Corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility

Whelan, Glen

Abstract

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.

Citation

Whelan, G. (2013). Corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 115(40), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1823-y

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Mar 25, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 25, 2014
• Journal: Journal of Business Ethics
• Print ISSN: 0167-4544
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-0697
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 115
• Issue: 40
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1823-y
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1001851
• Publisher URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10551-013-1823-y