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The neoliberal "do-good" spirit
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Raja, Sheena. The neoliberal "do-good" spirit. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-rcb4-bq11

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TitleThe neoliberal "do-good" spirit
NameRaja, Sheena (author); Kumar, Deepa (chair); Aronczyk, Melissa (internal member); Aakhus, Mark (internal member); Pickard, Victor (outside member); Rutgers University; School of Graduate Studies
Date Created2021
Other Date2021-05 (degree)
SubjectBranding, Communication, Information and Library Studies
Extent1 online resource (ix, 306 pages)
DescriptionIn this dissertation, I argue that Unilever—a multinational corporation with one of the world’s largest advertising budgets—exemplifies capitalism’s latest attempt to preserve the dominant social order after the 2008 financial crisis. Drawing on scholarship that is critical of neoliberalism and its appropriation of social justice and the common good, I show how Unilever’s use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) serves to construct the company as a good corporate citizen. In particular, I focus on the production of CSR discourse online, a powerful site for the construction of a corporate identity, due to the unique affordances of social media. I call CSR online discourse i-CSR.

My analysis of Unilever’s corporate website and social media engagement from 2013 to 2017 shows that Web 2.0 affords an unprecedented capacity for corporate intrusion into sociality conducted online. As a real-time subject with a voice, Unilever, I show is able to manufacture compelling digital content and build a loyal brand community around social responsibility and sustainability. However, even while Unilever has effectively co-opted collective values at the core of a participatory democracy, there is space for resistance. I show that interactivity on social media allows oppositional users to mount extended attacks on the corporation using hashtags and memes. While we may celebrate such resistance, it is important to note that data is a commodity and that algorithms are not neutral. Designed to learn trends, curate high volume interaction, and prioritize corporate imperatives, social media platforms have the potential to tame such resistance.

In sum, this dissertation examines the creation, negotiation, and opposition to i-CSR discourse and the ways in which MNCs in the neoliberal era imitate progressive activism via the new “do-good spirit” of neoliberalism in order to ensure profit maximization. It adds to the existing, but limited, scholarship on digital CSR and charts new ground through its focus not only on corporate websites but on social media as well.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-rcb4-bq11
LanguageEnglish
CollectionSchool of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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