“Imagining Other”
Books and Resources for
‘Corporate Social Responsibility’
(See also some booklists at the end of each chapter).
Links:
Topics:
consumer corporate power CSR
(Definition etc)
inequality (see also feminism)
work (also industrial relations, and see
labour movement sm)
Barber, Benjamin R: Consumed: How Markets corrupt children,
infantilise adults and swallow cities whole, Norton. The needy are without
income, and the well-healed are without needs. Children as young as 6 months can form mental images of
corporate logos and mascots, and this shows how advertising is literally
infantilizing us. Need to restore sovereignty of citizen over consumerism.
Goldstein, Noah J and Martin, Steve J: Yes! 50 Secrets from
the Science of Persuasion. (Profile).some nuggets and some very obvious stuff,
from psychology and NLP.
Sigman, Aric: Remotely Controlled: How Television is
Destroying Our Lives – and what we can do about it (noted by Oliver James,
MediaGdn 14.01.08) – shows “how bad ads are for our mental health”.
Cracknell, Andrew: The Real Mad men: the remarkable story of
Madison Avenue’s golden age, Quercus,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/07/real-mad-men-andrew-cracknell?INTCMP=SRCH
- in the ‘50s ads would identify consumers’ weak spots and
then ‘pummel’ them without mercy or respite
- with David Ogilvy ad designers learned how to ‘create an
allure around the product’ (e.g. an eye-patch on model wearing a Hathaway
shirt)
- Doyle Dane Bernbach (especially Bill Bernbach) used an
approach which was ‘honest, witty, relaxed and original’ – each ad ‘has a fresh
idea’ (e.g. ‘think small’ for VW)
- the book demonstrates the power of brands by using ‘Mad
Men’ as a hook – even though the TV series has nothing to do with the
characters from Madison Ave described in the book!!
James, Oliver:
Affluenza: how to be successful and stay sane; Vermillion L17.99. Draws on
his earlier work:
Lawson, Neal: All
Consuming, Penguin £10.99. (Reviewed NS 130709) shows how we have become
obsessive consumers, living beyond our means, in turbo-consumerism. Envisions a
different society with more time and less consumption – need downshifting (?),
ethical shopping, boycotting… Reams of statistics, perhaps asking for too
sweeping a change? But in these crisis times we need to make these proposals
more loudly (some of us have been making them for years!!!).
Review also refers to this year’s Reith lectures by Michael Sandel…
Medawar, Charles; The
Social Audit Consumer Handbook, Social Audit, 1978
Ditto: Insult or
Injury, Social Audit
Corporate Power: csr1definitions.htm#corporatepower
Aaronovitch, S and
Sawyer, M: Big Business, Macmillan 1977
Bannock, G: The
Juggernauts, Penguin 1971
Bakan, Noel: The
Corporation,
Chapman, Peter:
Jungle Capitalism… (Canongate 2008): story of the banana industry, esp
United Fruit Cy and its colonial role: early 20th c controlled large
swathes of central America, monopolized railways in Guatemala, in Colombia
1,000 workers killed when strikes broke out at plantations, with
Hind, Dan: The Threat
to Reason: How the Enlightenment was Hijacked and How we can reclaim it,
Verso: corporations and the state use their power to claim their interests are
rational, and to label opponents as irrational (Earthmatters) ct: Taverne, Dick: The March of
Unreason: where he claims Greenpeace is
irrational…
Klein, Naomi: No Logo,
Rushkoff: Life Inc:
How the world became a corporation and how to take it back, Bodley Head,
£12.99. Corporate influence over 500 years has turned us into a world of
isolated, individualistic people pitted against each other. Author in 1990s of
books such as Media Virus, Cyberia: Life in the Trenches – about new IT
technology. During the Renaissance the first corporations were created by the
aristocracy as a means of controlling the new merchant class (and making money
from them). This involved the outlawing of ‘people exchanging value with one
another directly’ local production and trade, and money, has been made to seem
‘dirty’ – when it’s the corporations that are dirty and ‘the whole notion that
we need them is dirty.’ We need to turn to supporting each other… to ‘reconnect
with each other to create real value again.’ Rushkoff believes the internet can
help – e.g. Craigslist (website where adverts can be posted for free). He
foresaw the housing bubble – had to change the tenses when the book was ready
four years later. ‘Fractal activism’ – ‘a host of sprawling disorganized
personal protests’ rather than ‘a movement’ (cf. Naomi Klein).
