THE FACTS ARE NOT ENOUGH

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THE FACTS ARE NOT ENOUGH

• Jesse Dillard
• School of Business Administration
• Portland State University
• Portland, OR

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• Asking Meaningful Questions
• WHY DO I EXIST?
• Act in the Public Interest
• enhancing the well being of society through
  sustainable
• natural
• social
• economic systems.

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Just Do the Right Thing Right
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Know ye the true, and the truth will set you free

• Facts
• Human beings are destroying the ecosystem
• Human beings are destroying the social systems
• Therefore
• Since we are all rational beings, given these
  facts, people will all arrive at the right
  conclusion.
• So
• Why are we still discussing the ifs of
  sustainability instead of only the hows?

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• THE FACTS ARE NOT ENOUGH, WE MUST LEARN HOW TO
  FRAME OUR TRUTH SO THAT IT CAN BE HEARD BY THOSE
  WHO MAY HOLD DIFFERENT TRUTHS.

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Engaging in the Dialogue

• Dialogue requires communication
• Communication requires shared understanding
• Shared understanding requires an appreciation of
  systems of moral values

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To be accepted, the truth must fit peoples
frames. If the facts do not fit a frame, the
frame stays and the facts are ignored.(new
cognitive science)

• From a political perspective, the most important
  frames are value based structures of morality
• (cognitive linguistics)

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Legitimating Moral Claim of SEA Morality of
Accountability

• IF ONE ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY AND EXERCISES THE
  RELATED RIGHTS, THEN THOSE WHO GRANT THESE
  PRIVILEGES HAVE A RIGHT AND RESPONSIBILITY TO
  HOLD THE PERSON ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIVITIES/
  ACTIONS/ RESULTS.

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A Modest Description of Our Normative Intentions

• Also useful for our descriptive and prescriptive
  endeavors

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Social Environmental Accounting
 
EVALUATION OF ACTIVITIES/ ACTIONS
REPRESENTATIONS OF ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITIES/ACTIONS  
EVALUATION CRITERIA  
                       
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Representation of Activities (What has been
done?) This is the part that is accounting (What
there is to be looked at has to do with
actions/activities) How should we represent
activities?
Criteria for Evaluation (For what should one be
held accountable?) What are the appropriate rules
whereby we should be playing Based on
societal norms and values, laws, and
constraints.    
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  Social Environmental Accounting and Reporting
Technical (How activities are to be represented -
GRI)
EVALUATION OF ACTIVITIES/ ACTIONS
ACTIVITIES/ACTIONS  
REPRESENTATIONS OF ACTIVITIES
EVALUATION CRITERIA  
                       
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Social and Environmental Accounting Reporting
How to represent activities  
Environmental
Social
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  Social Environmental Accountability /
Corporate Social Responsibility Social /Value
Based What activities matter? How much? To Whom?
EVALUATION OF ACTIVITIES/ ACTIONS
ACTIVITIES/ACTIONS  
REPRESENTATIONS OF ACTIVITIES
EVALUATION CRITERIA  
                       
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• Evaluation Criteria
• are
• Politically Motivated Positions
• based on
• Personal Values
• grounded in
• Systems of Morality

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Systems of Morality

• Based on experiential well being
• Constructed using metaphors arising out of our
  experiential sense of well being and prototypical
  organizing structures
• Provide the value frames by which truth is
  created and comprehended and fairness, justice,
  and equality are discerned
• Combine with communication structures and power
  to construct and reconstruct social reality

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Experiential Well BeingMoral Actions-Promoting
the well being of othersAvoiding and preventing
harm

• Beauty
• Light
• Upright
• Solidarity
• Freedom

• Health
• Rich
• Strength
• Happiness
• Cleanliness

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Immoral Actions -Actions that cause harm
Deprive someone of well being

• Sickness
• Poverty
• Weakness
• Abandoned
• Sadness
• Unfulfilled

• Filth
• Ugly
• Dark
• Fallen down
• Isolated
• Slavery

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Moral Metaphors

• Systems of moral metaphors emerge out of these
  experiential attributes and
• Provide the basis for action and evaluation

