Abstract

The Anthropology of Corporate Social Responsibility explores the meanings, practices, and impact of corporate social and environmental responsibility across a range of transnational corporations and geographical locations (Bangladesh, Cameroon, Chile, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, India, Peru, South Africa, the UK, and the USA). The contributors examine the expectations, frictions and contradictions the CSR movement is generating and addressing key issues such as  the introduction of new forms of management, control, and discipline through ethical and environmental governance or the extent to which corporate responsibility challenges existing patterns of inequality rather than generating new geographies of inclusion and exclusion.

Catherine Dolan is on the faculty of anthropology at SOAS, University of London, and holds fellowships at James Martin Institute, Green Templeton College and Said Business School, all at University of Oxford. Her research centres on contemporary forms of moral capitalism, including Fair Trade, inclusive development and bottom of the pyramid business, in Africa. She is a co-founder of the Centre for New Economies of Development (www.responsiblebop.com).

“Each chapter in this important book, in one way or another, interrogates the slippery and shady partnerships forming between transnational corporations, international development agencies, and NGOs to further augment and implement CSR programmes…If you think critically about corporations, add this to your collection.” · Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

“This is an insightful and original compilation of research on the novel ways in which 'market and society', and underlying dynamics of accumulation and sociality, get entangled and transformed through contemporary corporate practice. The wide range of empirical terrain traversed – in terms of the chapters' diverse ideational, social and regional settings – sets the stage for an illuminating comparative inquiry, on a timely topic of wider importance.” · Jens Kjaerulff, Aalborg University

“This volume deals with what I would consider to be one of the most important issues of our time: the “ethical turn” of global capitalism, what it means, and what its possible effects might be.” · Andrea Muehlebach, University of Toronto

Dinah Rajak is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and International Development at the University of Sussex.  She is the author of In Good Company. An Anatomy of Corporate Social Responsibility (Stanford University Press 2011) and the co-founder of the Centre for New Economies of Development (www.responsiblebop.com).