Measuring Distributive Justice Preferences of Finnish University Students via the State Budget

We measure the distributive justice preferences of students within eight departments in the faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Turku, Finland. We use the Finnish government's annual budget and its specific appropriations as a proxy to measure the students' underlying preferences. We test whether the type of studies of the respondents is associated with the preferences one has for increases or decreases on specific programmes financed via the budget. Students of economics preferred more money for technological investments and research, as well as for “law and order” programmes. They wanted much less spending for subsidies of any sort. On the other hand, those in social—type disciplines, preferred the opposite, that is, less funding for technology‐related programmes and more money for pensions and subsidies.     

Building better futures: leveraging action learning at Kentz Engineers & Constructors

This article provides a case study of how Kentz Engineers & Constructors, with more than 10,000 employees in 26 countries, are leveraging learning to ‘Build better futures’ for its stakeholders: clients, shareholders, employees and communities. Kentz provide opportunities for learning at all levels, ensuring that ‘no one is left behind’. This case study focuses on the development of leaders within Kentz, including utilizing action learning to align the development of people with the process of mobilizing people to effect change and turn strategy into effective action. It draws upon the experiences of participants at different levels within Kentz in examining their learning, their action and the learning process.     

Introducing ethics using structured controversies

This paper describes a method of introducing ethics to a second-year class of civil engineering students. The method, known as a ‘structured controversy’, takes the form of a workshop where the students assume the identity of stakeholders having an interest in a proposed development in an environmentally sensitive region. The instructor enhances the workshop by deliberately feeding incorrect information into a catalogue of facts that each stakeholder has at their disposal. After the workshop, the instructor draws out three ethical frameworks from which the stakeholders operate. A key component of the exercise is that the students do not know beforehand that the environmental workshop is being used to introduce ethics. When the connection is revealed, the students appreciate that much of their behaviour during the role-play was because they inadvertently adhered to an unknown ethical platform. Since it is an environmental simulation, an explicit connection can be made to the debate over ‘who’ to include in the moral community. In addition, a link can be drawn to the notion of sustainable development which, in this paper, is advocated as an ethical rather than a technical concept.