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Moral Accounting(A Meta-Moral Metaphor)

• A means by which fairness, equity, and justice
  are contemplated,
• whether the actors played by the accepted rules
  (social norms, values, laws),
• whether agreements were met and/or due process
  followed, and the outcomes commensurable

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Moral Accounting Metaphor

• Keeping the moral books
• Criteria for fairness, equity, and justice
  concern the characteristics and consequences of
  rewards and punishments
• Well being is metaphorically conceptualized as
  wealth
• is described and understood in terms of gain,
  loss, profit, revenues, cost, debts, assets,
  liabilities, entity, worth, and return on
  investment
• a moral engagement is conceptualized as a
  financial transaction
• the need for a moral accounting logically follows

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Cont.

• The core of moral understanding derives from the
  basic reciprocating tenets of financial
  accounting systems
• A moral action is conceptualized as giving
  something of positive value.
• An immoral action is conceptualized as giving
  something of negative value.
• It is a moral imperative to pay ones debts.
• It is immoral not to do so.

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Tentative Proposition

• The moral accounting metaphor underlies the
  current moral conceptualization of SEA/CSR,
• represents the underlying systems of morality
  whereby we legitimize, understand, implement, and
  evaluation SEA.

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Personal Values

• Combining
• meta moral metaphors (a moral accounting) which
  frame the consequences of interactions
  (processes) with
• prototypical organizing metaphors that provide
  the structural context within which moral
  metaphors are applied
• Result in hierarchically structured systems of
  personal values wherein the situational content
  is processed and moral assessments are made

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Evaluation Criteria for SEA Are Politically
Motivated Positions

• Political positions are grounded in moral value
  systems
• Moral value systems are based on metaphorically
  based frames
• The metaphor of the family is the core metaphor
  underlying political orientation

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Core Political Metaphor(prototypical organizing
metaphor)

• Nation as family
• Government as parent
• Citizens as children

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Implications

• presumptions concerning a spatial domain where in
  the family was domiciled
• expectations with respect to the relationships,
  rights, and responsibilities of the members
• parent has certain responsibilities in
  facilitating the safety of the family, rearing
  children, and providing for sustenance
• parent claims certain rights related to
  fulfilling the responsibilities
• children also claim certain rights and accept
  certain responsibilities.

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Prototypical Family Metaphors

• Strict Father Morality
• Nurturant Parent Morality

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Strict Father Morality

• traditional nuclear family and roles
• highest moral priority is moral strength
• evidenced by self control and self discipline
• pursuit of self interest is perceived as
  employing self discipline to achieve self
  reliance
• the means for attaining self control and self
  discipline is obedience to and respect for
  authority
• parents are responsible for teaching appropriate
  behavioral norms, setting strict guidelines, and
  ensuring that their children adhere to them
• parental strength and authority are seen as an
  expression of love and nurturance.
• children are responsible for honoring and obeying
  their parents and respecting authority

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Cont.

• obedience and respect for authority are the means
  for developing character
• primary character traits are gaining self
  discipline and self reliance which are necessary
  to survive as adults within a hostile and
  turbulent world
• in that they allow the mature child to control
  his or her destiny
• as a result of their training, the adult will
  succeed if they have acquired a level of self
  discipline and self control to stand up against
  the evils with which they are confronted
• if the mature child fails because of a lack of
  self discipline and self control, the parent is
  not to intervene. The mature child must live the
  consequences of his or her moral weaknesses.

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Nurturant Parent

• traditional family not assumed
• highest priorities feeling empathy for others,
  helping others help themselves and nurturing
  social ties
• happiness and self fulfillment through the
  pursuit of self interest only makes sense as they
  facilitate empathy and nurturance
• empathy and nurturance are the criteria for moral
  guidelines
• moral strength is enabled and sustained by
  nurturance
• moral authority follows as a consequence of
  nurturance.

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Cont.

• rights, responsibilities, and parental roles are
  negotiated and shared
• parents must be strong and courageous in
  supporting and protecting their children
• legitimate parental authority is grounded in, and
  follows from, mutual love and respect, not from
  fear of punishment
• through nurturance, empathy, and love on the part
  of the parent and the community, children develop
  responsibility, self discipline, and self
  reliance
• communication between child and parent is crucial

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Cont.

