One of the most basic paradoxes of social life is that while we experience ourselves as individuals, we do so only in the context of the pre-existing social environment into which we were born. This environment existed before us and will exist after us . Given this, there are at least two logical ways to study the relationships between the social environment and the individual. On the one hand, you can start at the individual level and analyze how individuals become (...) aggregated to form a social group. But you can also proceed in the opposite direction by asking how the social group creates the individual. Both are valid approaches. The biological sciences .. (shrink)

Una de las cuestiones que debería preocupar más a la teoría de la justicia global es la enorme desigualdad de salud que hay en el mundo. En este artículo, se repasan las causas de la desigualdad global de salud y los argumentos éticos a favor y en contra de la necesidad de tratar dicha desigualdad desde la perspectiva de la justicia global. Tras rechazar los argumentos en contra tanto del libertarismo de derechas como del estatalismo, y tras exponer las críticas (...) tanto al lenguaje de los derechos humanos como a la propuesta poggeana de reducir los deberes de la justicia global a deberes morales negativos, defiendo la necesidad de partir de un criterio de justicia global suficientista y basado en los deberes morales positivos para afrontar la gravedad y la urgencia moral que suponen las desigualdades globales de salud. (shrink)

Equality is the central value for egalitarians. It is the value that distinguishes egalitarianism from other political theories. However, if equality is the central value for egalitarians, then why it is of value should be an obvious starting point for any discussion of egalitarianism. This article seeks to clarify the ways in which equality has been valued in philosophical discussion. I discuss the standard ways of valuing equality and argue that an understanding of equality as valuable because it is part (...) of other values offers an important new insight into how we value equality especially in relation to the traditional understanding of equality as either intrinsically or instrumentally valuable. (shrink)

Health care services increasingly face patient populations with high levels of ethnic and cultural diversity. Cultures are associated with distinctive ways of life; concepts of personhood; value systems; and visions of the good that affect illness experience, help seeking, and clinical decision-making. Cultural differences may impede access to health care, accurate diagnosis, and effective treatment. The clinical encounter, therefore, must recognize relevant cultural differences, negotiate common ground in terms of problem definition and potential solutions, accommodate differences that are associated with (...) good clinical outcomes, and manage irresolvable differences. Clinical attention to and respect for cultural difference (a) can provide experiences of recognition that increase trust in and commitment to the institutions of the larger society, (b) can help sustain a cultural community through recognition of its distinct language, knowledge, values, and healing practices, and (c) to the extent that it is institutionalized, can contribute to building a pluralistic civil society. (shrink)

Gesundheitliche Ungleichheiten sind ungeplante Nebeneffekte, der Art und Weise, wie das soziale Leben und das Wirtschaften organisiert sind und wie Lebensweisen und individuelle Präferenzen (willentlich oder unwillentlich) ausgestaltet sind. Sie wurden für fast alle Gesellschaften berichtet, für die Daten verfügbar sind. Sie manifestieren sich in unterschiedlicher Weise über die gesamte Lebensspanne und für die am häufigsten auftretenden Erkrankungen. Soziale Differenzierungen werden meist über Schulbildung, berufliche Position und Einkommen konzeptualisiert. Deren relative Effekte variieren in Abhängigkeit von der untersuchten Erkrankung. Alle drei (...) Indikatoren messen indirekt Kontrolle, also Möglichkeiten und Optionen zur individuellen Einflussnahme als zentraler Kategorie sozialpsychologischer Stresstheorien. Neben zeitnahen Auswirkungen der Sozialstruktur wurden in neueren Studien Effekte über die Lebensspanne untersucht. Sofern sie während sensibler Entwicklungsphasen auftreten, können Deprivations- und Belastungserfahrungen der Mutter beim ungeborenen Kind zu Beeinträchtigungen und Prädispositionen für später auftretende Erkrankungen führen. Dieses „Modell kritischer Perioden“ wird ergänzt durch das „Kumulationsmodell“, das gesundheitliche Ungleichheiten als das Resultat von Benachteiligungen und anderen Einflussfaktoren beschreibt, die sich über den Lebenslauf summieren und mit erhöhten Erkrankungsrisiken verbunden sind. Zur Reduzierung gesundheitlicher Ungleichheiten können Maßnahmen eingeleitet werden, die auf Veränderungen des Verhaltens oder auf Veränderungen von Lebens- und Umgebungsbedingungen gerichtet sind, oder sie können über Ge- und Verbote erreicht werden. Verhaltensmuster werden jedoch in Abhängigkeit vom Bildungsstand mit unterschiedlicher Geschwindigkeit und Bereitschaft übernommen und können – wenigstens kurzfristig – zu einer Erhöhung gesundheitlicher Ungleichheiten führen. (shrink)

This study provides empirical evidence in relation to a growing body of literature concerned with the ‘socialisation’ effects of accounting and business education. A prevalent criticism within this literature is that accounting and business education in the United Kingdom and the United States, by assuming a ‘value-neutral’ appearance, ignores the implicit ethical and moral assumptions by which it is underpinned. In particular, it has been noted that accounting and business education tends to prioritise the interests of shareholders above all other (...) stakeholder groups. This paper reports on the results of a set of focus group interviews with both undergraduate accounting students and students commencing their training with a professional accounting body. The research explores their perceptions about the purpose of accounting and the objectives of business. The findings suggest that both university and professional students' views on these issues tend to be informed by an Anglo-American shareholder discourse, whereby the needs of shareholders are prioritised. Moreover, this shareholder orientation appeared to be more pronounced for professional accounting students. (shrink)

This study provides empirical evidence in relation to a growing body of literature concerned with the ‘socialisation’ effects of accounting and business education. A prevalent criticism within this literature is that accounting and business education in the United Kingdom and the United States, by assuming a ‘value‐neutral’ appearance, ignores the implicit ethical and moral assumptions by which it is underpinned. In particular, it has been noted that accounting and business education tends to prioritise the interests of shareholders above all other (...) stakeholder groups. This paper reports on the results of a set of focus group interviews with both undergraduate accounting students and students commencing their training with a professional accounting body. The research explores their perceptions about the purpose of accounting and the objectives of business. The findings suggest that both university and professional students' views on these issues tend to be informed by an Anglo‐American shareholder discourse, whereby the needs of shareholders are prioritised. Moreover, this shareholder orientation appeared to be more pronounced for professional accounting students. (shrink)

This paper argues that there is a need to move yet further than has already been suggested by some from the individual to the collective as a base for public health. A communitarian approach is one way to achieve this. This has the advantage of allowing not only the community’s voice to have a say in setting the values for public health but also more formally the development of a constitution on which public health might then be built. It also (...) sees public health as a social institution which can be valued in its own right. (shrink)