MARKETS AND MORALITY

For most of human history, economic systems were personal in nature—people normally interacted with people they knew personally and knew well. Today's modern market economies are impersonal—people normally interact with people they do not know personally. The historical movement from personal to impersonal systems was necessary for societies to develop the specialization of labor needed for modern production technologies. That is, the high standards of living in the developed world are due to these impersonal systems. However, the ethical systems theologians apply to modern market systems were developed for personal societies and are often inappropriate for impersonal societies. In this article, we develop the differences between personal and impersonal systems, examine the writings of a number of theologians who are very critical of market economies, and attempt to show how a different ethical approach is needed.     

Predictors of Farmers’ Market Shopping among People Receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Benefits

Promoting use of farmers’ markets (FMs) is a promising community‐level strategy to increase access to nutritious foods such as fruits and vegetables. Yet, FM shopping among people with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits remains low. This research examined predictors of FM shopping among SNAP recipients living within 1 mile of a FM. A cross‐sectional survey of SNAP participants (N = 270) was conducted in 2015 in Cleveland and East Cleveland, OH, USA. Multinomial regression and zero‐truncated Poisson regression analyses were conducted to examine factors associated with FM shopping. Results indicate 48% reported shopping at a FM at least once in the past year, 26% had shopped at a FM before, but not in the last year, and 26% had never shopped at a FM. The multivariable analyses found awareness of FMs and a healthy food incentive program, and four dimensions of healthy food access are significantly associated with FM shopping among SNAP recipients. The food access dimensions included service delivery, spatial‐temporal, personal, and social access. Findings highlight modifiable leverage points for improving the reach of FMs among low‐income populations.     

初婚者与再婚者择偶心理机制之比较——对西方进化心理学“初／再婚择偶市场”假说的检验

为检验西方进化心理学家Koziel和Pawlowski的"初/再婚择偶市场"假说,依同样方法对天津的653份征婚启事样本进行了内容分析,结果发现(1)Koziel和Pawlowski的"初/再婚择偶市场"假说的五个操作性假设基本未获得验证;(2)年龄变量较婚姻状态变量对择偶策略的选择具有更强预测力;(3)进化心理学的某些重要假设,如男性身高优势假设获得了验证.结论进化心理学意义上的择偶心理机制存在显著差异的"初/再婚择偶市场"在中国还并不存在.     

DNA patents and scientific discovery and innovation: Assessing benefits and risks

This paper focuses on the question of whether DNA patents help or hinder scientific discovery and innovation. While DNA patents create a wide variety of possible benefits and harms for science and technology, the evidence we have at this point in time supports the conclusion that they will probably promote rather than hamper scientific discovery and innovation. However, since DNA patenting is a relatively recent phenomena and the biotechnology industry is in its infancy, we should continue to gather evidence about the effects of DNA patenting on scientific innovation and discovery as well the economic, social, and legal conditions relating to intellectual property in biotechnology. We should give the free market, the courts, researchers, and patent offices a chance to settle issues related to innovation and discovery, before we seek legislative remedies, since new laws proposed at this point would lack adequate foresight and could do more harm than good. However, we should be open to new laws or regulations on DNA patents if they are required to in order to deal with some of the biases and limitations of the free market.     

Suitability and context for brief therapy

Abstract

The main point of this paper is that a client's suitability for brief or time-limited therapy is determined by various factors, including context. There is still agreement on the validity of Malan's selection criteria, which included ‘mild illness, recent onset, high motivation and response to trial interpretation’, yet many additional issues have since emerged and need to be considered. For instance, the counsellor's suitability, training and work experience, the counsellor's assessment skills and ability to establish a dynamic focus, the clients' capacity for self-reflection, their ego strength and their response to a trial therapy in the first session. Then there is the importance of the various contexts in which nowadays much brief counselling is offered free to clients, whether in education, at the workplace, in primary healthcare settings or by charitable organizations. This means that issues of money and markets have come to the fore and an initial differential assessment needs to be carried out in order to decide which method or model of therapy is best for the client. Matching the counsellor's personality to the needs and to the pathology of the client, and matching the treatment to the client's developmental stage or life stage crises are other aspects of the work, which determine the issue of suitability. In the end as always there is much that remains unknown about what works for whom and how the client's decision to take up help is made.     

The Market as “God”?

This article explores two lines of inquiry. The first is related to the production of human subjectivities in relation to market ideology and practices. What kinds of human subjectivities are produced when people worship the market as “God”? The market and its values of hyper‐competition become idols as people overly direct their energy toward earning and accumulating financial and social capital in order to find meaning and worth. Worshiping the market reflects a perverted anthropology. The second line of inquiry is related to the language of sacrifice intrinsic to both free market logic and Western Christian theology. Could Christian theology, even unwittingly, reinforce the problem of sacrifice in market logic, which justifies forms of human loss (such as chronic poverty) in order to promote long‐term economic growth and greater human wellbeing?      

Heterodox Economics,Social Ethics,and Inequalities

Research in the cognitive sciences indicates that metaphors significantly shape perceptions and approaches to problem solving. With this in mind, this essay argues that it is problematic for ethicists that mainstream economics and other social scientific literature relies on naturalistic metaphors to describe markets. These imply an inaccurate picture of economic phenomena and rhetorically frame many solutions to problems such as inequality as interventionist. This essay proposes that religious ethicists may find resources for avoiding this conceptual hazard in emerging fields of heterodox economics that are attentive to the role of culture and human agency in shaping markets. It introduces feminist, behavioral, institutional, and Austrian economics in particular and highlights some of the specific approaches to inequality adopted in these fields. It then suggests that engaging heterodox perspectives more generally may help ethicists keep in view the full complexity and social nature of the economic problems they analyze.     

Solidarity in a Technocratic Age

Do free markets teach us how to construct humane social relations or do they impede us from doing so? We discuss social scientific evidence on the nature of commercialization and its consequences for moral formation. From a virtue ethics perspective, people face a need to learn and practice the good. When interactions transition into the market sphere, we argue commercialization can fundamentally alter the nature of relationships, particularly for those relations formerly based on gift, sacrifice, and obligation. While modern social scientists accurately identify problems resulting from commercialization, we argue for the importance of theological social ethics, which can offer a penetrating analysis of the habits of gift and communal responsibility. Catholic social teaching in particular outlines the set of principles and institutions which foster sacrificial gift‐giving among individuals and organizations within society, providing a bulwark against the threat commercialization poses to many social relations.