The age of responsibilization: on market-embedded morality

This article explores emerging discursive formations concerning the relationship of business and morality. It suggests that contemporary tendencies to economize public domains and methods of government also dialectically produce tendencies to moralize markets in general and business enterprises in p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Economy and society 2008-02, Vol.37 (1), p.1-19
Main Author: Shamir, Ronen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business ethics
Capitalism
Citizenship
Civil society
Corporate governance
corporate social responsibility
Economic sociology
Enterprises
Ethics and moral life
General studies. Economic systems
governance
Markets
Morality
neo-liberalism
Neoliberalism
Social Responsibility
Sociology
Sociology of economy and development
Sociology of knowledge and ethics
Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture
Studies
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Summary:This article explores emerging discursive formations concerning the relationship of business and morality. It suggests that contemporary tendencies to economize public domains and methods of government also dialectically produce tendencies to moralize markets in general and business enterprises in particular. The article invokes the concept of 'responsibilization' as means of accounting for the epistemological and practical consequences of such processes. Looking at the underlying 'market rationality' of governance, and critically examining the notion of 'corporate social responsibility', it concludes that the moralization of markets further sustains, rather than undermining, neo-liberal governmentalities and neo-liberal visions of civil society, citizenship and responsible social action.
ISSN:0308-5147
1469-5766
DOI:10.1080/03085140701760833