Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Social Responsibility Journal, Volume 10, Issue 2
Although the world is recovering economically from the financial crisis and recession of the past few years, that recovery is not affecting everyone equally. So the economic recovery might be underway, but the social recovery is not happening. Indeed, the concern for the social recovery has been lost beneath the concern with the other legs of Brundtland – and the three legs are certainly not being treated as equal. But sustainability, of course, requires that they all be of concern equally. At the same time, other issues have come into prominence – notably governance and corruption. These have been brought into prominence by the many failures which continue to be revealed.
All of these are, of course, issues which are of concern to this journal and all together provide a rationale for the existence of the journal; its development over the years demonstrates our success in meeting the need. Social responsibility has implications not just for us as individuals but also as members of communities and society at large. Sadly this is often more apparent by its absence than by anything else. Education is one way to bring about change, and this is one important aspect of the work of this journal and of the network of which it is the official mouthpiece. As an academic journal, of course, run by academics, it is impossible to ignore this motivation, and no one involved would wish to ignore this. Another potential way to bring about change, however, is through an engagement in scholarly debates, involving as many people as possible, from as many different backgrounds as possible. The purpose of this journal, therefore, is to foster this debate and to raise an awareness of both the ongoing debate and the need for this debate.
We are now in the tenth volume of the journal, and it seems justified that the aims and scope of this journal have been set deliberately wide in the belief that there are many aspects to the discourse of social responsibility. All are encouraged in this journal, and the contents of this, and every, issue are a reflection of this. Over the years, we have seen a wide variety of issues researched and discussed, and we seek to encourage this diversity. In this global village of ours, it is also important that everyone is given a voice to participate in the discourse. The journal, therefore, encourages contributions from anyone, no matter where in the world they are located and no matter in what disciplinary background they reside, hence the diversity of the contributions in this – and past and future – issues. All contributions have been blind-refereed, of course, but this refereeing has been undertaken in full recognition that different approaches abound as do different expectations around the world. All that matters in this journal is the quality of the contribution rather than the style of presentation. The refereeing process is designed to facilitate this. There is nothing further to say at this point, from an editorial perspective, except to read the content and more particularly contribute to the debate.
David Crowther
