Review of Kiyoteru Tsutsui and Alwyn Lim (eds.), "Corporate Social Responsibility in a Globalizing World" (original) (raw)
Related papers
International Affairs, 2006
The May 2005 issue of International Affairs addressed the theme of critical perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the developing world. The aim of this article is to take the debate a step further. Five researchers and practitioners on corporate social responsibility and development in various regions in the developing world—Central America, Pakistan, China, Vietnam, Argentina and India—using knowledge gained by their empirical research, argue that the management-oriented perspective on CSR and development is one-sided. While recognizing that critical approaches to the question have emerged, there is still a need to know which issues should form part of a critical research agenda on CSR and development.In this article the authors seek to fill this gap in order to facilitate a more in-depth investigation of what CSR initiatives can or cannot achieve in relation to improving conditions of workers and communities in the global South. They suggest that a critical research agenda on CSR and development should encompass four areas: a) the relationship between business and poverty reduction; b) the impact of CSR initiatives; c) governance dimensions of CSR; and d) power and participation in CSR. Such an alternative critical approach focuses on society's most vulnerable groups and adopts a ‘people-centred’ perspective as a counterbalance to the dominant ‘business case’ perspective. The authors conclude that this has significant implications for CSR practice.
The Academy of Management …, 2009
Despite differences of opinion about the efficacy of corporate social responsibility, there is a general consensus among academics, policy makers, and practitioners that corporations operate with a social sanction that requires that they operate within the norms and mores of the societies in which they exist. In this article I argue that the notion of a socially responsible corporation is potentially an oxymoron because of the naturally conflicted nature of the corporation. This has profound implications for our understanding of corporate social responsibility, what we view as the relevant issues relating to it, and how we investigate its role and impact.
The Jus Semper Global Alliance, 2020
If we had truly democratic societies, CSR would not exist, nor would it have to. Instead, we would have a global binding regulatory system of business practice determined by the people, not by multilateral organizations, corporate lobbyists, and revolving-door politicians. The usurpation of the democratic ethos was inevitable because capitalism and real democracy are inherently incompatible and thus cannot coexist. Such concepts as capitalist democracy or democratic capitalism are self-contradictory, for we can hardly find a more direct antagonism than between the raison d’êtres of democracy and capitalism. Democracy prioritizes social coexistence and the achievement of equal welfare for every rank of society, especially the dispossessed. Capitalism, in stark contrast, prioritizes the pursuit of the individual’s private interest with no regard for the impact that such activity has on the welfare of others. Fundamental elements of true democracy such as equality, social justice, welfare, and regulation are anathema to capitalism and thus to marketocracy. Businesses thus cannot and will not be socially responsible as long as the institutions of democracy remain captured by marketocracy. Consequently, we cannot pretend to fix the problems inherent to capitalism without replacing capitalism. If we aspire to build a completely new paradigm, then we must realize that many elements of our value system will cease to have meaning. The concept of a “living wage,” for example, would be treated as a relic of the marketocratic system, as the wage system and capital-labor divide are antithetical to true democracy. We must instead transcend the market in order to redefine how work will be remunerated in new socially and environmentally sustainable enterprises. In the same way, CSR and corporate redesign also become moot points because the nature of business will be completely replaced by new concepts. To advance this shift, we need to first establish a truly democratic ethos. We, the Demos, must organize across the world to liberate our national and multilateral institutions from their abduction by dominant classes. To establish a truly democratic ethos, where the people are directly involved in protecting our common and individual rights, we need to build a new institutional edifice designed to provide conditions of life worthy of human dignity and to sustain the planet and all its inhabitants. Rather than corporate redesign, we need a social contract redesign.
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
In this article I critically analyze contemporary discourses of corporate social responsibility and related discourses of sustainability and corporate citizenship. I argue that despite their emancipa-tory rhetoric, discourses of corporate citizenship, social responsibility and sustainability are defined by narrow business interests and serve to curtail interests of external stakeholders. I provide an alternate perspective, one that views discourses of corporate citizenship, corporate social responsibility , and sustainability as ideological movements that are intended to legitimize and consolidate the power of large corporations. I also problematize the popular notion of organizational 'stake-holders'. I argue that stakeholder theory of the firm represents a form of stakeholder colonialism that serves to regulate the behavior of stakeholders. I conclude by discussing implications for critical management studies.
Capitalist globalization, corporate social responsibility and social policy
2010
Abstract This article outlines how the twin crises of capitalist globalization—of class polarization and ecological unsustainability—combine to produce the need for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to attempt to bridge the gap between the rhetoric and reality of corporate conduct. The first section outlines how CSR relates to capitalist globalization and how it is integrated into the activities of the Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC).