This book critically examines the practice and meanings of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and how the movement has facilitated a positive and somewhat unquestioned image of the global corporation. Drawing on extensive fieldwork material collected in Ghanaian communities located around the project sites of Newmont Mining Corporation and Kinross Gold Corporation, the monograph employs critical discourse analysis to accentuate how mining corporations use CSR as a discursive alibi to gain legitimacy and dominance over the social order, while determining their own spheres of responsibility and accountability. Hiding behind such notions as ‘social licence to operate’ and ‘best practice, ’ corporations are enacted as entities that are morally conscious and socially responsible. Yet, this enactment is contested in host communities, as explored in chapters that examine corporate citizenship, gendered perspectives, and how global CSR norms institutionalize unaccountability.
Table of Content
1. Chapter 1 Gold Mining and CSR: Responsibility to Whom and for What.- 2. Chapter 2 “We need social licence to actually mine and we believe communities are part of what we do”: Contested Corporate Citizenship.- 3. Chapter 3 “We want to bring everyone on board but it’s quite difficult”: Responsibilization via the Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation.- 4. Chapter 4 “A woman can also speak out”: Gendered Perspectives on Responsibilization.- 5. Chapter 5 “There is no yardstick to measure [our performance] with”: A Global Movement for Institutionalizing Unaccountability.- 6. Chapter 6 The Bigger Picture: Implications for De-Responsibilization and Re-Responsibilization.
About the author
Nathan Andrews is Assistant Professor in Global and International Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada.