Transparency and legibility in international institutions: The UN Global Compact and post-political global ethics
2011 (English)In: Social Anthropology, ISSN 0964-0282, E-ISSN 1469-8676, Vol. 19, no 4, p. 378-393Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The article examines the organisational production and distribution of normatively charged ideas for governing transnational business. Based on the United Nations Global Compact Initiative, it is argued that the UN version of ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) builds on a metanarrative of rationality, involving ideals of transparency and legibility combined with an emphasis on consensus and harmony. The strong accent on partnership, agreement and dialogue leaves little space for the involved parties to articulate and defend diverging interests. By transforming what are basically political conflicts of interest into win–win terms, CSR standards and the technologies of transparency, legibility, and accountability foreclose conflictual space, and emerge as an instance of ‘post-political global ethics’.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2011. Vol. 19, no 4, p. 378-393
Keywords [en]
corporate social responsability, Global Compact, Mouffe, post-political, legibility, transparency
National Category
Social Anthropology
Research subject
Politics, Economy and the Organization of Society
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-17429DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8676.2011.00171.xScopus ID: 2-s2.0-82255163334OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-17429DiVA, id: diva2:573913
2012-12-032012-12-032017-12-07Bibliographically approved