• the goal is that children grow into adults who
  live fulfilled lives, committed to the well being
  of their family and community
• to do so, the children must learn to feel empathy
  for others
• show compassion following from this empathy
• develop a capacity for nurturance
• act out of love
• maintain social ties.
• requires strength, self respect, self discipline,
  and self reliance.
• comes out of being treated with respect,
  nurtured, and communicated with and results in
  life long relationships based on mutual respect,
  caring, and communication.

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Moral Value Systems
Meta moral metaphor Frames the consequences of
interactions (processes) (moral accounting
metaphor)
Prototypical organizing metaphors Provides the
structural context within which moral metaphors
are applied (context) (nation as family)
Hierarchically structured systems of personal
values wherein context is processed and moral
assessments made (evaluation criteria)
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Sustainability Evaluation Criteria
Strict Father Morality
Nurturing Parent Morality
Moral Accounting
Progressive Personal Values
Conservative Personal Values
Conservative Sustainability Evaluation Criteria
Progressive Sustainability Evaluation Criteria
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Strict Father Sustainability

• model citizen is conservative businessman
• government regulation interferes with his pursuit
  of self sufficiency and success
• regulation is an interference with the moral and
  legitimate acts of the citizenry
• placing such restrictions on moral people and
  their moral actions is immoral
• if the conservative businessman is the model
  citizen, then CSR/SEA are at best perceived of as
  unnecessary and at worst contradictory and
  detrimental to the natural order of things.

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Cont.

• human beings relationship with nature is framed
  within the natural hierarchical order of things
  God over man, man over nature
• man is given domination over the earth and all
  that resides therein to use as he sees fit
• the morality of self interest the interests of
  all are maximized if each person seeks their own
  self interest
• the morality of reward and punishment it is
  immoral to stop individuals from working hard for
  the sake of profit, since success is an
  indication of self discipline and reinforces self
  reliance.

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Nurturant Parent Sustainability

• model citizen social worker, environmentalist,
  education holds the increased well being of
  humanity as the primary objective of action
• implies a harmony among humans, their
  communities, and their natural environments
• governments responsibility to nurture and
  sustain these relationships in the most effective
  manner
• moral acts prevent degradation of the environment
  and those that enhance and sustain it
• immoral acts are those that destroy and exploit
  nature, especially for self interested and
  selfish reasons
• CSR/SEA is a central part of the morally mandated
  technical infrastructure necessary to protect and
  sustain natural systems. It is immoral to act to
  the contrary.

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Cont.

• nature is conceptualized as life giving and
  sustaining
• the relationship between humanity and nature is
  reciprocal nurturance and respect
• respect arises out of an appreciation of the
  inherent value of nature, beyond human valuation,
  and gratitude for its physical and aesthetic
  contributions
• the interdependence between humans and nature is
  recognized motivating a sense of responsibility
  and continued commitment to sustain the natural
  environment

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• THE FACTS ARE NOT ENOUGH, WE MUST FRAME OUR TRUTH
  SO THAT IT CAN BE HEARD BY THOSE WHO MAY HOLD
  DIFFERENT TRUTHS.

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Incompatible Evaluation Criteria

• How do we move the conversation from a strict
  father grounded system of morality (conservative)
  to a nurturant parent systems of morality
  (progressive)?

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So what then must we do?

• The truth alone will not set you free, they must
  be framed appropriately
• Understand and be able to articulate our moral
  value systems and the metaphorical frames
• Speak from our moral perspective
• Understand alternative (conservative) moral
  frames and the conceptual metaphors upon which
  they are grounded
• Think strategically across issues
• Consider the consequences of proposals

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Cont.

• Voters vote their identity and their values,
  neither of which might coincide with their self
  interest
• Unite and cooperate
• Reframe the issues using your moral values, dont
  use theirs
• Continue to develop and refine the progressive
  metaphorical frames so as to better communicate
  your position
• Be ever mindful of the political nature of the
  struggle for a sustainable social and natural
  world