Preface

Reality depends crucially on human care for a safe natural environment, and on education and management of humans. If humans consider social responsibility as their own responsibility it would help them to survive.

Economic growth has become a universal goal during recent decades, but this growth has been hampered due to the resource limitations. The Neo-liberalism is therefore not considered a viable economic model as it lacks social responsibility. Thus, it helps monopolies to dominate the world under the label of the free market. ISO 26000 on Social Responsibility (ISO, 2010) elaborates an innovative alternative. European Union (2011) recommends its member states and big companies to support social responsibility as a way out from the current crisis; it defines social responsibility as one’s responsibility for one’s impacts on society, i.e. on humans and nature. It is also found complementary with sustainable development.

This book offers an approach for implementation of ISO 26000, based on its two linking concepts: interdependence and holism. They originate from systems theory and cybernetics, which can unite the sciences with all other branches of knowledge and related behavior, while the traditional division of the sciences and humanities tends to separate them. Specialization can lead to important in-depth insights and also cause important failures, as evidenced by the 2008 economic crisis, the two World Wars, continuing warfare, and other major socio-environmental crises.

Neo-liberalism differs from socially responsible liberalism, which includes the following attributes: individual human freedom; tolerance; shared power; maximum well-being for the majority; freedom of economic activity; entrepreneurship; a class-free society of free and equal individuals; a middle-class society with no essential differences in property level; security from the self-will of government, including the state; power in synergy with responsibility; science, education, art; and civil society (Prunk, 2010).

This book will explore these relationships in eight chapters, as follows:

1. Avoiding a Global Transport Crisis Following the Depletion of Oil and Gas Supplies: A Crucial Case of Social Responsibility, John Kidd
2. The Role of Indicators and Scientific Research in the Sustainable Development of Croatia: An Overview, Emira Becic and Jadranka Švarc
3. Social Responsibility Promotion by a Learning Region for Sustainable Development: A Case from Slovenia, Ana Vovk Korže and Mojca Kokot Krajnc
4. University Education on Sustainable Development as a Contribution to the Shared Responsibility of Experts and Knowledge-Based Society, Jan W. Dobrowolski
5. Performance Levels of Roma Pupils in Foreign Language Learning: Social Responsibility in School Saša Jazbec, Branka Cagran and Alja Lipavic Oštir
6. Can Strategic Management Show the way out from the Current Crisis Towards Social Responsibility? Tjaša Štrukelj
7. Family and Non-Family Enterprises: Differences in Core Values, Cultureand Ethical Climate as Signs of Social Responsibility, Mojca Duh and Jernej Belak
8. Socially Responsible Management in Public Administration, Nina Tomazevic