Corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility
I here distinguish dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the grounds that the former is more concerned to organize (or portray) corporate-civil society disagreement than it is corporate-civil society agreement. In doing so, I first conceive of consensual CSR, and identi...
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| Format: | Article |
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Springer Verlag
2013
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2489/ |
| _version_ | 1848790797984464896 |
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| author | Whelan, Glen |
| author_facet | Whelan, Glen |
| author_sort | Whelan, Glen |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | I here distinguish dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the grounds that the former is more concerned to organize (or portray) corporate-civil society disagreement than it is corporate-civil society agreement. In doing so, I first conceive of consensual CSR, and identify a positive and negative view thereof. Second, I conceive of dissensual CSR, and suggest that it can be actualized through the construction of dissent enabling, rather than consent-oriented, public spheres. Following this, I describe four actor-centred institutional theories-i.e. a sociological, ethical, transformative and economic perspective, respectively-and suggest that an economic perspective is generally well suited to explaining CSR activities at the organizational level. Accordingly, I then use the economic perspective to analyse a dissent enabling public sphere that Shell has constructed, and within which Greenpeace participated. In particular, I explain Shell's employment of dissensual CSR in terms of their core business interests; and identify some potential implications thereof for Shell, Greenpeace, and society more generally. In concluding, I highlight a number of ways in which the present paper can inform future research on business and society interactions. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:18:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-2489 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:18:20Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Springer Verlag |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-24892020-05-04T20:19:09Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2489/ Corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility Whelan, Glen I here distinguish dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the grounds that the former is more concerned to organize (or portray) corporate-civil society disagreement than it is corporate-civil society agreement. In doing so, I first conceive of consensual CSR, and identify a positive and negative view thereof. Second, I conceive of dissensual CSR, and suggest that it can be actualized through the construction of dissent enabling, rather than consent-oriented, public spheres. Following this, I describe four actor-centred institutional theories-i.e. a sociological, ethical, transformative and economic perspective, respectively-and suggest that an economic perspective is generally well suited to explaining CSR activities at the organizational level. Accordingly, I then use the economic perspective to analyse a dissent enabling public sphere that Shell has constructed, and within which Greenpeace participated. In particular, I explain Shell's employment of dissensual CSR in terms of their core business interests; and identify some potential implications thereof for Shell, Greenpeace, and society more generally. In concluding, I highlight a number of ways in which the present paper can inform future research on business and society interactions. Springer Verlag 2013-07 Article PeerReviewed Whelan, Glen (2013) Corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 115 (40). pp. 755-769. ISSN 0167-4544 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10551-013-1823-y doi:10.1007/s10551-013-1823-y doi:10.1007/s10551-013-1823-y |
| spellingShingle | Whelan, Glen Corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility |
| title | Corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility |
| title_full | Corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility |
| title_fullStr | Corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility |
| title_full_unstemmed | Corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility |
| title_short | Corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility |
| title_sort | corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2489/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2489/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2489/ |