Citizenship, accountability and community: the limits of the CSR agenda

While the issue of the role of the private sector in development is very much on the agenda of donors and governments, mainstream Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) debates continue to neglect questions with regard to the accountability of companies to the communities in which they invest. Liberal notions of CSR place great emphasis on voluntary, partnership and market based approaches to tackling social and environmental problems and managing conflict. While the rise of voluntary standards and codes of conduct in the North and the growing popularity of various forms of 'civil regulation' has improved the responsiveness of corporations to social and environmental issues, there are doubts about their transferability or relevance in many southern settings. This is particularly so when viewed from the perspective of communities pursuing corporate accountability in the absence of donor, NGO or government pressure for company reform. It is in these 'majority world' settings that we encounter the limits of the liberal CSR agenda.
This article therefore explores the different tools that poorer communities have developed in order to construct mechanisms of corporate accountability. Recent work in India is drawn upon to ground the analysis, but reference is made to many other cases in different regions of the world and across a variety of sectors. It is suggested that many state-based, community-based and company-based factors determine the likely success of such initiatives. Power disparities and how to contest them emerge as key, however, and their neglect within mainstream CSR approaches undermines their ability to address issues of corporate accountability in situations characterized by sharp inequities in power. The emphasis here is on the process of promoting corporate accountability, and the relations of power that underpin these, rather than the achievement of more narrowly defined indicators of corporate performance.     

Flexibility or exploitation? Corporate social responsibility and the perils of universalization (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

As anthropologists and other critics of capitalism turn their attention to the controversial and burgeoning corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement, most focus on conflicts in community relations and environmental degradation. Few scholars have examined equally pertinent questions of labor restructuring, even though these transformations emerged at about the same time as the rise of CSR. In this article, we draw on research in two Peruvian mining communities to explore the potential contradiction between the simultaneous mandate for corporations to present themselves as responsible employers, on the one hand, and the drive to rationalize labor and reduce financial responsibility for the workforce, on the other. We suggest that for both corporate officials and some scholars, this tension remains a latent one because CSR discourses and documents generalize corporate interests as the interests of mines as a whole.     

The false developmental promise of Corporate Social Responsibility: evidence from multinational oil companies

Using the example of multinational oil companies, this article suggests that there are fundamental problems surrounding the capacity of private firms to deliver development and the aspiration of achieving development through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may be fundamentally flawed. The article is based on an extensive twelve-month research project on the Gulf of Guinea region funded by the Nuffield Foundation. This research identified a number of constraints to a developmental role for CSR: the subservience of CSR schemes to corporate objectives; country- and context-specific issues; the failure to involve the beneficiaries of CSR; the lack of human resources; technical/managerial approaches of company staff and the lack of CSR's integration into larger development plans. But even if private companies were able to overcome practical problems, it argues that the current CSR agenda fails to address the crucial issues of governance and the negative macro-level effects that multinational companies cause in host countries. The article concludes by suggesting that a focus on CSR may divert attention from broader political, economic and social solutions for developmental problems.     

Critical perspectives on CSR and development: what we know, what we don't know, and what we need to know

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.     

Corporate gift or political sacrifice? State-sponsored CSR and electricity provision in Guinean extractive enclaves

Going beyond a static conceptualization of the mining enclave, recent research increasingly scrutinizes the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) schemes as a means of territorial entanglement. Several authors refer to the notion of the “corporate gift” to describe these control and coping strategies as well as the resulting power relations between companies and the population around the production facilities. In this article, we focus on electricity provision as an example for such a “gift”. Extensive field research in the Guinean mining areas of Siguiri, Kamsar, and Mambia showed that in all of these areas, the mining companies not only acted as “givers” of electricity, but also handed over the bill for this electricity provision to the state. Confronted with this curious fact of state-sponsored CSR, this article questions the foundations of the arguments around the notion of the corporate gift and comes to the conclusion that these three electrification projects were, at the same time, acts of “political sacrifice”. This concept points beyond the obvious conclusion that mining companies try to maximize their legitimization efforts in an increasingly competitive environment and underlines the role of the state in “company-community” relations and the maintenance of extractive enclaves.     

Corporate Regional Responsibility – Warum engagieren sich Unternehmen gemeinsam für ihre Region?

Companies can voluntarily participate in matters of regional developments, thereby accepting responsibility on a regional level. Referring to the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the term Corporate Regional Responsibility (CRR) is used to describe this behavior. Moreover, companies can form a CRR-corporation with other companies in order to take over a collective CRR. So far, the motives of companies for exercising collective CRR are unknown, thus, corporate resources can not be mobilized and utilized efficiently for regional developments. This article explores the subject of collective CRR and illustrates CRR motives using the example of the two CRR-cooperations Initiativkreis Ruhr and Wirtschaftsinitiative FrankfurtRheinMain.     

