In class we discuss the question of how we can create the paradigm shift that negates the cultural worldviews that legitimate not taking sexual assault or violence against women seriously or viewing these issues as less important than personal social status or institutional reputation. Several concepts we have studied this term are useful in addressing this broader question.
1. Using concepts from Blind Spots and Giving Voice to Values, explain bounded ethicality and ethical fading and identify some of the factors in university settings that contribute to both of these problems?
2. Giving voice to values calls for understanding your diverse target audiences, what they feel they have at stake, and their reasons and rationalizations for inaction or for ethically fading an issue.
a. Who are the most important stakeholders when it comes to addressing sexual assault on campus and what are their perceived stakes.
b. What are the most important reasons and rationalizations involved in this issue and how might you specifically respond to them? (If space allows, you may want to consider other concepts from Blind Spots and Giving Voice to Values relevant to understanding the issue.)
3. How might we go about creating the organizational structures or conditions that make a place open to giving voice to these issues?
a. What kinds of interventions would you propose designing or scripting and rehearsing so you or others might be better equipped to handle potentially unethical or harmful situations pertaining to this issue?