The Political Role of Corporate Citizens: An Interdisciplinary Approach

245 Pages·2013·1.424 MB·English

by  Karin Svedberg Helgesson, Ulrika Mörth (eds.)

Palgrave Studies in Citizenship Transitions series
Series Editors:
Michele Micheletti is Lars Hierta Chair of Political Science at Stockholm
University, Sweden.
Ludvig Beckman is Professor of Political Science, Stockholm University,
Sweden.
David Owen is Professor of Social and Political Philosophy, University of
Southampton, UK.
The Editorial Board:
Keith Banting (Queen’s University, Canada), Rainer Baubock (European
University Institute, Italy), Russell Dalton (University of California at Irving,
USA), Avigail Eisenberg (University of Victoria, Canada), Nancy Fraser
(The New School for Social Research, USA), David Jacobson (University
of South Florida, USA) and Ariadne Vromen (The University of Sydney,
Australia).
This book series focuses on citizenship transitions encompassing contemporary
transformations of citizenship as institution, status and practice as well as nor-
mative and explanatory analysis of these transformations and their cultural,
social, economic and political implications. The series bridges theoretical and
empirical debates on democracy, transnationalism, and citizenship that have
been too insulated from each other. It takes citizenship transitions as its s tarting-
point and studies the status, role and function of citizenship within contempo-
rary democratic systems and multi-layered governance structures beyond the
state. It aims to add a broader array of critical, conceptual, normative and empiri-
cal perspectives on the borders, territories, and political agents of citizenship. It
scrutinizes the possibilities and challenges of citizenship in light of present broad
processes of political fragmentation and pluralisation and the ways emerging
ideals and expectations of citizenship are inspired by new social, political and
environmental movements. Its cross-disciplinary approach intends to capture
the transitions of citizenship from an apparently simple relation between the
state and its citizens into a cluster of complex responsibility claims and practices
that raise questions concerning citizenship borders and obligations, the public-
private scope of citizenship, and even how political actors attempt to and in fact
avoid citizenship.
Titles in the series include:
Ludvig Beckman and Eva Erman (editors)
TERRITORIES OF CITIZENSHIP
Karin Svedberg Helgesson and Ulrika Mörth (editors)
THE POLITICAL ROLE OF CORPORATE CITIZENS
An Interdisciplinary Approach
Palgrave Studies In Citizenship Transitions series
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–1–137–33137–3
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a stand-
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The Political Role of
Corporate Citizens
An Interdisciplinary Approach
Edited by
Karin Svedberg Helgesson
Department of Management and Organization,
Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden
and
Ulrika Mörth
Department of Political Science, Stockholm University, Sweden
Editorial matter, selection, introduction and conclusion © Karin Svedberg
Helgesson and Ulrika Mörth 2013
Remaining chapters © Contributors 2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-02681-1
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
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permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
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Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
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175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
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and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-43942-3 ISBN 978-1-137-02682-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137026828
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Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.
Contents
List of Tables vii
List of Figures viii
Series Editors’ Preface ix
Preface and Acknowledgements xi
Notes on Contributors xii
List of Abbreviations xv
1 Introduction: Corporate Citizenship and the Political
Role of the Corporation 1
Karin Svedberg Helgesson and Ulrika Mörth
2 Corporations and Clientelism: The Problem of
Democratic Accountability for Corporate Citizenship 18
Steven Gerencser
3 Citizenship, Identity and the Corporation: Exploring
New Avenues of Political Mediation 41
Andrew Crane, Dirk Matten and Jeremy Moon
4 Inadvertent Citizens: Corporate Citizenship and
Moral Actorhood 65
Boris Holzer
5 Standards, Triple Bottom Lines and Balanced Scorecards:
Shaping the Metaphor of Corporate Citizenship with
Calculative Infrastructures 84
Fabrizio Panozzo
6 Revisiting Corporate Citizenship Theory and Practice
from the Perspective of Local Communities in Africa:
Lessons from Nigeria 110
Uwafiokun Idemudia
7 Various Corporate Citizenships in BoP Markets 139
Céline Cholez and Pascale Trompette
8 Citizenship, Choice and Social Equality in Welfare Services 166
Paula Blomqvist
v
vi Contents
9 Corporate Citizens and ‘The War on Terror’ 190
Karin Svedberg Helgesson and Ulrika Mörth
10 Conclusions: The Political Role of Corporations 207
Karin Svedberg Helgesson and Ulrika Mörth
Index 222
List of Tables
1.1 Corporate citizenship 12
6.1 Community expectations of oil TNCs (ranked) 116
6.2 Community response to idea of reciprocal responsibility 121
6.3 Reciprocal responsibility by age distribution (ranked) 123
6.4 Reciprocal responsibility practices (ranked) 124
6.5 Reasons for rejecting reciprocal responsibility (ranked) 126
6.6 T he balance of responsibility for community
development 127
6.7 C ommunity perception of equal stakeholder
developmental responsibility (ranked) 129
6.8 R easons behind community perception of
differential stakeholder developmental responsibility 130
6.9 P erception of stakeholder developmental
responsibility (ranked) 131
6.10 C C Impact on governmental community development
efforts (ranked) 133
vii
List of Figures
6.1 Map showing study area in of Akwa Ibom State,
Niger Delta 114
6.2 Community water project in Ikot Abasi Idem 122
7.1 The exchange facilities in the second-hand
battery market 156
viii
Series Editors’ Preface
The goal of the Palgrave Studies in Citizenship Transitions series is to
contribute to the understanding of the encompassing contemporary
transformations that citizenship is undergoing as an institution, a sta-
tus and a form of practice by individuals and collectivities. This broad
perspective on citizenship encourages scholarship that uses a variety of
theoretical perspectives, involves many different disciplines and that
contributes to the understanding of citizenship transitions by bridging
theoretical and empirical debates that have tended to be too insulated
from each other in scholarship in general.
As illustrated by its first book, Territories of Citizenship (edited by
Ludvig Beckman and Eva Erman), the series penetrates the normative
and explanatory analysis of an important transformation, namely the
development away from the nation-state focus of citizenship. This book
aims to explore how norms of citizenship, residence, and territorial
jurisdiction contribute to the inclusion and exclusion of people from
the enjoyment of rights. The tensions that inclusion and exclusion
create and the extent to which they could be resolved are investigated
both in the context of nation-states and in the context of multilayered
government structures.
The Political Role of Corporate Citizens: An Interdisciplinary Approach
is the second volume in the series. It addresses citizenship transitions
under a different aspect by contributing to the classical discussion
on corporations as political agents of citizenship. It is a significant
contribution to the series because it captures the transitions of citizen-
ship from an apparently simple relationship between the state and its
citizens into a cluster of complex responsibility claims and practices
that raise questions concerning the responsibility for citizenship and,
most importantly, the public-private scope of citizenship. It asks: what
are the implications of the increased politicization of corporations and
their increased presence within the public domain, and how does this
development transgress the traditional notions of what corporations
are and ought to be? To answer and analyse these questions the book
employs the notion of ‘corporate citizenship’ and is organized along two
themes. The first concerns how the state has retreated or transformed
and opened up for business to take on societal responsibility. The sec-
ond theme focuses on the need to develop a new understanding of
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