BUSINESS POWER FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: THE ROLE OF DISCOURSES

Recentemente tem sido dispensada uma significativa atencao ao papel dos atores empresariais na Governanca Ambiental Global (GAG). Ha um consenso geral que o poder das redes de atores empresariais transnacionais na GAG tem sido negligenciado pelos estudiosos das Relacoes Internacionais (RI) e da Economia Politica Internacional (EPI). Entretanto, nos ultimos anos, novas abordagens teoricas foram desenvolvidas a fim de melhor compreender as dimensoes do poder dos atores empresariais na GAG. Essas novas perspectivas teoricas reconhecem geralmente o crescimento do poder discursivo dos atores empresariais e constatam a falta de estudos empiricos nesse campo. Logo, este artigo mostra, atraves do estudo de caso da Econsense, como as redes de atores empresariais transnacionais influenciam o discurso do desenvolvimento sustentavel no âmbito da GAG. Palavras-chave: Redes de atores empresariais transnacioanais; desenvolvimento sustentavel; analise do discurso; Econsense. Abstract Significant attention has recently been paid to the role of business in global governance. There is a general consensus that the power of transnational private actors in global governance has been neglected by scholars of International Relations (IR) and International Political Economy (IPE). Changing attitudes, expectations of investors and public pressures have urged businesses to integrate ecological and social norms into their practices. Recently, business representatives have begun to create networks that contribute to shaping the sustainable development agenda by influencing the establishment of new norms, novel institutions and discourses. Political science has for a long time tended to neglect the role of transnationally organized actors as well as transnational processes of legitimization. In the past few years, new theoretical frames have been developed in order to better understand the power of private actors and identify different dimensions of business power in global governance. These authors adopt diverse theoretical perspectives but they commonly observe the growing importance of the discursive power of business and the lack of theoretically based empirical studies in this field. At the same time, there is an apparent need to analyze and assess the discursive use of development concepts by businesses. This paper aims to show how business networks influence the discourse on sustainable development. Furthermore it is argued that the specific social constructions of the concepts of ‘sustainable development’ and ‘growth’ demonstrate ambivalences that the corporations have to deal with. The discourses of pan-sectoral organized business actors within the business network econsense provide evidence and examples for studying how and why private actors exert influence within the system of global governance. This study introduces an alternative methodological approach which draws on constructivist ideas and implements the qualitative content analysis and a discourse analytical approach. Keywords: Business, sustainable development, discourse analysis, qualitative content analysis, constructivism