Scott, J:
Corporations, Classes and Capitalism,
CSR:
(and generally on business and society)
Beesley, M and Evans, T: Corporate Social Responsibility,
Croom Helm
Ditto Productivity and Amenity: a social balance (?Harvard
Guides to Corporate Responsibility)
Blalock, H.M: Introduction to Social Responsibility
Burman, : Business and Society: Consensus and Conflict,
Butterworths
Cannon, T: Corporate Responsibility, Pitman 1994 0273602705
Clutterbuck : How to be a good Corporate Citizen
Ditto: Actions Speak Louder, Kogan Page/Kingfisher 1992
Davis, K: Business and Society
Donaldson, Peter: Economics of the Real World, Penguin
Hay, Robert: Business and Society
Helbronner, R: Business Civilisation in Decline
Hirsch,F: Social Limits to Growth
Humble, J: Social Responsibility Audit, Foundation for
Business Responsibilities.
Kempner, T et al: Business and Society, Pelican 1976
Kerr, C: Industrialism and Industrial Man, Penguin 1973
Klein,T Social Costs and Benefits [of Business]
Luthans, F and Hodgetts, R.M., and Thompson, K.R.: Social
Issues in Business, Macmillan, 5th edn. 1986 (?) 0 02 372960, 6th
edn 0023729716
Ditto:
Partridge: cases in Business and Society
Phillips, B.S: ? Social Resp of Bus
Sawyer, G: Business and Society
Sethi, P, Swanson, C: Private Enterprise and Public Purpose,
Wiley 1981
Shaw, William H and Barry, Vincent: Moral Issues in
Business,
Steade, Business and Society in Transition
Atwood, Margaret:
Payback: debt and the shadow side of wealth, Bloomsbury L8.99 – how the
concept of debt has been understood through the ages, links with idea that man
is indebted to God, examples form literature and anthropology (even monkeys
have a rudimentary concept of debt), includes reminder of our ecological debt
to the planet. A timely reminder!
Baker, Dean: The
Chait, Jonathan: The
Big Con: the true story of how
Evidence such as growth of US economy by 4% from ’47 – ’73,
when highest earners paid 91% tax shows not proof of correlation between growth
and tax. When Reagan cut taxes, deficits
went up.
Coyle, Diane: The
Economics of Enough: how to run the economy as if the future matters,
Dowd, Douglas (ed):
Understanding Capitalism – critical analysis form Karl Marx to Amartya Sen.
Pluto 2002. 0-7453-1782-0. L15.99
Ditto: Capitalism and its Economics: a critical history.
Analyses capitalism’s proponents and critics from 1750 to present. Pluto 2000.
0-7453-1643-3
Elliott, Larry and Atkinson, Dan: The Gods that Failed: How blind faith in
markets has cost us our future. Bodley Head. Serialised extracts in
Guardian 040608. Authors’ blog at www.thegodsthatfailed.co.uk.
Fox, Justin: The Myth of the Rational Market
– where he attributes much of the growth of the last 30 years to efficient
markets, but says that theorists get cocooned from reality. See csr2history1.htm#hiddenhand
Henwood, Doug: After
the New Economy, The New Press (notice in Freedom). Also: Wall Street
(ditto Freedom article, 08.09.07)
Hahnel, Robin: The
ABCs of Political Economy. Pluto 2002. 0-7453-1857-6. L14.99
Hutchinson, Frances
et al: The Politics of Money. Pluo 2002. 0-7453-1720-0. L14.99. Brings
together feminist, Marxist and ecological critiques of capitalism.
Keen, Steve: Debunking
Economics (used in Freedom article, 08.09.07)
Kindleberger, Charles
P and Aliber, Robert Z: Manias, Panics and Crashes… Palgrave Macmillan GBP
20, 2011. 6th edition now includes Lehman, Madoff etc. Argues there
are exaggerated cycles in the supply of credit à manias and crashes
alternate. When Manias first published, 1978, ‘efficient market hypothesis’
ruled, so crises believed to be impossible...
Draws on Hyman Minsky’s theory of credit cycles: a piece of
good news leads to upsurge in asset prices – even if the authorities try to
control this, the financial markets will find ways round by devising new types
of credit. Hence ‘collateralised debt obligations’ (CDOs), credit default swaps
(CDSs).
Globalisation has taken the cycle to the world stage. Also
deals with the role of property – house prices in recent crisis; oil shocks of
1970s first felt in property markets.
Pessimistic about possibility of regulating it all. (If we
want the dynamics of capitalism, we have to live with the dynamics of the
markets says Diane Coyle, author of The Economics of Enough.