Can MNCs promote more inclusive tourism? Apollo tour operator's sustainability work

ABSTRACT

Outbound tour operators are key actors in international mass tourism. However, their contribution to more sustainable and inclusive forms of tourism has been critically questioned. Drawing from new institutional theories in organization studies, and informed by the case of one of the largest Scandinavian tour operators, we examine the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability work in large tour operators and the challenges faced in being more inclusive. On the basis of in-depth interviews with corporate officers, document analysis and media reports, we show how top-down coercive and normative pressures, coming from the parent company and the host society shape the ability of the daughter corporation to elaborate a more inclusive agenda. However, daughter companies do not merely comply with these institutional pressures and policy is also developed from the ‘bottom-up’. We show how the tour operator's sustainability work is also the result of organizational responses including buffering, bargaining, negotiating and influencing the parent organization. By creating intra and inter-sectoral learning and collaborative industry platforms, MNCs not only exchange and diffuse more inclusive practices among the industry, but also anticipate future normative pressures such as legislation and brand risk. Daughter organizations help shape their institutional arrangements through internal collaborative platforms and by incorporating local events and societal concerns into the multinational CSR policy, especially when flexible policy frameworks operate, and the corporate CSR agenda and organizational field are under formation. However, risks do exist, in the absence of institutional pressures, of perpetuating a superficial adoption of more inclusive practices in the mass tourism industry.     

The Cutting Edge of Accumulation: Neoliberal Risk Mitigation,the Baku‐Tbilisi‐Ceyhan Pipeline and its Impact

Abstract: Adopting a historical materialist position, this article looks at new methods deployed to expand processes of accumulation and the impact that this has at different scales. Focusing upon the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline (traversing Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey), the article pays particular attention to the technocratic tools of “social neoliberalism” and corporate social responsibility, which variously incorporate environmental and social impact assessments, community investment programmes and voluntary codes of conduct. While such approaches seek to relegitimise the efforts of capital and its assistants and mitigate their risks, the assessment below details how these approaches actually assist in facilitating an increase in risk for many people. The article begins by looking at the accumulation drive pushing BTC and then provides an account of how new approaches to pipeline governance have both emerged and been incorporated into the project. The article then details what it is that these approaches have actually facilitated at four scales—the local, the national, the regional and the supra‐regional.     

Corporate social responsibility in tourism post-2015: a Development First approach

Most large tourism businesses have corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives that advance environmental, economic and social sustainability. Existing research shows that initiatives often tend to be ad hoc, however, and linked to cost-savings and the reputation of the business. We suggest that this approach equates with Tourism First planning. In response to the greater demands being placed on businesses to act responsibly in the post-2015 era, we propose a Development First framework for CSR that is adapted from Peter Burns’ tourism planning model. This framework has a holistic, sustainable and people-centred focus and enables geographers and other social scientists to analyse the potential for initiatives to lead to positive, long-term development outcomes in different localities.     

Law and Famine: Learning from the Hunger Courts in South Sudan

Activists and scholars are seeking to end famine by promoting international legal accountability for starvation. This article deepens our understanding of the relationship between the politics of famine and law by observing the ongoing prevalence and power of legal norms and institutions during times of famine. It reveals the widespread use of hunger courts in famine-prone South Sudan and their role in legally enforcing social networks that provide for the most vulnerable. Based on analysis of country-wide survey data from 2018 and 2019, qualitative interviews from 2019‒22 and in-depth ethnographic observations of hunger courts in one chiefdom in South Sudan during a period of famine-level hunger in 2018 and 2019, the article argues that hunger courts have played a key role in enforcing social networks. These courts have also supported continuity of chiefs’ authority despite crisis. The article concludes by addressing two issues: whether law is necessarily emancipatory in times of famine, and whether legal norms have shifted responsibility for hunger away from the political economies and conflicts that cause famine, instead placing blame and shame on the families of the most vulnerable.     

Export of environmental technologies by publicly owned companies: approaches,drivers and obstacles among Swedish municipal companies

This article focuses on the export of environmental technology by publicly owned companies. The export of such technologies has the potential to contribute to economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability. However, research on this emerging topic has so far largely focused on privately owned SMEs compared to publicly owned companies. Using interviews with 12 Swedish municipally owned companies which develop such systems and a survey with 36 others, we analyse their approaches, drivers for and obstacles to export. These companies use a combination of different approaches such as subsidiaries, independent projects, licensing and private-public partnerships to engage in export. However, in contrast to private companies which are often driven by internal factors such as extra sales, these municipally owned companies are largely motivated by external factors such as customer requests and opportunities to contribute to environmental sustainability. Furthermore, their main export barriers relate to differences between the business culture and political systems in their home and target markets. Their export experiences are influenced by their municipal ownership, the types of technologies they develop and the institutional contexts within which they operate. This study reveals an actor type struggling to find a balance between domestic obligations and commercialization in international markets.     

