Oswald von Nell Breuning Institute for Business and Social Ethics
The Oswald von Nell Breuning Institute for Economic and Social Ethics was founded in 1990 by the Philosophical-Theological University of Sankt Georgen . It is used for research and policy advice from the perspective of Christian social ethics , especially business ethics . It is thus in the tradition of Catholic social teaching , whose Nestor Pater Oswald von Nell-Breuning (1890–1991) was considered in the last decades of his life.
From its establishment until 2006, the institute was headed by the Catholic theologian, economist and Jesuit Friedhelm Hengsbach . Since then, the head of the institute has been Bernhard Emunds .
A particular focus of the institute's socio-ethical work is business ethics, i.e. the normative reflection of those institutions that make up the sub-area “economy” in a society or the co-operation context “world economy” at the international level. It is characteristic of political business ethics , as it is being developed at the Nell-Breunig-Institut, that business is first understood as a part of a democratic society. In a democratic society, the citizens themselves determine how they want to shape the institutions in which they interact. This also applies to the economic institutions, which are to be measured by the tasks which members of society expect them to be fulfilled. In addition to goals that can be formulated in a morality with a universal claim to validity, the citizens' ideas of “good business” must also be taken into account.
The main research areas at the institute are the future of gainful employment and the welfare state as well as developments on the international financial markets and in the global economy as a whole.