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Against corporate responsibility: critical reflections on thinking, practice, content and consequences
Author(s) -
Fougère Martin,
Solitander Nikodemus
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
corporate social responsibility and environmental management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.519
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1535-3966
pISSN - 1535-3958
DOI - 10.1002/csr.204
Subject(s) - corporate social responsibility , articulation (sociology) , argument (complex analysis) , ideology , context (archaeology) , sustainability , content (measure theory) , social responsibility , accountability , environmental ethics , sociology , business practice , political science , public relations , law and economics , positive economics , business , law , economics , politics , history , business administration , philosophy , ecology , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , chemistry , mathematics , archaeology , biology
This article critically reflects on today's dominant articulation of corporate responsibility (CR) in terms of thinking, practice, content and consequences. We examine what has and has not changed since a seminal critique of the notion of business social responsibility put forward by Theodore Levitt 50 years ago. We illustrate our argument with the case of Botnia in Uruguay, which has recently generated much discussion in international media, and other examples that are illuminating on the problematic nature of contemporary CR. We find that little in fact has changed between the 1958 and 2008 versions of CR except for the context of (global) business, especially the threat posed by sustainability questions and the more systematic ideological rejection of regulation. As opposed to these contemporary evolutions, we call for alternative, regulation‐based articulations of CR, which would improve corporate accountability on social and environmental questions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.