There may be; but, what is "Ubuntu"? Gwen

Ubuntu is an african concept which means humanness. It means valuing our togetherness.

Hi Obert,

How cool is that—another name for Communitarianism, which I am really into; in fact, I found some references to “ubuntu Communitarianism” while Googling. At any rate, a scholar named Esinath Ndiweni has conducted some interviews on ubuntu in connection with Corporate Governance (my main area of scholarship). So, he must have prepared some questionnaires since he seemed to be wandering around Southern Africa checking out organizations that have embraced the ubuntu philosophy in their operations (or at least claim to have embraced it). He wrote an article reporting on his findings entitled, “Towards a Theoretical Framework of Corporate Governance: Perspectives from Southern Africa”. The book that his article appears in is entitled CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN LESS DEVELOPED AND EMERGING ECONOMIES; eds. Matthew Tsamenyi and Shazad Uddin (UK: Emerald Group Publishing, 2008).

Of particular interest is page 342 where he sets forth his research method:

“The paper utilizes multiple methods that include INTERVIEWS, review of documents, and case studies to get evidence about possible influences of ubuntu on organizational practices, particularly concerning corporate governance. It gathered evidence from selected critical incidents across organizations in Southern Africa that reflected the influence of ubuntu on corporate practices. INTERVIEWS were restricted to organizations operating in Zimbabwe…” (Ndiweni, p. 342)

Here is the Google link for the book online so that you can read selected pages for free: http://books.google.com/books?id=3fdefc7RZVUC&pg=PA341&lpg=PA341&dq=ubuntu+communitarianism&source=bl&ots=33RUtXLzuP&sig=Fja4334ooRzfHiBJY-0eqY1YBAY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KEwcUobZFcK1sAS9kIGwBA&ved=0CGMQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=ubuntu%20communitarianism&f=false

Hope this helps,

Gwen

Thank you very much. Am more enlightened now.