Socially Responsible Private Regulation: World-Culture or World-Capitalism?

This article analyzes the phenomenon of "corporate social responsibility" (CSR; specifically: social private regulation) in light of two sociological paradigms of globalization: "world-culture" and "world-capitalism." The study treats three analytically distinct feature...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Law & society review 2011-06, Vol.45 (2), p.313-336
Main Author: Shamir, Ronen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business structures
Capitalism
Corporate regulation
Corporate responsibility
Corporate social responsibility
Corporations
Cultural Change
Economic regulation
Economic sociology
Efficient markets
Enterprises
General studies. Economic systems
Globalization
Governance
Industrial regulation
Market
Markets
Paradigms
Politics
Regulation
Social Responsibility
Sociology
Sociology of economy and development
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Summary:This article analyzes the phenomenon of "corporate social responsibility" (CSR; specifically: social private regulation) in light of two sociological paradigms of globalization: "world-culture" and "world-capitalism." The study treats three analytically distinct features of CSR: the political contestation over its meaning, the role of business studies in transforming it into a managerial model, and its consolidation as a market of authorities. The study finds that (1) while CSR may be theorized as a emergent "world cultural" model, the culture paradigm does not take sufficient account of the role of corporations in shaping it, and (2) while both paradigms recognize the transition from political contestations over the character of CSR to its deployment by means of private regulation, the world-capitalism paradigm offers stronger tools for theorizing the mechanisms of change that mediate between political agency and institutionalized regulatory outcomes.
ISSN:0023-9216
1540-5893
DOI:10.1111/j.1540-5893.2011.00439.x