A Sociological study of corporate social responsibility: a Marxist perspective

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2012

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Karaca Akbaş, Eren

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The main concern of this thesis is to problematize the so-called mutually beneficial relationship between free market mechanism and common good through the debates around Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Despite the social problems deepened by the free market, capitalist discourse attempts to justify itself by adopting some ethical concerns. However, it should be recognized that these attempts including CSR constitute market-based ethics. Trying to move beyond the existing critical literature on CSR, this thesis approaches to the concept of CSR from a Marxist perspective. I attempt to do it with the help of Marxist concept of commodity combined with Guy Debord’s notion of spectacle. I argue that CSR can be considered as a spectacle, because it has at least two characteristics of the spectacle: confronting the working class with each other and commodifying the humanitarian values. This thesis also includes a close reading of the discourse about CSR in order to show that how these two characteristics of the spectacle are embedded in the global language of CSR and how they are manifested through the institutions of capitalism. In this context, I will focus on four institutions that have major contributions to the existing CSR discourse worldwide: UN Global Compact and OECD Guidelines for Multinational Corporations, the most comprehensive international guidelines for CSR, and Nike and Walmart, two monopolies that have been under intense public scrutiny for their unethical practices and have produced the most intense discourse about their corporate responsibility practices.

Subject Keywords

Corporations., Commodification., International business enterprises, Marxian economics.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12614474/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/21649

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

E. Karaca Akbaş, “A Sociological study of corporate social responsibility: a Marxist perspective,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2012.