Buyer Engagement and Labour Conditions in Global Supply Chains: The Bangladesh Accord and Beyond

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (‘the Accord’) has received both praise and criticism concerning its implications for corporate responsibility and power. This article contributes to the debate by situating the Accord within a broader set of activities that buyers are engaged in to promote better labour conditions in their supply chains. The authors identify three approaches of buyer engagement: auditing, capacity building and advocacy. Drawing on interviews conducted with European brands and retailers, the article shows how buyers perceive the merits and challenges of these approaches, and whether and how they discharge responsibility and power through these activities. The study shows that the Accord is seen primarily as part of the auditing approach with a key feature being its use of collective leverage as a means of enforcement. While greater buyer power has not necessarily been accompanied by greater responsibility, the article highlights heterogeneity among buyers in how they take up different approaches, painting a more nuanced picture of buyer responsibility and power.     

‘Cypriot-led,Cypriot-owned’: Cyprus talks revisited

Cyprus occupies an unenviable position among a group of intractable international conflicts which transcend their national borders and whose resolution has eluded third-party mediation. The Cyprus dispute has preoccupied theorists and practitioners of conflict resolution ever since the United Nations stationed its peacekeeping force on the island in 1964. Even attempts by the United Nations to revitalise the Cyprus talks following the 2004 referendum on the Annan plan have not yielded satisfactory results. For decades, the Cyprus problem has challenged conventional international analysis and defied traditional approaches to negotiation and peacemaking. This article grapples with the question of why this conflict has not been resolved despite endless negotiations. By extrapolating three seemingly distinct variables—Cypriotisation, Europeanisation and post-Kemalism—this article alludes to changes in the conflict's contextual parameters that are conducive to a political settlement.     

Chinese engagement in Southeast Asian energy and mineral resources: motivations and outlook

Abstract

The energy and mineral resource base of Southeast Asia is relatively modest by international standards. Nevertheless, Chinese energy and mining companies have been investing heavily in the region over recent years, in comparison with multinational companies and state-backed companies from other Asian countries. This paper applies a framework derived from the field of business studies to analyze why the scale of China’s engagement in Southeast Asia has become so great and how the motivations vary between the different energy and resource industries. The motivations for these activities reflect a mix of corporate and state objectives. Corporate objectives include securing energy or resource supply chains, increasing or diversifying their asset base, and enhancing their profits or market share. The motivations of the government range from straightforward support of the companies for the purpose of industrial strategy and security of resource supply, to development assistance and regional strategic positioning. The different motivations of the oil and gas, hydropower, and mining industries arise from the particular character of each market, both within China and globally. Southeast Asia has the twin advantages of geographic and apparent cultural proximity to China. Nevertheless, inexperience and a desire to catch up with their international peers have resulted in companies applying low social and environmental standards in some high profile projects. The subsequent disputes, together with the current low level of resource prices, may constrain the further growth of Chinese investment in the near future.     

‘No Smoke without Fire’: Citizenship and Securing Economic Enclaves in Mozambique

This article explores the complicated interrelationship between economic enclaves, their associated security practices and the formation of national citizens in Mozambique. From the colonial era of company rule to the large‐scale foreign direct investments of the present day, investors have feared the destructive fires of rampant ‘mobs’, unruly workers and the potentially rebellious populace more generally. Signs of smoke point to trouble for investors, who can draw on complex security arrangements, including corporate social responsibility programmes, unions, private security companies, community leaders, state police and specialized state and rapid response units with the latest communications and transport technologies, to try to protect their investments from labour unrest and political demands. Through a variety of ethnographic materials on mega‐investments in the sugar industry over the last two decades, the article explores the centrality of complex security arrangements to strategies of governance that use such arrangements in an attempt to produce disciplined national subjects.     

