Constructively Engaging Exploitive Waste Management in India: The Case of Paryavaran Mitra and its Justice Motivated Effort at Empowering Rag-Picking Women

Constructive Engagement (CE) aims at developing sustainable and equitable marketing systems that ensure collective well-being. This paper reflects on an initiative that constructively engages with impoverished market actors, i.e., rag-picking women in India. It is endeavored by operationalizing Integrative Justice Model (IJM) principles while trying to tackle the issue of solid waste management. Our findings suggest that CE across the spectrum in the value chain is required to alleviate the conditions of disadvantaged market actors and improve their well-being. Our qualitative inquiry in rag-picking women’s lives and an initiative of social enterprise contribute to the ongoing conversation in macromarketing literature- (1) by empirically evidencing how the CE operationalizes the IJM and help redress the issues of social traps and internalities; (2) by uniquely connecting the macro issues of waste management with the issues of honesty, fairness, dignity and deserved justice in the neglected market transactions; (3) that IJM principles guide the constructive engagement process.

A Strategic Marketing Framework for Emerging Out of the Climate Change Social Trap: The Case of the Fashion Industry

Climate change mitigation is arguably the most significant challenge of the twenty-first century. On the foundations of research on social traps by economists and behavioral scientists, this research: (1) conceptualizes the climate change social trap as the behavior of entities (firms, individuals, or social groups) favoring short-term positive consequences over long-term negative consequences of climate change for society; (2) provides a brief overview of the impact of the fashion industry on climate change; (3) develops a summary overview of research on social traps and taxonomies of solutions for social traps; (4) discusses, in detail, a strategic marketing framework built on a taxonomy developed in macromarketing; and (5) using the framework, evaluates 130 leading companies in the fashion industry with reference to their strategic marketing efforts to draw insights for emerging out of the climate change social trap. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this research for marketing theory and practice in helping firms emerge out of social traps in general, and the climate change social trap in particular.

The ‘Silent Guardians’ in the Fight against Corruption: The Case of North Macedonia

Impartial public administration is a key gatekeeper against corruptive practices and the necessary condition for the process of democratisation. Yet, in the case of North Macedonia, there is an ongoing challenge in addressing the problem of politicisation of public administration. On one hand, the ombudsman holds the normative position to safeguard citizens in front of state administration bodies, to act upon the impartiality biases or other deviances of norms, and to annually report to the National Parliament. On the other hand, the parliament should be able to hold executives and institutions accountable for their actions and to act upon the ombudsman’s recommendations. However, there is a limited understanding of the role that these two institutions can play in an effective fight against corruption as part of the democratisation processes. The purpose of the article is to examine the institutional gaps where the opportunities for corruption and social traps are encouraged. Based on theoretical, empirical as well as comparative observations, within single case method analysis, this article aims to examine the compliance of the theoretical fingerprints with the actual practice and provide a different angle on the institutional opportunities for social traps, in the context of unconsolidated democracies. The findings show that there is a causality between the institutional ‘silent guardian’ of the citizens and the prevalence of corruption. It also encourages further discussion on the factors that undermine the positions of the ombudsman and the parliament to take active engagement in rooting out the corruption from societies.

Social Capital

Social capital, which is built upon trust, social networks, and the coordination of collective action, is said to be the glue binding society together and the lubricant that facilitates frictionless democratic government. General social trust—trust in strangers and people unlike ourselves—helps to breed political trust and vice versa, and together they help to build and maintain democratic government, the norms of civic engagement, and confidence in government institutions. This chapter examines the theoretical and practical problems to be resolved. Do the causal arrows run upwards from individuals to institutions or downwards from institutions to individuals? If the bottom-up approach is accepted, then social engineering must concentrate on raising levels of education and wealth. The top-down approach requires building state institutions that are impartial, corruption-free, and transparent. Either way, the intractable problems of bootstraps and social traps must be solved.