Inequality,Justice, and the Myth of Unsituated Market Exchange

This article examines inequality from a framework of justice that attends to the socially situated nature of market activity, including exchange. I argue that accounts of unsituated exchange—accounts of market exchange that abstract from social situations, such as philosopher Robert Nozick’s influential libertarian account of justice—overlook various factors that contribute to growing economic inequality in contemporary society. Analyses of market exchange must incorporate the role of “third parties” who play a role in shaping and/or who are affected by economic transactions. The involvement of these additional parties, including the government and future generations, is not interference but, instead, an integral part of the economic and moral accounting of exchange. An approach to justice and inequality which embeds exchange within multiple dimensions of economy and society is needed; the latter part of this article traces such a socially situated approach.     

The impact of artistic awakening and education on the young

Art is both a motor for the development of children, and an extraordinary means of communication. More time must be given to art in schools, through the increased training of teachers and by rebalancing the pace of teaching.     

Power and Effectiveness: Envisioning an Alternate Paradigm

SUMMARY

Relational-Cultural Theory provides a straightforward and elegant definition of power; it is the capacity to produce change. The implication of this framework is that power is the energy of competence in everyday living. However, in a culture stratified along multiple dimensions-race, class, and sexual orientation to name a few–power is associated with hyper-competitiveness and deterministic control. The article begins by examining the “protective illusions” of the power-over paradigm, where humanity is rank ordered according to perceived cultural value and is stratified into groups of greater than and less than. In addition to exposing the false dichotomies of power-over arrangements, the article examines the destructive consequences of cultural disconnection, on both the putative winners and the losers. Examples from organizational practice, clinical relationships, and socio-political contexts are used to illustrate the Relational-Cultural Model in action. Specifically, scenarios are presented from the standpoint of the politically disempowered to demonstrate the relational competencies of empathic attunement, authenticity, and accountability that foster healing, resilience, and mutual empowerment. This article was originally presented at the 2002 Spring Training Institute sponsored by the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at Wellesley College.     

When AI meets PC: exploring the implications of workplace social robots and a human-robot psychological contract

ABSTRACT

The psychological contract refers to the implicit and subjective beliefs regarding a reciprocal exchange agreement, predominantly examined between employees and employers. While contemporary contract research is investigating a wider range of exchanges employees may hold, such as with team members and clients, it remains silent on a rapidly emerging form of workplace relationship: employees’ increasing engagement with technically, socially, and emotionally sophisticated forms of artificially intelligent (AI) technologies. In this paper we examine social robots (also termed humanoid robots) as likely future psychological contract partners for human employees, given these entities transform notions of workplace technology from being a tool to being an active partner. We first overview the increasing role of robots in the workplace, particularly through the advent of sociable AI, and synthesize the literature on human–robot interaction. We then develop an account of a human-social robot psychological contract and zoom in on the implications of this exchange for the enactment of reciprocity. Given the future-focused nature of our work we utilize a thought experiment, a commonly used form of conceptual and mental model reasoning, to expand on our theorizing. We then outline potential implications of human-social robot psychological contracts and offer a range of pathways for future research.     

Violence as an Expression of Energy

ABSTRACT

The literary oeuvre of Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) has attracted a great deal of interest over the past 200 years, not only from writers, but also from numerous leading philosophers. Among them is Georges Bataille, who particularly emphasizes the apathetic character of the Sadean libertines, meaning that they feel nothing at all. More specifically, the French philosopher focuses on their apathetic enjoyment that goes hand in hand with the abuse of victims. The goal of this article is to clarify that peculiar pleasure by comparing it, among other things, with stoicism and mysticism. It will be shown that in the Sadean universe not moral transgression is central, but rather the transgression of a metaphysical boundary, i.e. the boundary between the human and non-human.     

Contextualizing psychological contracts research: a multi-sample study of shared individual psychological contract fulfilment

ABSTRACT

Research on psychological contracts has made significant contributions to theoretically advancing our understanding of the employee-employer exchange relationship and its implications for organizational practice. However, the predominant emphasis of this empirical research has been on the individual level of analysis and in the process does not give sufficient attention to contextual influences. Teams have become a common feature in organizations today and provide a proximal context through which to understand how teams affect individuals’ evaluation of their psychological contract. Based on the macrosociological perspective of social exchange theory as well as theories on the role of social influence in psychological contract evaluations, we examine how shared individual psychological contract fulfilment (PCF) shapes the relationship between individual PCF and outcomes (employee’s own contributions and contextual performance) at the individual level as well as the predictors (group POS) and consequences (average employee contributions and average contextual performance) of shared individual PCF at the team level. Our findings from three studies, representing a total sample of 995 employees and 170 teams, provide support for the study hypotheses. This paper contributes to the psychological contract literature by conceptually and empirically addressing the role of a team context (shared individual PCF) and its impact on individual- and team-level relationships.