International Political Economy Classics: Corporate Social Responsibility and Regulatory Governance: Towards Inclusive Development?

The corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement has been instrumental in raising awareness that firms have responsibilities other than to their owners and 'the bottom line'. Yet despite all the talk about the importance of stakeholders, transparency, corporate citizenship and sustainability, the developmental and regulatory impacts of CSR remain highly questionable. With a new Foreword and Preface, this IPE Classic assesses the global rise of private regulation and CSR from the perspective of social and sustainable development. By adopting a multidisciplinary lens, it examines why the experience of CSR pales in comparison with the promise, what needs to be done to address 'the intellectual crisis' of CSR, and forms of corporate accountability and regulation more conducive to inclusive patterns of development.

"This timely and important collection addresses many of the critical shortcomings in conventional approaches to CSR by emphasizing issues of power and the role of regulatory governance in promoting corporate responsibility, and restraining acts of corporate irresponsibility." - Peter Newell, University of East Anglia, UK

"Historically informed, theoretically sophisticated and empirically grounded, this excellent volume brings together an interdisciplinary group of prominent authors to provide a piercing examination of the practices, potential and limitations of CSR." David L. Levy, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA

"Ongoing and recent crises have raised profound questions about the effectiveness and virtues of corporate social responsibility and deregulation. However, concerns about the difficulties and costs of developing adequate, appropriate and effective regulation continue to command attention. This volume sheds much light on these complex issues." - Jomo Kwame Sundaram, former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development

Table of Contents

Preface; Timothy M. Shaw
Foreword; Peter Utting and José Carlos Marques
1. Introduction: The Intellectual Crisis of CSR; Peter Utting and José Carlos Marques
2. CSR and Changing Modes of Governance: Towards Corporate Noblesse Oblige?; Colin Crouch
3. Wal-Martization and CSR-ization in Developing Countries; Ngai-Ling Sum
4. Corporate Social Responsibility in a Neoliberal Age; Paddy Ireland and Renginee Pillay
5. Linking Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Policy in Zambia; Ndangwa Noyoo
6. Business, Corporate Responsibility and Poverty Reduction; Michael Blowfield
7. Transnational Corporations and Poverty Reduction: Strategic and Regional Variations; Rob van Tulder
8. Cross-sector Partnership as an Approach to Inclusive Development; Ruth Findlay-Brooks, Wayne Visser and Thurstan Wright
9. Growing Sustainable Business in East Africa: The Potential and Limits of Partnerships for Development; Catia Gregoratti
10. Private Food Governance: Implications for Social Sustainability and Democratic Legitimacy; Doris Fuchs and Agni Kalfagianni
11. Spaces of Contestation: The Governance of Industry's Environmental Performance in Durban, South Africa; James Van Alstine
12. Challenging Governance in Global Commodity Chains: The Case of Transnational Activist Campaigns for Better Work Conditions; Florence Palpacuer

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