Minka Woermann (PhD), the Chair of the Department of Philosophy, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Head of the Unit for Business Ethics and Public Integrity in the Centre for Applied Ethics. Her research interests include post-structural (French) philosophy, critical complexity theory, ethics, and business ethics. She is the author of Bridging Complexity and Post-Structuralism: Insights and Implications (Springer, 2016) and of On the (Im)Possibility of Business Ethics: Critical Complexity, Deconstruction, and Implications for Understanding the Ethics of Business (Springer, 2013). She served as the editor-in-chief of the African Journal of Business Ethics from 2013 to 2016.
Selected publications
Monographs
Woermann, M. 2016. Bridging Complexity and Post-Structuralism: Insights and Implications. Switzerland: Springer International, 205 pp.
Woermann, M. 2013. On the (Im)Possibility of Business Ethics: Critical Complexity, Deconstruction, and Implications for Understanding the Ethics of Business. Dordrecht: Springer, 175 pp.
Journal articles
Woermann, M. and Engelbrecht, S. 2019. The Ubuntu challenge to business: From stakeholders to relationholders. Journal of Business Ethics. Published in 2017 in an online virtual edition on Business Ethics in Africa; published in 2019 in vol. 157(1): 27-44.
Woermann, M., Human, O., and Preiser, R. 2018. General complexity: a philosophical and critical perspective. Emergence: Complexity and Organization, (20)2, 30 June 2018.
Hall, S. and Woermann, M. 2014. From inequality to equality: Evaluating normative justifications for affirmative action as racial redress. African Journal of Business Ethics, 8(2): 61 – 76.
Woermann, M. 2013. ‘Moral imperatives for an immanent world: investigating the pragmatist, deconstructive, and ante-philosophical positions’, South African Journal of Philosophy, 32(3): 275 – 284.
Woermann, M. and Cilliers, P. 2012. ‘The ethics of complexity and the complexity of ethics’, South African Journal of Philosophy, 31(2): 447 – 463.
Woermann, M. 2011. ‘In corporations we trust? A critique of contractarian-based corporate social responsibility models’, African Journal of Business Ethics,5(1): 26 – 35.
Book chapters
Preiser, R. and Woermann, M. 2019. Complexity, philosophy and ethics. In Global Challenges, Governance, and Complexity: Applications and Frontiers, V. Galaz (ed.). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 38 – 62.
Woermann, M. 2019. Complexity and the normativity of law. In J. Murray, T. Webb, and S. Wheately (eds.). Complexity Theory & Law: Mapping an Emergent Jurisprudence. London / New York: Routledge, 234 – 250.
Woermann, M. 2018. Business ethics in Africa. In E. Heath, B. Kaldis, and A. Marcoux (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Business Ethics. London / New York: Routledge, 624 – 640.
Woermann, M. and Cilliers, P. 2016. ‘The ethics of complexity and the complexity of ethics’ in Cilliers, P. Critical Complexity. Collected Essays, Preiser, R. (ed.). Berlin: De Gruyter (Ontos), 265 – 284; reprint.
Woermann, M. 2010. ‘Corporate identity, responsibility and the ethics of complexity’ in Cilliers, P. and Preiser, R. (eds.) Complexity, Difference and Identity. Dordrecht: Springer, 167 – 191.
Textbooks
Kretzschmar, L., Prinsloo, F., Prozesky, M., Rossouw, D., Sander, K., Siebrits, J., and Woermann, M. (2019). Ethics for Accountants and Auditors 3rd ed.; 4th ed. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Forthcoming
Mancilla-Garcia, M., Herz, T., Schlüter, M., Preiser, R., Woermann, M. Adopting process-relational perspectives to tackle the challenges of social-ecological systems research. Ecology and Society.
Woermann, M. Towards an African Business Ethics: Past contributions and Future Challenges and Possibilities. In L.C. Rodrigues and J. Chimakonam (eds.). Key Issues in African Ethics. London: Bloomsbury.
Dr. Woermann’s full CV and publications can be downloaded from https://sun.academia.edu/MinkaWoermann
Teaching
Undergraduate
Philosophy 314: Structuralism and Post-structuralism
Postgraduate
- Complexity, post-structuralism, and ethics (Honours)
- Contributing lecturer: Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Ethics
- Business ethics (MPhil in Applied Ethics)