社区居民对景区开发企业社会责任的感知——基于地方依恋的视角

旅游景区开发企业的社会责任意识与行为是影响遗产地可持续发展的重要因素之一,而社区居民对景区开发企业社会责任的感知直接影响旅游地企业与社区的关系。本文通过对世界自然遗产地武陵源社区居民的调查研究,分析社区居民地方依恋、遗产价值认知与他们对景区开发企业社会责任感知的关系,研究发现:①社区居民认为景区开发企业应对股东、游客、员工、遗产和政府承担责任,特别是要对周边环境与社区居民负责;②地方依恋感和遗产价值认知较强的居民对景区开发企业履行社会责任有着更高的预期;③地方依恋通过加强居民的遗产价值认知深化其对景区开发企业应承担社会责任的感知。     

Globalization, Corporate Social Responsibility and poverty

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a major focus of interest for development practitioners in recent years. While development NGOs have been critical of voluntary corporate initiatives, official development agencies have taken a more positive view and in some cases encouraged CSR. This article locates the growth of CSR in the context of global deregulation since the early 1980s, highlighting the key drivers that have led to its adoption by many leading transnational corporations. It then describes the factors that have led to the recent emphasis given to CSR by both bilateral and multilateral development agencies and the United Nations. A framework for analysing the links between foreign direct investment and poverty is developed focusing on the impacts on the poor as producers, consumers and beneficiaries of government expenditures. This framework is used to illustrate the limitations of CSR in terms of likely impacts on poverty reduction through each of the channels identified and also to point to areas in which CSR may have some positive benefits. Overall, the article concludes that it is unlikely to play the significant role in poverty reduction in development countries that its proponents claim for it.     

On the side of the angels: altruism in Danish development aid 1960–2005

Based on a theoretical definition of altruism the article investigates the relationship between this and other motives in Danish official development assistance 1960–2005. In the historical unfolding and general mode of operation of the Danish aid regime altruism has been an important, but only vaguely specified motive, endorsed by those involved on all levels: politicians, interest groups, specialists, activists and voters. However, other important motives, of an economic and political and even structural-systemic nature, both national and international, can also be identified. Some of these are deemed reconcilable with an altruistic core motivation while others exercised a disruptive and competing influence. The multiplicity of agency and the derived need for consensus has tended to obstruct accountability and dilute responsibility in the aid system. Unfortunately, the frequent invocations of altruism in order to justify the aid programme may have served to downplay the importance of problems with aid efficiency and to marginalise criticism.     

Corporate Social Responsibility: reinventing the meaning of development?

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been adopted as an approach to international development. But who does it benefit and in what ways? Most importantly, does it allow certain interest groups to redefine the meaning of international development success? This article examines the historical relationship between business and development and compares how expectations of business as exemplified through CSR practices differ from those in the past. It then looks at the role and expectations of business in developing countries and proposes two tests for assessing if CSR makes a positive contribution to development goals based on whether it redefines the meaning of good business practice in the interests of the poor and marginalized, and if it helps development practitioners to manage more effectively the possibility and consequences of global capitalism for poor countries. The article argues that the interests of business are not adequately aligned with those of the poor, and explains why CSR does little to redress this. It argues that the business case in some instances overrides the developmental case for certain actions, and that business thinking is increasingly evident in the policies and practices of international development. Although CSR may have a positive contribution to make in some circumstances, its limitations need to be understood if development's case for involving business is not to be subsumed by business reasons for engaging with (and by‐passing) developing countries.     

Righting the course? Humanitarian intervention,the war on terror and the future of Afghanistan

The US‐led post 9/11 ‘intervention’ in Afghanistan was, by definition, not a humanitarian intervention. The intervention in Afghanistan was defined as an act of self‐defence by the US and it was one of the first steps in the ‘war on terror’ by the US and its allies: it had no intention or clear strategies for long‐term stabilization, state‐building or development. The US‐led international coalition failed to ‘find’ Al‐Qaeda in the short term and new arguments had to be made to justify continued international presence. The initial agenda was quickly blurred by a mismatch of intentions including those of long‐term stabilization and state‐building. The ideas developed through the Bonn Agreement (2001–5) and continued through the Afghanistan Compact (2006–10) have focused on building a centrally governed state (sometimes defined as democratic) that has a monopoly on the use of force. Their shortcomings are already well‐documented: the urgency of the Bonn Conference and of the adoption of the Bonn Agreement ostensibly meant trading expediency and stability for accountability and a clean slate, which is not to say that there were no good intentions at Bonn from stakeholders, but that Afghans and the international community put power‐sharing before progress. The choices made at Bonn may have contributed to the culture of impunity and the entrenched poverty that is gripping Afghanistan today. This article responds to the claims that state‐building and all that goes with it are not the responsibility of the ‘international community’ by addressing the accountability and humanitarian paradoxes. The question remains, however, about who should be responsible for reform and politically accountable in the aftermath of non‐humanitarian (and indeed even humanitarian) interventions?