An analysis of the beneficial effects of community service on the political and moral identity of adolescents. It uses a case study from a predominantly black, urban high school in Washington, D.C., building on the work of Erik Erikson on the social and historical nature of identity development.

In a dramatic departure from its voluntary origins, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is rapidly shifting to hold multinational companies accountable for more than traditional shareholder performance. This CSR movement is embracing new environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks that both promote global sustainability goals and enhance accountability for negative impacts businesses can have on ‘planet and people’. This collection of essays by leading businesspeople, international civil servants, legal practitioners, academics, and other experts offers a forward-looking and pragmatic perspective that illuminates the major themes in this movement towards increasingly sustainable, transparent and accountable business practices. The collection shows how CSR has evolved to account for societal pressures, environmental, climate change and human rights impacts, international policy imperatives and the practical challenges of regulating commercial activity that transcends borders. The chapters offer an in-depth examination of current issues including: international frameworks and multistakeholder initiatives catalysing foundational change; the shifting emphasis on corporate imperatives to avoid harm to third parties; trends in CSR, focused on assuring the planet's future sustainability and social stability; regulatory initiatives around the globe, including Europe, North America, Asia and Africa; and extended accountability for activities of corporate group members and supply chains. The pressure and business case for companies to incorporate CSR into corporate governance is intensifying with each quarter, shareholder meeting, and regulatory agenda. The integration of CSR and new ESG frameworks into multinational corporate strategy and operations is key to sustainable business models that can generate long-term value for the organization and all stakeholders. Their acceptance as cornerstones of 21st century business practice appears inevitable. Taking full account of the imperative for companies and their lawyers to grapple with the practical and legal challenges in this area, this volume is an invaluable and pragmatic addition to the practitioners’ toolbox at this important juncture in an ever-more dynamic field.

Canadian mining activity in Latin America has exploded over the past decade and a half. Investors have responded to neoliberal policies of deregulation, privatization, state-downsizing, and export promotion encouraged by leading capitalist nations and international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The result, predictably, has been sharp conflicts between the communities affected by mining and their advocates on one side, and the transnational mining companies supported by the local state and the Canadian government on the other. This collection, the most comprehensive in the English-language to date, investigates these conflicts in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Contributors address the related sustainable development, community, corporate, legal, and social issues. A valuable contribution to Latin American development studies, this collection will prove of interest to students and specialists in the field, journalists, NGOs, and policymakers.

This book explores conceptualizations of CSR and sustainability in the digital economy, focusing upon points of intersection between CSR and online communities. Reflecting on new areas of responsibility that organisations must face in a globalised economy, the contributions explore the ways CSR is being communicated, challenged and reshaped in a rapidly evolving online context. Up-to-date research from around the world shows how diverse communities, citizens and stakeholders are engaging with, and making demands on, organisations in novel ways that pay little respect to international borders. With online communities increasingly influencing the way in which business is carried out and perceived, the case studies explored here offer a useful indication of the variety of new developments and controversies that have emerged in the field of CSR. This book will appeal to postgraduate students and researchers of CSR and CSR communications, as well as communication, public relation and corporate responsibility practitioners.

Diverse in economic development, political and mass media systems, the countries in Southeast Asia cast a unique light on the parallels between development-cum-participative communication and corporate social responsibility. In our globalized environments, knowledge of power, culture and the colonial histories that influence and shape business and governance practices are increasingly important. Focusing on six countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam—the book discusses how public relations (PR) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) discourse are constructed, interpreted, communicated and enacted in this diverse emerging region. By connecting the disparate disciplines of participatory and development communication with PR and CSR discourse, this innovative text explores the tensions between concepts of modernity and traditional values and their role in engendering creativity, compliance or resistance. This book will be of interest to researchers, educators and advanced students in the fields of public relations, communication, corporate social responsibility, corporate communications and Southeast Asia studies.

The original essays in this timely collection discuss the many ways to foster innovative and unprecedented collaborations leading to more effective partnerships between major institutions and corporations to poor and disenfranchised communities. Many of today's pressing issues are covered in-depth: bridging the digital divide; community reinvestment; university and corporate partnerships; and corporate responsibility.

"[This book is a] tool for in-house and outside counsel to help their companies, firms, and clients develop effective CSR programs. The book includes discussions on governance and sustainability, community relations, environmental matters, reporting, stakeholder engagement, aboriginal rights, labor and supply chain practices, and more."--

With this book, Charlotte Walker-Said and John D. Kelly have assembled an essential toolkit to better understand how the notoriously ambiguous concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) functions in practice within different disciplines and settings. Bringing together cutting-edge scholarship from leading figures in human rights programs around the United States, they vigorously engage some of the major political questions of our age: what is CSR, and how might it render positive political change in the real world? The book examines the diverse approaches to CSR, with a particular focus on how those approaches are siloed within discrete disciplines such as business, law, the social sciences, and human rights. Bridging these disciplines and addressing and critiquing all the conceptual domains of CSR, the book also explores how CSR silos develop as a function of the competition between different interests. Ultimately, the contributors show that CSR actions across all arenas of power are interdependent, continually in dialogue, and mutually constituted. Organizing a diverse range of viewpoints, this book offers a much-needed synthesis of a crucial element of today’s globalized world and asks how businesses can, through their actions, make it better for everyone.

As globalization has brought about new concerns and responsibilities for business, particularly in the realm of human rights, many multinational corporations (MNC) operating in Asia have argued that such rights are the responsibility of government. However, as globalization continues to improve market access for MNCs, it increasingly exposes them to new forms of transnational social movements, and as a result the private sector has emerged as one of the central stakeholders in the region’s human rights dialogue. Taking three of Asia’s fastest emerging economies – Cambodia, China and Thailand – as its starting point, Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Rights in Asia explores the business case for corporate social responsibility, human rights and anti-corruption in the region. In doing so, it examines how industry perceives human rights and corruption within the corporate social responsibility (CSR) paradigm, and builds on the argument that the CSR regime is a socially constructed concept. Drawing on interviews with key stakeholders including business leaders, nongovernmental organizations, international organizations and government officials, Robert Hanlon argues that industry perceives human rights as outside their sphere of influence; that divergent stakeholder interests are side-lining the human rights debate; and that human rights are increasingly ignored in the quest for profit-maximization. This leads to the conclusion that human rights and corruption will remain peripheral business issues until stakeholders find new ways of creating space for CSR engagement, and business actors will continue to marginalize the human rights issue so long as governments in the region let them. This interdisciplinary book draws on political science, business and sociological perspectives and as such, will be of great interest to students and scholars working across the fields of Asian business, corporate social responsibility and business ethics, human rights and international political economy.