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theses

A history of corporate social responsibility, this dissertation examines how different groups, from managers and business intellectuals to activists on the political left and right, have struggled over the social obligations of business. Tracing the origins of the concept from the years following the Great Depression in the 1930s to its transformation in the age of shareholder value in the final decades of the 20th century, corporate social responsibility is examined here as a field of struggle in which the political and social problem of corporate power is negotiated and defined. This dissertation argues that the historical significance of responsibility is precipitated by the uneasy and unsettled status of the large, publicly traded corporation in liberal democracies, which is by default treated as a private institution owned by shareholders, but which exercises power that touches nearly all aspects of society. Even as expansive or minimalist definitions of responsibility have, by turns, gained legitimacy and circulation due to the work of intellectuals, activists, and policymakers, the corporation’s legal and political status as a profit-generating piece of property continues to inform, hamper, and propel conflicting visions of the relationship between business and society.

ETD_10391

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-mgn1-mn83

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.