Layard, Richard:
Happiness: Lessons form a New Science (review Gdn
Malkiel,
McMurty, John: Value
Wars: Corporate fundamentalism and the emerging life economy. Pluto 2002.
0-7453-1889-4. L15.99. Strong critique of global market paradigm.
Peston, Robert: Who
Runs
Roland, Gerard (ed):
Privatization: Successes and Failures, Columbia (2008): surveys history and
theory of privatization over past few decades – some disagreements, mostly
about what the statistics show, but general agreement that the economic
benefits of privatization “come at the expense of social welfare and the public
interest” (Stiglitz and Sundaram).
Tett, Gillian: Fool’s
Gold: how unrestrained greed corrupted a dream, shattered global markets and
unleashed a catastrophe, Little, Brown £18.99. ‘The most prescient British
(FT) journalist on the credit crunch’ (Review Ruth Sunderland Obs 070609). Has doctorate in social anthropology… There
was a ‘social silence’ around the creation of derivatives which enabled the
financiers to forget (not see, like the inhabitants of Plato’s cave) the rest
of the world - links to point that
elites control communication as well as wealth… Identifies 3 steps (all
involving parties…): (1) In 1994 a group of young bankers from JP Morgan in London
threw their bosses in the pool at a party and discussed how to grow the
derivatives business (they didn’t envisage how derivatives would be handled by
others – it’s not the car, but the driver that we blame); (2) in 2007 the
European Securitisation Forum held its annual meeting, after a very lucrative
year for banks , called “Global Asset Backed Securitisation: Towards a New
Dawn!” The next day a hedge fund with close links to Bear Stearns was in
crisis; (3) at the World Economic Forum
Jan 09, attended by Jamie Dimon who bought Bear Stearns for a knockdown price
in 2008 – one of the few bankers to appear – he claimed he had helped rescue
the system (as J Pierpoint Morgan had in 1907). Funding crisis could have been
foreseen, tett argues, e.g. Felix Rohatyn in the early ‘90s: derivatives are
‘financial hydrogen bombs built on PCs by 26-year olds with MBAs. In 2003 Bill
White and Claudio Borio at Bank for International Settlements challenged the
idea that financial innovation reduced and dispersed risk. Blythe Masters, who
dreamed up derivatives, is said to be “livid at how bankers have perverted her
dream”…
Thaler, Richard H and
Sunstein, Cass R: Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness
– (review NS 150908) claims to offer “libertarian
paternalism” as a real third way… discusses pervasive “architecture of
choice” (e.g. layout of items in supermarket, also opt-in or opt-out
arrangements for donor cards etc). Choice architects can preserve freedom of
choice while ‘nudging’ people to make better decisions… But this is
manipulation again, even if how architecture is designed is explained (Ian
Pearson MP, minister for science & innovation) Also many schemes they
recommend, e.g. environmental ‘cap and trade’ require government intervention,
regulation. Authors are from
Whitfield, Dexter:
Public Services or Corporate Welfare. Comprehensive picture of
privatisation’s impact on the public good. Argues that in the long run privatization
will impose intractable health and welfare demands on the state. L16.99. www.plutobooks.com 0 7543 0856 2.
Directory of Sustainability in Practice, (Forum for the
Future, Directory funded by Biffaward, with third party funding from
Envirowise)
Brand, Stewart: Whole Earth Discipline: an ecopragmatist
manifesto. Atlantic 2010, 19.99. By author of Whole Earth Catalogue, 1960s;
argues for more people in cities (rather than villages), more nuclear power
(provided we don’t try to solve storage problem with only current technology
but keep updating it), and GM crops for food (because more productive, more
sustainable, more adaptive to climate change). Doesn’t deal with pragmatism as
a philosophy. Argues for geo-engineering also…
Elkington: Green Business
Ledgerwood, G: Environmental Audit 1992
Medawar, C: Social Audit Pollution Handbook, Macmillan 1978
Mishan, E.J: Costs of Economic Growth, Staples Press 1967
Plumwood, val Australian philosopher, obit G 260308:
Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (1992)
Porritt, J: Capitalism as if the World Matters
(Earthscan/Macmillan.)
Roszak, Theodore (ed): Ecopsychology: restoring the Earth,
Healing the Mind, Sierra Book Clubs. Mary Gomes and Alan Kanner discuss the
“separative self” – we have developed an extreme sense of separation from each
other and the earth.
