Utilitarianism and interpersonal comparison

Beliefs in the impossibility of interpersonal comparison of welfare and the unacceptability of utilitarianism are based on a non-materialist solution to the theory of mind, i.e. on the existence of a soul. The compellingness of the theory of evolution and some discoveries in brain sciences render (philosophical) materialism very persuasive. The acceptance of materialism implies the negation of free will, non-significance of the self (no substantial reason to care much more about the welfare of one's own future self than the welfare of others), possibility of interpersonal comparison of welfare, compellingness of utilitarianism, and the possibility of conscious machines. Searle's argument on the impossibility of rigorous social sciences is however rejected.I am grateful to Dennis Mueller and Aubrey Townsend for commenting on the first draft.     

Utilitarianism and equality for quasilinear or Gorman-form preferences

The paper shows that if utility is cardinally measurable and fully interpersonally comparable, if costless lumpsum transfers are possible, and if the utility profile satisfies (a) a happier person has lower marginal utility of the numeraire or wealth, and (b) “everybody is equally unhappy in hell,” then the utilitarian criterion is egalitarian for quasilinear economies or Gorman-form preferences.     

Workplace discrimination and cancer

Data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Integrated Mission System database were analyzed with specific reference to allegations of workplace discrimination filed by individuals with cancer under ADA Title One. These 6,832 allegations, filed between July 27, 1992 and September 30, 2003, were compared to 167,798 allegations from a general disability population on the following dimensions: type of workplace discrimination; demographic characteristics of the charging parties (CPs); the industry designation, location, and size of employers; and the outcome or resolution of EEOC investigations. Results showed allegations derived from CPs with cancer were more likely than those in the general disability population to include issues involving discharge, terms and conditions of employment, lay-off, wages, and demotion. Compared to the general disability group, CPs with cancer were more likely to be female, older, and White. Allegations derived from CPs with cancer were also more likely to be filed against smaller employers (15-100 workers) or those in service industries. Finally, the resolution of allegations by CPs with cancer were more likely to be meritorious than those filed from the general disability population; that is, actual discrimination is more likely to have occurred.     

The context of discrimination: workplace conditions, institutional environments, and sex and race discrimination charges

This article explores the organizational conditions under which discrimination charges occur. Drawing on structural and organizational theories of the workplace, the authors demonstrate how organizational conditions affect workers' and regulatory agents' understandings of unlawful discrimination. Using a national sample of work establishments, matched to discrimination-charge data obtained from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the authors examine how characteristics of the workplace and institutional environment affect variation in the incidence of workers' charges of sex and race discrimination and in the subset of discrimination claims that are verified by EEOC investigators. The findings indicate that workplace conditions, including size, composition, and minority management, affect workers' charges as well as verified claims; the latter are also affected by institutional factors, such as affirmative action requirements, subsidiary status, and industrial sector. These results suggest that internal workplace conditions affect both workers' and regulatory agents' interpretations of potentially discriminatory experiences, while institutional conditions matter only for regulatory agents' interpretations of those events.     

Protection studies: Challenging oppression and discrimination

Social work students on qualifying programmes should have abundant opportunities to challenge racism, sexism, disablism and other oppressions in society, that is in the macro environment. Equally they are required to confront oppression in the micro environments of the family home or small institution. One way of achieving this is through integration of the issues into the whole curriculum but also through a specific module devoted to protection studies.

Child and ‘elder’ abuse and the mistreatment of dependent younger adults is at one end of a continuum of oppression with societal discrimination at the other. Oppression, whatever its form, has four essential components: the misuse of power, processes of objectification, the silence of witnesses and the entrapment or accommodation of victims. Social work students who do not fully appreciate the dynamics of the abuse of power, and the perspectives of victims are ill equipped to challenge oppression.

A rationale for a protection studies module is given. The objectives and content of the proposed studies are also suggested. Protection studies, it is argued, are essential because social workers are faced with complex issues of power and control. Those who overlook the need to protect all of society's weakest members can be seen as facilitating abusers in the same way that those who do not embrace anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practices are perpetuating bigotry and injustice.     

Perceived discrimination and health: Paradigms and prospects

This article reviews recent research on the effects of perceived discrimination on subsequent mental and physical health. I argue that despite legal reforms banning discrimination since the civil rights era, discrimination persists, posing an ongoing health risk and maintaining social health inequalities. Couched within broader health trends, this covers ongoing challenges and new developments, particularly related to measurement, and promising directions. As the most commonly reported location of individual discrimination is at work, this review concludes by arguing for the significance of the workplace as a unique context ripe for further inquiry for scholars interested in health inequality.     

Gender discrimination and self-employment dynamics in Europe

This paper examines the effect that gender-based earnings discrimination has on self-employment dynamics among females, with a focus on four countries in Western Europe. Using data from the European Community Household Panel in the 1999–2001 time period, we test the hypothesis that the probability of moving into self-employment is positively related to prior earnings discrimination, as measured by unexplained deviations from expected (male) earnings. Our findings suggest that women who have lower than expected wage sector earnings are more likely to leave wage employment in the following year. The results with respect to discrimination, per se, however, are mixed.     

Caregivers,firm policies and gender discrimination claims

This paper explores a relatively new class of lawsuits claiming “caregiver discrimination.” Using the National Study of the Changing Workforce, it shows that claims of gender discrimination in general and caregiver discrimination in particular are more likely among women facing greater work-family conflict. Critically, firm policies that allow work from home or the use of personal time off to care for family needs are associated with reduced claims of caregiver discrimination holding all else constant. Importantly, these reduced claims are uniquely among women with greater family responsibilities.     

Dancing with discrimination: managing stigma and identity

Fans are a group that are stigmatized and discredited, at least to some degree, by their “deviant” and common form of symbolic consumption. At stake in the process of stigmatization is the very identity of the individual fan, and their symbolic and emotional well‐being. This paper reports on an empirical study of one particular group of fans—Star Trek fans (or “Trekkies”)—and explores the complex identity issues articulated by them as they “manage” their problematic public identity. Drawing upon interviews conducted with 18 Trekkies, the article describes how this stigmatic identity is organized within a disciplinary matrix that operates at a micro level through two key processes: humour and self‐surveillance. In particular, we highlight their struggle with the dilemmas of exposing their private “fandom” in a public context, and the highly ambivalent manner in which they seek to escape stigmatization.     

The Texaco racial discrimination case and shareholder wealth

We analyze the wealth ejfects of the Texaco racial discrimination lawsuit both on the shareholders of Texaco and its major U.S. competitors. Employing a comprehensive data set which included every case docket entry and every Wall Street Journal article on the case as an experimental stimulus, our findings suggest that the overall cost of the case to Texaco shareholders exceeded $500 million, that Texaco's tribulations had little, if any, impact on the share prices of its major competitors, and that Wall Street Journal coverage of the case was highly correlated with significant changes in Texaco stock prices. This last finding provides significant support for Hite 's suppostion that newspaper editors “key ” on ex post stock price changes in selecting the events to be covered in the next day's edition. The authors are grateful to Kee Chung for helpful comments on earlier drafts and also acknowlege the help-ful assistance of the staff of the law library at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at The University of Memphis.