Business
Items related to the worlds of commerce and markets
Do Business Programs Produce Slaves to the Market?
Mon 21 Aug 2006 • Responses: 5 • by Vigen Guroian
“Are we in many if not most of our colleges and universities training young men and women to be mules of the marketplace, deprived of a moral imagination?”
American society is business oriented and has been so for some time, with obvious benefits. The vast majority of American citizens enjoy material comforts unimagined even by the very wealthiest in former ages. While some people lament the hedonism of American life—no one expects the basic structure or influence of the American economy to change any time soon. How does education fit into this scenario?
In the not-so-distant past, we founded and built land-grant and agricultural colleges to service the needs of an agricultural economy, and some of our great state colleges and universities carry that legacy. For the past fifty years, however, and especially over the last quarter century, colleges and universities have responded to the manpower needs of America’s businesses by establishing or expanding business schools and programs. Are such programs threatening the business culture and enslaving business leaders?
Guptara Audio on Revolutionizing Business
Tue 27 Sep 2005 by TTF Staff
Senior Fellow Prabhu Guptara has a 90-minute lecture available online from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.
The lecture, titled “Revolutionising Business,” is available in MP3 format from this site. He addresses three questions: Is there a biblical view of business? What would the consequences be for business issues if so, at a board level? And What might this have to do with the possibility of a radically human practise of business?
Their site has several other interesting articles and lectures that may also be worth your time to peruse.
Prabhu Guptara blogging
Mon 11 Jul 2005 by TTF Staff
Senior Fellow Prof Prabhu Guptara is maintaining a blog on business and spirituality, among several other topics.
His blog is titled “Renaissance: Insights for Action in Today’s World.” Here is a recent snapshot from an interview, answering a question of the recent seeming fad relating spirituality and business:
Fads can be good and useful as well as useless and even horrible! But at least some of the reasons for the fad are negative ones, in that the impact of evolution in the West tore many people away from their spiritual roots in Christianity and the Bible. Now the children and grandchildren of these people are discovering that atheism may be fine as a means of protest against hypocrisy and intellectual dishonesty, but atheism provides no answers regarding how to live as an individual or family or how to conduct business or political life - so spirituality is coming back.
Guptara on the Gods of Business
Wed 01 Jun 2005 by TTF Staff
Senior Fellow Prabhu Guptara was featured on American Public Media’s Speaking of Faith program in late January 2005.
In addition to the radio program itself, the program site includes PDF and Web versions of his presentation slides, a transcript of a related speech, and several other interesting items.
Professor Guptara takes a fascinating cross-cultural view of contemporary business, discussing the major world religions (secularism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Islam, Judaism, and the Christian Faith) and their ethical implications in the age of Enron. He suggests that from an ethical point of view the world now exists in a multiple tension between traditional Judeo-Christian values; thorough pragmatism/ unethical materialism; and reviving fundamentalist values among Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and other communities belonging to New and Fringe Religions.
Tradition, Technology, and Wine
Thu 31 Mar 2005 by Peter Edman
An article from Wired News introduces a contentious theme in an approachable way. New technologies often interfere with traditional cultures and belief systems. The case study here is the vineyards of France.
In this case, new biotechnology and vintnery techniques are threatening the market dominance of traditional French vineyards. Interestingly, the development of the technology is driven as much by a new way of looking at wines—a change in worldview even—as it is by new advances in science.
