CSR and Development: Is business appropriating global justice?
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Dialogue
CSR and Development: Is business appropriating global justice?
MICHAEL BLOWFIELD
ABSTRACT Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is being promoted as an approach to international development, but is also being criticized by development organizations. Michael Blowfield examines the evidence of CSR’s supporters and critics, and argues that embedded within CSR is a particular interpretation of social justice that raises specific questions about how far we want business to shape the direction of international development. KEYWORDS corporate social responsibility; ethical trade; social justice; globalization; international development
Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, is the commitment of business to contribute to sustainable economic development, working with employees, their families, the local community and society at large to improve their quality of life, in ways that are both good for business and good for development. (World Bank definition of CSR ( www.worldbank.org/privatesector/whatwedo.htm), accessed 24 March 2004).
CSR, development and the Christian Aid critique Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) did not set out to be a contribution towards international development, but it is perhaps not surprising that both development professionals and companies operating in developing economies view CSR as a channel for addressing the role business plays in the South. CSR is important to international development in several ways. For government and private development agencies faced with stagnant or declining funds, business offers a way of increasing resources and revenues, and CSR is one route to working with companies. Companies are subject to criticism for their exploitation of workers, the environment and communities in developing countries, and CSR promises a way of improving company performance and reputation. Companies that want to do more than prevent abusive practices, can draw on the experience of international development in establishing themselves as model citizens. CSR is also one way that companies are thinking about new products for developing country markets. It must have been a shock, therefore, when UK-based NGO Christian Aid declared that CSRwas failing to deliver on its promises, and in many instances had become a mere branch of public relations (Christian Aid, (2004)). Following a series of attacks from the neo-liberal economics mainstream (Henderson, 2002), it seemed that CSR had now also lost the supDevelopment (2004) 47(3), 61–68. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100068
Development 47(3): Dialogue port of its friends. Various CSR professionals responded, arguing that Christian Aid had ignored CSR’s successes, its research was poor and its solutions inadequate, but this was at best an unsubstantiated rebuttal of the NGO’s main claims. Companies criticized in the report also disparaged the research but without offering new evidence. In this article, I will take the Christian Aid report as a starting point for analysing CSR as an approach to international development. I exami
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