Schumacher, E.F: Small is Beautiful, Blond and Briggs 1973.
Warson, Mark: crap at the environment Hodder – (comedian who
was ‘converted’ by Al Gore’s film) practical hints etc.
Weisman, Alan: The World Without Us – Virgin. Does what it
says on the cover, with wide-spread and detailed factual evidence of how we are
destroying the planet (a billion birds killed each year in the US from flying
into glass… so much plastic in the Pacific Subtropical Gyre that it cannot be
quantified… graphic designers trying to work out what warnings about not coming
too close to nuclear waste containers will be comprehensible 10,000 years from
now).
Wheatley: Green Business, Pitman
Web:
www.environmentalnewsnetwork.com
Climate Change:
Rosenberg, Michelle: Inspiring Women (see political philosophy notes on feminism)
Collins and O’Rourke: Ethical Dilemmas in Business
Hartley, R.F: Business Ethics, Violations of the Public
Trust, Wiley 1993, 0471545910
… Business Ethics,
Hoffman, : Business Ethics
Shaw, W: Moral Issues in Business,
Sorrell and Hendry: Business Ethics
Trevino and Nelson: Managing Business Ethics, Wiley 471598488
Clayton, Matthew: The Ideal of Equality. Palgrave, 2000.
0-333-97119-1. (Philosophical aspects – to formulate an egalitarian theory of
distributive justice).
Collins, Michael: The
Likes of Us: a Biography of the White Working Class, Granta 2004. ‘Ignores
the politically-conscious’ says Tom Jennings, Freedom 210608.
Davies, Nick: Dark Heart: The Shocking Truth About Hidden
Davis, Mike: Planet of
Slums, Verso: over 200,000 slums on earth full of “surplus humanity” exiled
from the formal world economy. Criticises retreat of the state and impact of
the “civil society revolution” which has de-radicalised urban social movements.
Bootstrap micro-entrepreneurial remedies do nothing to help the majority. War
on terror is part of the conflict between slums and the rest… (Gdn,
Frank, Robert: Richistan:
a Journey Through the 21st-Century Wealth Boom… Piatkus. Now 9
million millionaire households in US – more than twice the number in 1995.
Maybe some are turning politically to left and will be philanthropic? (NS
6.8.07)
Galbraith, J.K: The Affluent Society, Pelican
Ditto: The New
Hills, J (ed): A More Equal Society? (New Labour, Poverty
etc) 2004
Sennet, Richard: Respect:
the Formation of Character in an Age of Inequality – (interview with Stuart
Jeffries G 140106): “When a society … [singles] out only a few for recognition,
it creates a scarcity of respect” – which is what Blair (tho’ claiming Sennet
as his mentor) has done, creating/reinforcing a “meritocratic” society. To deal
with anti-social behaviour you need (a ) to change attitudes of the police (b)
to find something for trouble-makers to do. Punishment/exclusion is not the
answer. Concern about anti-social behaviour is (a) not new) (b) mainly about
things the police can’t deal with (lack of manners) – except among the poorest,
where most violent anti-social behaviour comes from domestic arguments. Book
deals with “… how people in power respect or disrespect those over whom they
have power.” “Lack of respect, though less aggressive than an outright insult,
can take an equally wounding form.” See
also: The Culture of the New Capitalism
(Yale).
Kallen, Evelyn:
Social Inequality and Social Injustice – a human rights perspective. How hr
legislation can redress violations. Palgrave 2003. 0-333-92428-2. L16.99
Westergaard, J and Resler, H:
Class in a Capitalist Society, Penguin
www.jrf.org.uk (listed
in Freedom)
www.onamove.com and www.onamove2007.org.uk (
Management:
(see also Work below)
Burnham, J: The Managerial Revolution, Penguin
Cole, G.A.: Management Theory and Practice, Wheatsheaf 1984
Hill, S: Competition and Control at Work, Heinemann 1981
Lawrence, P and Elliott, K: Introducing Management, Penguin
1985
Maslow, G: Motivation and Personality
Ditto: Healthy Personality
McGregor D: The Human
Side of
Ditto: Leadership and Motivation
Seddon, John: Systems thinking in the public sector,
Triarchy Press. Argues that government should not adopt ‘industrialisation’ in
public services, e.g. standardisation and sharing of IT. Problems arise such as
‘failure demand’ – demand arising from system failing to respond first time (in
industrialised financial service organisations, up to 60% of all work coming in
may be failure demand. In police forces and local authorities it is usually
higher. He supports lean management techniques developed by Totyota – designing
services to cope with customer demand. ‘This means getting rid of all arbitrary
measures, including targets and budget-based measures, and instead deriving
measures from the purpose of the service form the customers’ point of view.’
