Toward a Rational Policy for the Management of High-Level Radioactive Waste: Integrating Science and EthicsHadjilambrinos, Constantine
doi: 10.1177/027046769901900301pmid: N/A
The disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) is an issue that has seemed to defy not only solution but even a rational approach. This article reviews the development of U.S. HLRW disposal policy, focusing on the role of the scientific establishment. The failure of policymakers and their expert advisers is traced to the nature of the issues that need to be resolved to guarantee the safety of present and future generations. Scientific analysis cannot be used to predict the significance and impact of human actions at disposal sites in the distant future. Consequently, it cannot provide a comprehensive risk assessment of any permanent HLRW disposal options. Perpetual management of HLRW in monitored retrievable facilities can address this issue. A management process that is guided by both science and ethics is best suited to protecting health and the environment, as well as intergenerational equity and justice.
The Technological Blind Spot in Business EthicsGill, David W.
doi: 10.1177/027046769901900302pmid: N/A
From all directions comes confirmation that technology, information technology above all, is radically transforming today’s business. All observers predict that this technologizing of business will continue in the 21st century with major consequences. This article argues that business ethics cases (the most popular way of approaching business ethics) as well as the broader corporate cultural values (a less popular but equally important focus for business ethics) are inexorably affected by the technological revolution in business. But of 29 business ethics textbooks published in the past 5 years, only 4 show any awareness of the new configuration of hard ethics cases, and only 2 of those 4 go beyond the case approach to examine the changes in corporate cultural values. If this technological blind spot in business ethics is not corrected, the business ethics guild will have radically failed its calling and responsibility. The consequences of technological blindness and naivete in business ethics are potentially dire because of the massive power of our technologies.
Religion and the Quest for Equity in Consumption, Population, and SustainabilityPetersen, Rodney L.
doi: 10.1177/027046769901900303pmid: N/A
The metaphors by which we live, derivative of religious perspectives, shape the ways in which we are engaged with the world around us. This is particularly evident in matters pertaining to consumption and population, factors in the calculus of global sustainability. Increasing concern over the past quarter century with environmental degradation has been paralleled by interest in the relation of religion to a developing environmental ethic. Such interest has called for sensitivity to the religious perspectives of all people, an interest that is promoting involvement in inter-religious dialogue. The significance of this for public policy comes in three areas: growing interest in patterns of social relationships, ecojustice or the way in which we live out social relationships, and growing reflection on the essential nature of religion for value formation in public life.
Education Technology and the Professional in Brazil: His or Her Formation and the Possibility of Human CultureFerreira, Naura Syria Carapeto
doi: 10.1177/027046769901900304pmid: N/A
The formation of the education professional has been a top subject of studies during the history of education in Brazil and must be a human formation directly related to his or her emancipation as a social, individual person. This is his or her truth citizenship and sine qua non to the formation of a new man for the construction of a human culture. In this sense, the concept of man is the fundamental axis of formation of the education professional. Theoretical matrices that have given rise to individualism and its powerful concepts are analyzed, as well as the new dominant ideas that, in an explicit or implicit way, construct in our society by different forms of social consciousness. There is a firm conviction that the understanding of man as alive, active, and conscious in material existence, according to concrete life, looks as the formation of consensus, organic emancipating scientific fundamental of radial change in social relations on a global society and with the possibility of human culture.
Hunting for Hope in the AcademyStocking, S. Holly
doi: 10.1177/027046769901900305pmid: N/A
Can academic scholarship harbor hope for humanity, or is it destined to become just another of many things that contribute to the demise of our species? Prodded by the unflinching observations of an eminent colleague, a journalist-turned-academic goes hunting for hope in the scholarship of her own field of mass media studies. Her search raises uncomfortable questions not only for herself, but for other academics who share her environmental concerns.
Knowledge Building by Full Integration With Virtual Reality Environments and Its Effects on Personal and Social LifeFialho, Francisco Antonio Pereira; Catapan, Araci Hack
doi: 10.1177/027046769901900309pmid: N/A
It is primordial to insist on a continuous education that is open, flexible, and personalized, allowing the individual to update and make his or her knowledge adequate throughout life. The creation of distributed environments for constructivist learning is a challenge. Research in this field is needed for the development of cooperative learning tools able to facilitate and motivate learning. The development of intelligent didactic systems is complex, demanding the support of knowledge coming from different fields. That is why to develop this class of systems a multidisciplinary team is needed, including pedagogues; educational psychologists; specialists in the knowledge domain; and technicians in computer graphics, programming, multimedia, virtual reality, project management, and so forth. Virtual immersion introduces new resources for interindividual communications that deal with reality interpretation. The authors outline the beginning of a long journey on how imagination power can be used for the collective creation of worlds able to improve learning.