This dissertation is grounded in the belief that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is good for society. However, current indicators stemming from the marketplace raise concerns as to CSR's long term viability. In this dissertation, I argue that corporate social responsibility has reached a tipping point from which it may move to become a fully informed and dominant practice or recede into the status of a passing fad. This project is driven by the question,"What might be done to better ensure a fuller adoption of CSR as a standard business practice?" I am particularly interested in (1) why society needs CSR and (2) how CSR can be sustained. To answer this question, it will be necessary to engage the marketplace of commerce, understand CSR as it is currently implemented, and explore the relationship between CSR and neoclassical economic thought. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Communication and Rhetorical Studies / PhD / Dissertation

This study is an educator's interpretation of the transcribed testimony of four Dene witnesses to the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry conducted by Justice Thomas Berger in the Canadian north during the mid-1970s. This study uses Calvin Schrag's (1986) notion of communicative praxis to provide a form of critical hermeneutics for the interpretation of text. Communicative praxis offers us a way to understand texts as discourse about something, by someone, and for someone. The world, the self, and the other are all displayed in any particular communicative event and thus it is in the holistic space of communicative praxis where thought, language and action interplay and are contextualized in our everyday lives. The orienting question brought to the reading of each of these texts has been "What is going on in this person's testimony?" In other words, what is this person's experience of being human, and of being Dene, and in what way is that experience disclosed through the language of their text? This piece explores who the four speakers were (the backdrop of historical circumstances as well as social practices and traditions within which the witnesses lived their lives, and in which they gave their testimony to the Inquiry), what they were saying (particularly what the speakers referenced about their lived world, as well as what they signified about the cultural, linguistic and historical tradition in which they stood) and to whom they were speaking and how they were saying it (the rhetorical moment). The speakers employed metaphor, irony, personal stories, as well as more rational forms of persuasion to call into question the morality of white people and those Western social and institutional practices which had dramatically altered the landscape of Dene lives and Dene land, and were continuing to do so. The interpretation elucidates the Dene ideal of respectfulness of "the other," a notion of the other which includes human life, as well as all living beings and the Earth itself; and a call to envision the future in terms of our children and the-yet-to-be-born. The study concludes with a personal elucidation of the pedagogical significance of the text interpretations. / Graduate

nÃo hà / Esta pesquisa de Mestrado reflete sobre como prÃticas socioculturais constituem-se como prÃxis comunicativa para, assim, identificar e compreender processos de construÃÃo das imagens que moradores e os comunicadores do AntÃnio Bezerra fazem sobre o bairro, sobre as experiÃncias comunicativas e sobre si. Ãltimo bairro do lado noroeste de Fortaleza e integrante da Secretaria Executiva Regional â SER III, o AntÃnio Bezerra à o cenÃrio do site BAB (<www.bairroantoniobezerra.com.br>), da rÃdio comunitÃria Costa Oeste 87,9 FM, e da antiga RÃdio ComunitÃria AntÃnio Bezerra, 103,5 FM. ExperiÃncias comunicativas, vividas por moradores do bairro, que se distanciam da comunicaÃÃo orientada pelo mercado. Como objetivos especÃficos, busca-se identificar os processos que contribuem para a construÃÃo de identificaÃÃes sociais; compreender como as imagens sobre o bairro, que os moradores constroem, dialogam com as imagens que eles tÃm de si, das radiocom e do site e encontrar os contrapontos e aproximaÃÃes entre essas imagens e autoimagens, refletindo sobre como a elaboraÃÃo dessas representaÃÃes e as ligaÃÃes afetivas com o lugar afetam-se mutuamente. Para tanto, optou-se por uma metodologia que dialoga com os princÃpios da cartografia ao compreender que toda pesquisa mais intervÃm do que representa a realidade investigada; haja vista a inexistÃncia de neutralidade no conhecimento. E que, para compreender um determinado objeto, à preciso ser flexÃvel diante dos fenÃmenos estudados, entendendo que a pesquisa cientÃfica à feita de encontros que atingem, provocam e transformam tanto pesquisador como objeto, especialmente quando este objeto à formado por pessoas. Utiliza-se, ainda, a memÃria como principal estratÃgia metodolÃgica, associada à entrevista de histÃria oral, concebida de forma dialÃgica quando vivenciada como prÃtica de interaÃÃo social. Visto que os resÃduos das aÃÃes cotidianas, retidos na memÃria, contribuem para a elaboraÃÃo das representaÃÃes de si (e do outro) que, por sua vez, guiam as identificaÃÃes sociais, ou seja, definem diferenÃas e identidades. Os relatos de memÃria contribuem, entÃo, para que o indivÃduo defina seu lugar social e as relaÃÃes que mantÃm com os outros e com as coisas do mundo. Por fim, embora se compreenda a investigaÃÃo cientÃfica como um processo contÃnuo, este estudo infere que os moradores do AntÃnio Bezerra â no caso, moradores cujas famÃlias moram no bairro hà tempos e que integram a rede de contatos desta pesquisa â mantÃm forte elo de afetos com o bairro, criado pelo convÃvio de quem habita o mesmo lugar hà dÃcadas. Essa ligaÃÃo resulta em imagens positivas sobre o bairro, contrariando os estigmas sociais que assolam um bairro de periferia. Apesar dos pÃssimos Ãndices de criminalidade e baixos indicadores sociais, o bairro à visto como um bom lugar para viver, pacato, com caracterÃsticas