Virtue and Social Enterprise Ethical Alternatives to Capitalism

This book is an exploration of Alasdair MacIntyre’s writings on virtue ethics and John Pearce’s reformist and radical forms of social enterprise. Although Pearce’s work has had academic impact, by his own admission, his ideas lack the necessary philosophical underpinnings. In Virtue and Social Enterprise: Ethical Alternatives to Capitalism, Geraldine Hall draws on MacIntyre to provide such underpinnings. Through a novel synthesis of the works of these two authors, a philosophical grounding is given to Pearce’s radical form of social enterprise. In turn, MacIntyre’s views on virtue are given greater scope to address global issues created by the capitalist paradigm.

With a foreword by Kelvin Knight, this book will be of great interest to scholars and students of Alasdair MacIntyre, virtue ethics, business ethics and social responsibility.

Chapter 1 - Introduction.- Chapter 2 – MacIntyre’s virtue-practice-institution framework.- Chapter 3 – Business within capitalism and MacIntyre.- Chapter 4 – Alternative forms of enterprise and MacIntyre’s framework.- Chapter 5 – Defining Social Enterprise.- Chapter 6 – Contextualising Pearce’s Social Enterprise.- Chapter 7 – Radical Social Enterprise and MacIntyre.- Chapter 8 – Conclusion.

Geraldine Hall has previously taught at the University of South Wales as a Senior Lecturer and was a dissertation supervisor at Cardiff Metropolitan University.  She is currently a freelance writer.