Economy of scale is a myth and calls for standardisation are wrong-headed.
‘Giving customers what they want is cheaper.’ (G 010709, Public manager
supplement). www.triarchypress.co.uk
and www.thesystemsthinkingreview.co.uk
Mawson, Andrew: The Social Entrepreneur: Making Communities
Work. Grove
Alavi, Hamza:
Capitalism and Colonial Production – the resource flow from
Brundtland Report: Our Common Future, World Commission for the
Environment.
Collier, Paul: The Bottom Billion: why the poorest countries are
failing and what can be done about it… Offered many cogent explanations for
why some countries still poor when others so rich.
Also: Wars, Guns and Votes: democracy in dangerous places, Bodley
head £20. Based on thorough
empirical research, shows that bottom billion are more prone to civil war and
insurgency. Democracy not good for bottom billion: at least, not if democracy
simply means voting – elites need to be accountable (!) otherwise easy for
there to be exploitation. West in 1990s fell into trap of believing in
‘elections’, and not providing support for building counter-balancing/checking
institutions – e.g. former Yugoslavia, 1990, 1991, when plebiscite was
exploited to rip the country apart. Doesn’t support calls for independence from
Kosovo Albanians, rebels in
Davis, Mike: Late
Victorian Holocaust: between 1876 and 1877 wheat exports from
Davis, Ralph: The
Industrial Revolution and Overseas Trade - from the 1760s
Donaldson, Peter: Worlds Apart, Pelican 1973
Easterly, William: The White Man’s
Burden (
George, Susan: how the Other Half
Dies
Haynes, Geoff (ed): Towards
sustainable democracy in the third world. Palgrave 2001. L52.50. 0-333-80250-0.
Lamb, Harriet: Fighting the Banana
Wars and other Fairtrade Battles. Rider Books L10.99 (2008). Nearly half a
billion pounds a year is now spent on fairtrade goods. Burgeoning ‘global
family’ pushing big business to be more responsible. In
Newsinger, John: The Blood Never Dried: in 1748
Sampson, Anthony: The Sovereign
State of
Shaw, Dr John: The UN world food
programme and the development of food aid. Intro by Sir Hans Singer. Palgrave.
2001. L19.99. 0-333-67669-6.
Tugendhat,C: The Multinationals, Penguin
www.peopleandplanet.org (formerly
Third World First – students concerned about human rights, poverty, envt in
third world)
Work
(and industrial relations): (see also Management above)
Beynon, H: Working for Ford, Routledge
Beynon, H and Wainwright,H: The Workers’ Report on Vickers,
Pluto
Brewster, C: Understanding Industrial Relations, Pan 1984
Clegg, H.A.: The Changing System of Industrial Relations in
Cleverley, G: The Fleet Street Disaster, Constable
Cronin, J.E.: Industrial Conflict in Modern
Hyman, R: Strikes,
Marchington, M: Managing Industrial Relations, McGraw-Hill,
1982
Overell, Stephen: Inwardness: the rise of meaningful work.
See G Work supplement 170508: argues that more people now look for meaning or
fulfillment in work now, and this associated with loss of “vocation” especially
since the 1970s (outside priesthood, education and health) – also attributes
concern for meaning to greater affluence and education, rise of managerial
work, and perhaps above all, the dominant culture of “expressive
individualism”. Sees danger of “solipsism” i.e. doing work because it makes us
feel good, without concern for good of others. We still need the material gains
of work, but these are now less important than meaning and purpose. Cites
American philosopher Mike Martin who says meaning comes from: 1. craft motives
and intrinsic worth of the work, 2. compensation motives (including
recognition, leadership) and 3. moral motives i.e. care and service to others.
Also: Howard Gardner: Good Work: when excellence and ethics meet: “it is
difficult to look in the mirror and like what we see unless we can combine – in
our lives, in our work – the full development of individual potentials with
commitment to a greater whole.”
Rowe, P: Law at Work: Health and Safety, Sweet and Maxwell
Storey, J: The Challenge to Management Control, Business
Books 1981
Taylor, L: Not for
Bread Alone, Business Books 1980
Wainwright, H and Elliott, D: The Lucas Plan, Allison and
Busby
Wright, M and Carr, C.J.: Labour Law, M & E Handbooks
1984