Distant Markets Distant Harms

Does a consumer who bought a shirt made in another nation bear any moral responsibility when the women who sewed that shirt die in a factory fire or in the collapse of the building? Many have asserted, without explanation, that because markets cause harms to distant others, consumers bear moral responsibility for those harms. But traditional moral analysis of individual decisions is unable to sustain this argument. Distant Harms, Distant Markets presents a careful analysis of moral complicity in markets, employing resources from sociology, Christian history, feminism, legal theory, and Catholic moral theology today. Because of its individualistic methods, mainstream economics as a discipline is not equipped to understand the causality entailed in the long chains of social relationships that make up the market. Critical realist sociology, however, has addressed the character and functioning of social structures, an analysis that can helpfully be applied to the market. The True Wealth of Nations research project of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies brought together an international group of sociologists, economists, moral theologians, and others to describe these causal relationships and articulate how Catholic social thought can use these insights to more fully address issues of economic ethics in the twenty-first century. The result was this interdisciplinary volume of essays, which explores the causal and moral responsibilities that consumers bear for the harms that markets cause to distant others.

The marketplace is a remarkable social institution that has greatly extended our reach so shoppers in the West can now buy fresh-cut flowers, vegetables, and tropical fruits grown halfway across the globe even in the depths of winter. However, these expanded choices have also come with considerable moral responsibilities as our economic decisions can have far-reaching effects by either ennobling or debasing human lives. In this book, Albino Barrera examines our own moral responsibilities for the distant harms of our market transactions from a Christian viewpoint, identifying how the market's division of labour makes us unwitting collaborators in others' wrongdoing and in collective ills. His important account covers a range of different subjects, including law, economics, philosophy, and theology, in order to identify the injurious ripple effects of our market activities.

Daly uses the lens of virtue and vice to reimagine a Catholic ethics that can better scrutinize the social forces that both affect our moral character and contribute to human well-being or human suffering, creating a framework to respond virtuously to problems caused by global social systems, from poverty to climate change.

This volume frames the question of responsibility as a problem of agency in relation to the systems and structures of globalization. According to Ricoeur responsibility is a “shattered concept” when considered too narrowly as a problem of act, agency and individual freedom. To examine this Esther Reed develops a short genealogy of modern liberal and post-liberal concepts of responsibility in order to understand better the relationship dominant modern framings of the meanings of responsibility. Reed engages with writings by major modern (Schleiermacher, Hegel, Marx, Weber) and post-liberal (Buber, Levinas, Derrida, Badiou, Butler, Young, Critchley) theorists to illustrate the shift from an ethnic responsibility built on notions of accountability and attributions to an ethic responsibility that starts variously from the 'other'. Reed sees Dietrich Bonhoeffer as the most promising partner of this theological dialogue, as his learning of responsibility from the risen Christ present now in the (global) church is a welcome provocation to new thinking about the meaning of responsibility learned from land, distant neighbour, (global) church and the bible. Bonhoeffer's reflections on the centre, boundaries and limits of responsibility remain helpful to Christian people struggling with an increasingly exhausted concept of accountability.

What kind of education is needed for democracy? How can education respond to the challenges that current democracies face? This unprecedented Handbook offers a comprehensive overview of the most important ideas, issues, and thinkers within democratic education. Its thirty chapters are written by leading experts in the field in an accessible format. Its breadth of purpose and depth of analysis will appeal to both researchers and practitioners in education and politics. The Handbook addresses not only the historical roots and philosophical foundations of democratic education, but also engages with contemporary political issues and key challenges to the project of democratic education.

Examines recent developments in the telecommunications industry. Witnesses: James Young, v.p. & general counsel, Bell Atlantic Corp.; James Ellis, Sr. exec. v.p. & gen. counsel, SBC Commun., Inc.; Bernard Ebbers, pres. & ceo, LDDS WorldCom; Michael Salsbury, exec. v.p. & gen. counsel, MCI Commun. Corp.; William Barr, sr. v.p. & gen. counsel, GTE Corp.; Robert Atkinson, sr. v.p., legal regulatory & exernal affairs, Teleport Communications Group, Inc.; Peter Huber, sr. fellow, Manhattan Inst. for Policy Research; Robert Crandall, Sr. fellow, Brookings Institution; Ronald Binz, pres., Competition Policy Inst.; & Dale Hatfield, ceo, Hatfield Assoc., Inc.

Based on a careful reading of Pope Benedict s 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate ( Charity in Truth ), the essays in this substantial volume explore how an encounter with the person of Jesus Christ is the true basis for economic and social progress. The authors are experts in a wide range of disciplines -- theology, philosophy, biblical studies, political science, economics, finance, environmental science -- and represent a broad spectrum of Catholic thought, from liberal to conservative. The first book in English to offer an overarching interpretation of Pope Benedict s groundbreaking encyclical, Jesus Christ: The New Face of Social Progress will inform anyone interested in Catholic social doctrine, and its depth of insight will offer fresh inspiration to serious followers of Jesus Christ. Contributors J. Brian Benestad Simona Beretta Michael Budde Patrick Callahan Paulo Fernando Carneiro de Andrade Peter J. Casarella William T. Cavanaugh Maryann Cusimano Love Daniel K. Finn Roberto Goizueta Lorna Gold Keith Lemna D. Stephen Long Archbishop Celestino Migliore Michael Naughton Julie Hanlon Rubio Sister Damien Marie Savino, F.S.E. David L. Schindler Theodore Tsukahara Jr. Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson Horacio Vela