teaching Matters blog — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 13:07:21 +0000

[…] a wider audience, some of which were then published on the Just World Institute website (see here, here and here). The blog post task was harder than it sounds since it involved a form of translation: […]

Comment on Immigration and Freedom: Chandran Kukathas on Immigration Control by Meet the Syllabus: engaging in current research – Teaching Matters blog

Meet the Syllabus: engaging in current research – Teaching Matters blog — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 13:06:25 +0000

[…] for a wider audience, some of which were then published on the Just World Institute website (see here, here and here). The blog post task was harder than it sounds since it involved a form of […]

Comment on Ethics Forum: Should universities restrict civil disobedience and student activism? by ethics forum: should universities restrict civil disobedience and student activism? – Natasha Mary

Fri, 15 Dec 2017 17:18:12 +0000

[…] http://blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk/jwi/2016/11/27/ethics-forum-should-universities-restrict-civil-disobedienc… […]

Comment on What can we do as procurers of goods to prevent future factory disasters in developing countries? by Alma

Alma — Sat, 04 Nov 2017 11:14:01 +0000

I think political pressure on 3rd world governments to improve working conditions also has to be an important factor as well.

Comment on Does Scotland have a right to secede? by Does Catalonia Have a Right to Secede? – Edinburgh Politics and IR Blog

Does Catalonia Have a Right to Secede? – Edinburgh Politics and IR Blog — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 09:31:29 +0000

[…] is not that I don’t have an intuitive judgement about the issue. As I indicated in a piece I wrote during the Scottish referendum, I do think regions like Scotland and Catalonia should be allowed to secede. What I have struggled […]

Comment on Musing on air travel and inequality in the sky: are the odds high? by Kenneth Amaeshi

Kenneth Amaeshi — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 12:30:52 +0000

Dear Ify,

You have raised very interesting points. Here is a similar article just published by The Economist titled: “Piketty Airways” – 5 months afterwards…

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21618881-distance-between-back-and-front-plane-will-keep-widening-piketty-airways?fsrc=nlw%7Chig%7C19-09-2014%7C5356bcef899249e1cc9fd9e8%7CUK

It may answer some of the points you raised. I found the comments to the article also interesting.

Best wishes,

Kenneth Amaeshi

Comment on Academic freedom and social responsibility: conflicting factors in a university’s ethos? by Karen Bowman

Karen Bowman — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 17:51:39 +0000

” First, let us be clear what is not in dispute: insofar as a university applies its endowment to the support of academic activities – for instance, by building laboratories, creating new departments and posts – it should not expect to be challenged on the grounds of social responsibility.”

This statement above needs a clarification, please – because IF we have a code of ethical behaviour and legal duties around our acquisitions – equalities and anti-corruption and competition legal duties – act as a fair trade university, uphold workers rights consortium and founder members of the electronicswatch, signed up to the Edinburgh Guarantee (for apprentices) – as well as adhering to a Suppliers’ Charter and aiming (e.g. for new procurement reform laws) for even more ‘community benefits’ from construction and other acquisition contracts. And IF we do adhere to our people strategy ‘equalities’ duties and obligations in creating / filling new posts – should we not be rightly able to be challenged on our social responsibility – on evidencing that we apply our stated policy in using endowments for academic support?

Or are you implying that we are obliged to do so and should not therefore be likely to be challenged?

Similarly how far does ‘academic freedom’ go if individuals choose to bypass legal / policy aims eg buy more exploitatively sourced products or irresponsibly source services without checking on probity etc.?

I hope this debate will continue and more colleagues join in this fundamental discussion on ‘freedoms’.

Comment on Should we support industrial use of prison labour? by Liz Cooper

Liz Cooper — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 08:47:30 +0000

Thanks Miesbeth. Following this blog post, a group of us were invited to visit HMP Shotts near Glasgow earlier this year (I wrote a short post on this on the SRS Visions blog). Procurement at the University are doing a lot of work on socially responsible/sustainable procurement, for example in collaboration with Scottish HE/FE buying consortium APUC http://www.apuc-scot.ac.uk/#!/susproject.php In terms of prison labour, and other potential linkages we could have with prisons in terms of rehabilitation, we hope to organise a researcher-practitioner mixer event during the coming academic year to dig into these questions further.