Game-Street: Rhetoric and Critical Play for Business Ethics Instruction

This thesis explores business ethics instruction as a rhetorical problem and discusses critical play as a means of learning. Artistotle\u27s concept of phronesis, or practical wisdom, is used as a way of demonstrating the problematic nature of business ethics pedagogy theory and practice when viewed through a lens of social epistemic rhetorical theory. Rather than attempting to quantify business ethics, this work argues for a subversive paradigm achievable through critical play. Game space is observed in two domains of ethical learning. I argue that the business ethics classroom space of Clemson University is a form of remediated non-space constrained by game-esque mechanics and social conventions. A Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing game (in this case, World of Warcraft) offers illustration of aligning business ethics learning with play. Critical play permits subversion and/or unlearning (replacement of existing paradigms with new ones), and is observed in classroom (non-space) and World of Warcraft (virtual mixed-ecology space). For educators and theorists interested in business ethics instruction, this thesis suggests both a mechanism of \u27viewing\u27 and \u27teaching\u27 that responds to the rhetorical problem of business ethics and concludes with a call for interactive ethics across the curricula