prÃximas à vida do interior, indo na contramÃo do frenÃtico ritmo metropolitano. Jà os comunicadores se percebem como moradores que valorizam e defendem o AntÃnio Bezerra, enquanto as experiÃncias comunicativas carregam imagens distintas. O BAB e a 103,5 seriam veÃculos que se importam com as questÃes do bairro, enquanto a fase atual da Costa Oeste teria uma imagem negativa, de uma emissora que se distanciou da comunidade. / This Masterâs research discusses about how sociocultural practices are communicative praxis to thereby identify and understand the processes of construction of the images that the dwellers and communicators of Antonio Bezerra district make of the neighborhood, about their communicative experiences and about themselves. Last district of the northwest of Fortaleza and part of Regional Executive Office â SER III, Antonio Bezerra is the scenario of the website <bairroantoniobezerra.com.br>, the community radio station Costa Oeste 87,9 FM, and the old Radio Comunitaria Antonio Bezerra, 103,5 FM. Communicative experiences, lived by the neighborhood residents, who get far from the market-guided. As specific objectives, we aim to identify the processes that contribute to the construction of social identifications; understand how the images about the neighborhood, constructed by the residents, dialogue with the images they have about themselves, of the radiocom and the website and find the counterpoints and the similarities between these images and self images, reflecting on how the elaboration of these representations and the affective liaisons of the communicators with the place affect each other mutually. We chose a methodology that uses the cartography principles understanding that every research intervenes more than represents the reality investigated, given the lack of neutrality in knowledge. And to understand a given object, itâs necessary to be flexible before the phenomena studied, understanding that the scientific research is made of meetings that reach, provoke and transform the researcher and the object, especially when this object is made of people. We use the memory as the main methodological strategy, associated to the interview of oral story, conceived in a dialogical form when experienced as social interaction practice. The residues of the everyday actions, retained in memory, contribute to the elaboration of the self representations (and the othersâ) that guide the social identifications, define differences and identities. The reports by memory contribute, then, for the individual to define his place and the relationships that keep with the others and the things. Finally, although the scientific investigation is a continuous process, this study infers that the Antonio Bezerra residents â inhabitants whose families live in the district for a long time and who are part of a net of contacts of this research â keep a strong link of affect with the district, created by living together with people who live at the same place for decades. This link results in positive images of the district, contradicting the social stigma that reach the poor neighborhoods. In spite of the bad indices of criminality and low social indicators, the district is seen as a good and calm place to live, with features close to the country life, against the frenetic metropolitan rhythm. The communicators see themselves as residents who value and defend Antonio Bezerra neighborhood, whereas the communicative experiences carry different images. BAB and 103,5 are means that worry about the district issues, while the current phase of Costa Oeste has a negative image, as a radio station that got apart from the community.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:39:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6109.pdf: 2660246 bytes, checksum: eb416a7d49f56c3dd4e296f7410ad6ce (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-11 / After identifying the interference of systemic mechanisms in education, reduced, in turn, to the utilitarian condition of simple means for the achievement of extrinsic ends, the dissertation presents the communicative praxis as a proposal of reflection and demarcation of the interests existing between system and culture. For this, it is taken into account the theoretical framework of Habermas, which guided by the paradigm of intersubjectivity, seeks to reintegrate a modern rationality and linguistically decentered (post-metaphysical), situated in the reality of procedural mode and based on the aspect dialogic performative of the interactions arising from the lived world. The communicative praxis, therefore, enables the enhancement of basic elements for democratic debate aiming the understanding , and then preventing the instrumental character of the unilateral coercions present in teaching procedures and, thus, to ensure learning that aims not only the logic of success, but also the experience of interactions permeated by cognitive, normative and aesthetic practices. / Após identificar a interferência dos mecanismos sistêmicos na educação, reduzida, por sua vez, a condição utilitarista de simples meio para a concretização de fins extrinsecos, a dissertação apresenta a praxis comunicativa como proposta de reflexão e delimitação dos interesses existentes entre sistema e cultura. Para tanto, leva-se em consideração o referencial teórico de Jurgen Habermas, que, orientado pelo paradigma da intersubjetividade, busca reintegrar uma racionalidade moderna e linguisticamente descentrada (pos-metafisica), situada na realidade de modo procedimental e baseada no aspecto dialogico-performativo das interações decorrentes do mundo vivido. A praxis comunicativa possibilita, portanto, a potencialização de elementos básicos para o debate democrático, com fim ao entendimento, de modo a impedir o caráter instrumental das coações unilaterais presentes nos procedimentos pedagógicos e, deste modo, assegurar aprendizagens que objetivam não apenas a lógica do sucesso, mas também a vivencia de interações permeadas por práticas cognitivas, normativas e estéticas.