1.3.7 Corporate connections continued One issue that might be added by a workers' organisation or trade union, for instance, might be that of freedom of association and the right of workers to organise. Another might be the right to collective bargaining. In fact, the coverage of the codes of conduct vary considerably depending on who instigated the code and the parties involved (Pearson and Seyfang, 2001). Most codes of conduct, it seems, are top-down affairs, drawn up by the companies involved or by trade associations. Some hav
1.3.4 Bringing remote sweatshops within reach continued Another claim made by the movement is that we are all in some way connected to a market system which effectively allows sweatshops to exist in the first place. This is about more than targeting the big brand names and linking them directly to exploitation abroad; rather, it is about piecing together the global market machinery that ties the corporate buyer, the boardroom executive, the factory owner and the consumer into a system which establishes particular lines of responsibility (Ha
1.2.3 Activity 2 Before you read on, I would like you to dwell for just a moment on the significance of this shift from direct investment by Western firms to the establishment of subcontracting ties with overseas partners. Aside from outside firms being able to p 2.2 We are part of nature Take a few minutes to look around at your surroundings before you read on. What do you see? Obviously this depends on where you are at the moment: at home, at work, or perhaps travelling in between, or maybe you have the misfortune to be laid up in hospital. Possibly like me you are at home. I am fortunate to have a study where I do much of my writing and you won't be surprised to hear that I'm looking at a computer screen at the moment. What else can I see? Books and bookshelves, furniture o 7 Conclusion One might think of the different interpretations of internationally recognised notions of rights and justice as running along a spectrum, from which we shall now identify four different positions. The first interpretation would argue that, overall, the extension of rights to the international sphere has been benign and effective. It has led and will lead to further successful claims for justice. Evidence for the development of a globa 5.7 Relating individual rights to state sovereignty The fourth set of problems is really a specific example of the third set and relates to the ways in which individual rights relate to state sovereignty. The Millennium Conference of the UN in 2000 endorsed the need for people-centred changes to the institution and renounced its previous ‘state-centred’ structure. The human-centred logic of rights regards human rights as a value which places legitimate constraints upon the politics of national self-interest and interstate competition. Chan 5.4 The influence of the Western perspective With regard to the first set of problems – that the rights discourse is not universal but is deeply informed by a Western perspective – it is striking that many actors and commentators on the international stage now frame their arguments and assertions in terms of the language of rights and justice. Yet we need to ask to what extent this language of rights and justice really underpins shared understandings and values. There is a strong case for saying that if there are shared understandin Introduction This unit is about rights and rights claims, and the idea of implementing justice in the international sphere based on the concept of rights. It is agreed by most people that ‘rights are a good thing’ and in many respects they are. However, this unit deliberately takes a critical view. It seeks to examine closely why rights are a good thing and highlights some of the problems associated with rights. In this way, we hope that the sense in which rights are still, ultimately, ‘a good thing 3.3.4 Dispute settlement The lack of expertise in the developing countries shows up at a subsequent stage as well. One of the undoubted plus points of the WTO, compared with its predecessor the GATT, is its streamlined mechanism for settling disputes between members – on the whole quite impartially. But although many of the larger developing countries have won cases against the most powerful members like the EU and USA, the smaller ones are hamstrung by their inability to field lawyers specialised in international 5.1 Sudden changes The third category of thermal effects identified in Section 2 are those associated with sudden changes. Here are some technically important examples where things change suddenly at a particular temperature: Pure water boils at 100 °C (at atmospheric pressure).< 4.3.2 Competing processes Let's look graphically at the way the rate of a thermally activated process changes with temperature. Figure 16 shows two rates with different activation energies of 1.0 and 0.5 eV – which curve is which? 4.2.3 The significance of the distribution of energies Near room temperature (300 K), the average bundle of thermal energy associated with a particle is 0.026 eV (look back at Box 2 Temperature and energy). This is not going to do much damage to something stuck together with bonds that have an energy of a few eV – just as the average wage earne 4.2 Energy distribution Atoms without much thermal energy will not be doing very much. Consider fifty million million million (50 × 1018) silicon atoms, bonded into a single massive network; I've chosen silicon, but any elemental solid would do. It will be a speck just large enough to be seen without a microscope. You know that if it is heated it will expand, at some stage it will melt and then eventually it will vaporise – that is because thermal energy effectively ‘rattles it to bits’. Having the 4.1 Characteristics of processes activated by thermal energy This is a long section and needs to be studied carefully. Keep your eye on the overall goal of seeking useful thermal effects on which to base devices. This section continues the discussion of heat at an atomic level. You will need this background to appreciate the characteristics of processes activated by thermal energy – for example, the softening of glass in a gas flame, the diffusion of atoms through solids, the electrical conductivity of ceramics, and many chemical reactions. Suc 3.3 Thermal stresses When the temperature of an object increases (say, by ΔT) it expands. According to the linear model of thermal expansion the length increase is described by What if there is a temperature change, but some constraint prevents the proper thermal size changes? The constraint 3.1 Modelling properties This section provides a model for properties interpreted in terms of the average thermal energy of all the constituent atoms of a material. Since absolute temperature T is a measure of average atomic kinetic energy, we shall expect to be looking at properties that change gradually with T, roughly proportionally, over a wide range. In terms of the classification introduced in Author(s): 4.7 T is for Timeliness The date when information was produced or published can be an important aspect of quality. This is not quite as simple as saying that 'good' information has to be up to date. Here is an example of a news item from an on 4.4 O is for Objectivity One of the characteristics of ‘good’ information is that it should be balanced and present both sides of an argument or issue. This way the reader is left to weigh up the evidence and make a decision. In reality, we recognise that no information is truly objective. This means that the onus is on you, the reader, to develop a critical awareness of the positions represented in what you read, and to take account of this when you interpret the information. In some cases, authors may be 5.4.4 Theories of leadership Trait theories see leadership as requiring certain personal characteristics. Style theories see leadership as the adoption of certain styles of interaction: e.g. task-centred (or structuring) leadership and person-centred (or supporting) leadership. Contingency theories argue that different circumstances demand different modes of leadership. 5.4.3 Two key leadership activities Providing feedback: giving evaluative feedback so that it is experienced as helpful rather than destructive. Problem ownership: the importance of accepting responsibility for our own problems, rather than blaming others.
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Activity 9
