[ICOR Research Seminar] Entangling Care and Justice in Practice: the Case of Volunteers Working with Homeless Populations in Buenos Aires / Business Model Innovation in Social Enterprises: a Review and Reflections on Research Questions for thesis development
October 2nd, 2025
11am – 12:30pm in Promenade Building (PR13) & on Zoom
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Speakers:
Emmanouela MANDALAKI, Full Professor in the People and Organisations Department at NEOMA Business School, France
& Sofia RAYMOND, PhD Student at IÉSEG School of Management
abstract
Adding to business ethics literature often positioning care and justice in opposition, this study draws on a 24-month ethnography with an NGO serving homeless populations in Buenos Aires, to explore how these
principles converge in ethically ambivalent practices. We examine how volunteers navigate ethical tensions when serving homeless individuals, arguing that care and justice are dynamically interdependent rather than mutually exclusive in situations requiring ethical resolution. Our conceptualization surfaces processes of embodied awareness of the other, relational evaluation of needs and resources, and contextually situated resolution, through which care and justice intertwine in practice, discussing how justice manifests as care for “the other of the other.” By centering the lived experiences of volunteers, this study underscores the critical role of practical evaluations in reconciling ethical tensions, whereby justice and relational care do not exclude each other but rather coexist in ethically ambivalent situations.