Corporate
Social Responsibility in Context:
Contents
Summary.
Updated: Oct. 2007.
These notes are based on lectures given at
by Ian Pirie, and represent a personal approach
to the teaching of Corporate Social Responsibility to students of business.
(See Chapter 1 Introduction).
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Part
I. History and Theory.
Chapter
1. Go
to: Chapter 1
Introduction:
The need for an approach which takes into account the historical and
theoretical/ideological context of CSR.
Discussing issues and cases in a theoretical and historical context
enables the combining of practical steps with radical visions of
alternatives.
A multi-track approach.
Definitions:
What
is Responsibility? The moral, social and political dimensions of
responsibility. The question of social responsibility.
Why
is Social Responsibility a problem for business?
2. A
Bit of History – before the twentieth century:
Go
to: Chapter 2
Pre-capitalist
societies and social responsibility
Emergence
of capitalism and questions of ethics – Adam Smith
Late
nineteenth-century capitalism – the large corporation
Questions of regulation – corporations and the state
3.
Changing concerns in the twentieth century: Go
to: Chapter 3
The
state and the power of finance
Changing issues: worker, consumer, environment, third world
Emergence of SRB – tying the issues together
Individual
malpractice, business ethics, etc - alternative perspectives, or evasions?
Globalisation and global corporate power
Part
II. Issues and cases.
4. The worker Go
to: Chapter 4
Management
and motivation – the basic problem
Survey
of management-led approaches to the “problem” of motivation
Cases….
Workers’
co-operatives and other alternatives
5.
The consumer Go
to: Chapter 5
Emergence
of the consumer movement – consumer rights, education and protection
Cases…..
The
consumer society – having or being?
Advertising,
marketing and the creation of envy
Logos
and branding
Buy
nothing? The consumer strikes back.
6.
The environment Go
to: Chapter 6
Silent
Spring
Cases……
The
Club of Rome and limits to growth
Global
concerns
From
the greening of business to deep ecology.
7.
Developing countries and globalisation Go
to: Chapter 7
Historical
background – the debate over colonialism
The
“widening gap”
Multinationals
– friend or foe?
Cases…….
Trade
or aid? World initiatives.
Development
– for and against.
Fair
Trade
8.
Power, inequality Go
to: Chapter 8
Poverty
and inequality in developed countries
Dimensions
of poverty and powerlessness
Why
should business care? Is business to blame?
What
can business contribute?
Cases……..
LETS,
time-banks and other empowering alternatives
9. An
overview of views and possible remedies: Go
to: Chapter 9
Self-regulation
Codes
of conduct
Pressure
groups
Government
Alternative
patterns of enterprise, alternative economic systems.
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END