Virtue and Social Enterprise: Ethical Alternatives to Capitalism

ISBN-13: 9783031140266 / Angielski / Twarda / 2022

Geraldine Hall

Opis

This book is an exploration of Alasdair MacIntyre’s writings on virtue ethics and John Pearce’s reformist and radical forms of social enterprise. Although Pearce’s work has had academic impact, by his own admission, his ideas lack the necessary philosophical underpinnings. In Virtue and Social Enterprise: Ethical Alternatives to Capitalism, Geraldine Hall draws on MacIntyre to provide such underpinnings. Through a novel synthesis of the works of these two authors, a philosophical grounding is given to Pearce’s radical form of social enterprise. In turn, MacIntyre’s views on virtue are given greater scope to address global issues created by the capitalist paradigm.With a foreword by Kelvin Knight, this book will be of great interest to scholars and students of Alasdair MacIntyre, virtue ethics, business ethics and social responsibility.

Spis treści

Foreword – To be written by Dr Kelvin Knight

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 2 – MacIntyre’s virtue-practice-institution framework

This chapter explores MacIntyre’s virtue-practice-institution framework to establish a coherent grounding for understanding the role of the virtues and how they may be achieved.  He makes clear the relationship and tension between internal and external goods and how, despite external goods still being goods, can have a corrupting influence on the pursuit of the internal goods associated with a practice.  Furthermore, the role of common goods is shown to be inexorably linked to practices in that they are prior to individual goods; without an understanding and pursuit of the common goods, it is not possible to realise individual goods. It is as independent practical reasoners that we learn to cooperate with others to achieve our common goods but acknowledged dependence and just generosity are essential virtues to developing our common goods.  The institution and how it supports the practice which it houses is seen as fundamental to the practice.

Chapter 3 – Business within capitalism and MacIntyre

This chapter aims to determine if business can be considered either as a practice or as an institution which sustains practices in accordance with MacIntyre’s framework.  It is argued that liberal capitalism encourages an organisational structure in which owners control capital and make decisions based on effectiveness, rather than excellence to achieve greater capital accumulation.  The work of Moore on virtuous businesses is considered in which he argues that businesses which can demonstrate the correct balance between internal and external goods can be virtuous. However, it is noted in this chapter MacIntyre argues that there is a rank ordering of goods in his teleological approach in which external goods are always subordinate to internal goods. 

Chapter 4 – Alternative forms of enterprise and MacIntyre’s framework

This chapter continues with the analysis of Moore’ arguments regarding virtuous businesses to conclude that he has too narrow a focus on MacIntyre’s work and does not consider his whole framework of the common good, power balance and the political economy.  Again, the fundamental issue arises that Moore does not use the hierarchical approach of MacIntyre where internal goods are prioritised over external goods. In rejecting Moore’s proposals, alternative forms of institutions, including co-operatives, and social enterprises are considered and the extent to which they exhibit commitment to these key elements of MacIntyre’s framework.  

Chapter 5 – Defining Social Enterprise

Looks at the ways in which researchers have defined social enterprise and identifies the common aspects. There is particular focus on the ‘ideal type’ and ‘spectrum’ approaches to social enterprise as these are the more widely researched. It is noted that the spectrum approach highlights the possibility for a balance or trade off to occur when determining what MacIntyre would term internal and external goods. It is therefore argued that a more radical form of social enterprise should be explored to determine the commitment to a rank order of goods.  Pearce’s (2003) two alternative views of social enterprise, termed ‘reformist’ and ‘radical’, are then considered in detail. Here it will be seen that the reformist approach engages with capitalism and attempts to improve and reform it from within; whilst radical social enterprises reject capitalism, consistent with MacIntyre and also aligns with MacIntyre’s hierarchical structuring of goods to ensure the social purpose is paramount. 

Chapter 6 – Contextualising Pearce’s Social Enterprise

In this chapter the third system, also referred to as the social economy, is explored in greater detail to create a landscape for understanding social enterprise and the values that underpin such organisations.  Radical and reformist social enterprises are discussed to highlight the distinction between them and create a framework to elaborate further on radical social enterprise.  The social and political context will be considered to identify the influences on radical social enterprise and explore the implications of their existence and growth on the wider economy.  Pearce only refers briefly to the radical form of social enterprise, but the view here is that it is the most appropriate form of social enterprise to reflect MacIntyre’s virtue theory.  Therefore, this chapter and the next will fully develop the characteristics of a radical social enterprise so that it can be analysed against MacIntyre’s virtue framework. 

Chapter 7 – Radical Social Enterprise and MacIntyre

Pearce’s social enterprise characteristics and values and MacIntyre’s practice-institution theory are synergised to create a framework for radical social enterprise.  It is argued that the characteristics and values which Pearce identifies indicate an affinity to MacIntyre through a social purpose which has priority over external goods.  Moreover, the outcome of the synthesis leads to the argument that radical social enterprises are a clearer and less ambiguous representation of MacIntyre’s view of a common good-supporting-institution compared to the more general promotion of cooperative organisations as propagated by him. It is also argued that radical social enterprises are more consistent with an outright rejection of capitalism which is necessary to create the kind of radical change promoted by both Pearce and MacIntyre. Finally, it is argued that through the synthesis of these two authors, a more specific understanding of the shared values of radical social enterprise can be understood and promoted.

Chapter 8 – Conclusion

The final chapter of the book argues that radical social enterprise has been shown to represent a MacIntyrean institution in which common goods and internal goods are achieved through practices, with a commitment to finding an alternative to capitalism.  Furthermore, they can be viewed as radical in a MacIntyrean sense because they promote the idea of a locally political common good through encouraging participation in local political communities in which common goods can be determined.

O autorze

Geraldine Hall has previously taught at the University of South Wales as a Senior Lecturer and was a dissertation supervisor at Cardiff Metropolitan University.  She is currently a freelance writer.

Blurb

This book is an exploration of Alasdair MacIntyre’s writings on virtue ethics and John Pearce’s reformist and radical forms of social enterprise. Although Pearce’s work has had academic impact, by his own admission, his ideas lack the necessary philosophical underpinnings. In Virtue and Social Enterprise: Ethical Alternatives to Capitalism, Geraldine Hall draws on MacIntyre to provide such underpinnings. Through a novel synthesis of the works of these two authors, a philosophical grounding is given to Pearce’s radical form of social enterprise. In turn, MacIntyre’s views on virtue are given greater scope to address global issues created by the capitalist paradigm.

With a foreword by Kelvin Knight, this book will be of great interest to scholars and students of Alasdair MacIntyre, virtue ethics, business ethics and social responsibility.

Geraldine Hall has previously taught at the University of South Wales as a Senior Lecturer and was a dissertation supervisor at Cardiff Metropolitan University.  She is currently a freelance writer.