“Imagining Other”

CSR in Context Chapter 9:

Overview of Viewpoints and Remedies.

Imagining Other Home Page (Index)

Updates for CSR

 

This chapter simply comprises a table which:

 

(i) identifies the five viewpoints on Corporate Social Responsibility as used in previous chapters.

 

(ii) summarises the position taken by each viewpoint on CSR in general, and on each of the topics we have examined.

If you refer back to previous chapters you will find more information on each of the terms used below.

 

Square brackets [   ]  indicate that the terms used in the brackets (e.g. consumer rights/protection – also “reduce re-cycle, re-use), and especially the practices indicated in italics (lifestyle, charity), are advocated by more than one of the viewpoints – e.g. “lifestyle”: some use this to mean simply the latest fashion, others to indicate a radical alternative to the status quo. Likewise charity can be used by business as a way of avoiding CSR, or it can be used by those outside business to “compensate” for the negative effects of business. In the case of The Big Issue, Time Banks, and similar organisations, peoples’ willingness to be charitable has been used as the basis of a new kind of organisation (it is argued!).

 

Links.

 

CSR In Context - Contents Page

 

Chapter 1: Definitions              

 

Chapter 2: Early History

 

Chapter 3: Recent History of CSR

 

Chapter 4: The Workers

 

Chapter 5: The Consumer

 

Chapter 6: The Natural Environment

 

Chapter 7: The 'Third World'

 

Chapter 8: Inequality

 

            1. Rely on Business:              2. Reform: (*)             3. Restrain:                            4. Regulate:                5. Replace/Restructure:

            (or: the market)                         (i.e. from inside)            (i.e. from outside)                     (by government etc)            (the system)

 

CSR:               CSR not exist                           codes, internal              external social audit,                  laws                             socialism etc: “soft”

social audit                   shareholder activism                  pressure groups            to “hard”                                                                                                                                                                                             

 

WORKER (CHAPTER 4):  

 

Enough to employ.                    Managers need to         (Trade unions if                         Laws: HASAWA,            Marxism.         

                        If dissatisfied, not                      care for workers:          national backing)                       Employment                 Workers’ co-operatives.

                        managers’ problem.                  TQM, etc.                                                                    protection, unfair            Alternative technology,

                        “Worker a                                “Workers have                                                             dismissal etc.

commodity.”                             rights”

 

CONSUMER (CHAPTER 5):         

 

“Caveat emptor”                       Self-regulation:  Consumer Assoc.                                 Laws: Trades                No shopping!

                                                                        Codes, ASA etc.          Countervailing power.               Description etc             Adbusters.

                                                                        Body Shop.                  Consumer boycotts.                                                      Oppose market values.

                        Consumer adaption       [Rights………………lifestyle……………Protection…………………..            Rejection]

                                    1st wave                                                                                   2nd wave                                   3rd wave

 

ENVIRONMENT (CHAPTER 6):

                       

Market will protect.                  Green business.            Greenpeace, FOE.                   Environmental               Eco-housing, etc

                        (Kyoto)                                    Sustainable                   Kyoto?                                     Protection Laws.            Sustainability.

                                                                        Capitalism.                   Carbon footprint                       Govt. incentives.            Zero growth.

                                                            [Three Rs: reduce, recycle, re-use…..lifestyle…………………………………]

 

THIRD WORLD (CHAPTER 7):

                       

Free trade.                               Reduce tariff                 NGOs, (Oxfam,                       (Not applicable?)            Fairtrade, ITDG

                        Neo-liberalism                          barriers, fairer               ActionAid,ATD 4th World)       Overseas aid.               Anti-globalists.

                                                                        trade.                           UN                                          (Note WTO, IMF            Anti-capitalists,

                                    [charity……………………………………]                                                  World Bank)                Zapatistas etc.

 

INEQUALITIES (CHAPTER 8):

 

Market is fair.                           Corporate giving.          Charities (support                     Government’s role.            Social Enterprise                      

“Trickle down”                         Bus. in Community.       from business)                          Partnerships, D.A.s.            Co-operatives

[charity……………………………………]                                                                                      LETS, Time Banks, etc

 

 

(*) Update: the book ‘Rethinking Capitalism’ by Mariana Mazzucato and Michael Jacobs (with contributions from Joseph Stiglitz and others) is a recent contribution to this viewpoint. (July 2016)

See also the authors’ comments on Theresa May’s campaign speech before she became Prime Minister, Guardian 20th July 2016.

 

CSR IN CONTEXT – THE END