ESRC seminar series
What is the seminar series about?
The last decade has seen an explosion of interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) among private companies around the world, while the scope of corporate social and environmental activities has also broadened. At the same time, international organizations and national development agencies have highlighted the positive role that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) could play in contributing to human development goals such as poverty alleviation and health improvements.
The linking of CSR to “human” or “international development” goals is hugely significant, in that firms are not simply expected to act responsibly in their operations, but to play a role in public interventions such as the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. If firms are seriously expected to play such a role, CSR cannot be simply seen from the business perspective, as the expectations of what CSR could potentially accomplish seem to have become much broader and it becomes imperative to evaluate the contribution that private companies can make to international development goals. However, until now, there is surprisingly little research and discussion about the developmental outcomes that CSR actually delivers or does not deliver.
This seminar series – funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) - aims to address the current state of our knowledge on the developmental impact of CSR and previously neglected themes in CSR research, which are relevant to maximising the positive impact of CSR on human development.
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