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Zadek, Simon. The civil corporation: The new economy of corporate citizenship. London, Earthscan, 2001. xiv+257 pp. Figures, boxes, glossary of acronyms, bibliography, index. ISBN 1-85383-813-6.
This book by one of the leading thinkers in the area of corporations and their relationship with society covers most of the key issues in the area, and contributes a number of useful observations. The author demonstrates his wide knowledge of the views and actions of the major companies and key NGOs in the area to date. His knowledge is drawn mainly from the United Kingdom, but he also includes case studies from the United States and Scandinavia. Zadek makes a number of useful attempts to define his terms although he does occasionally slip - for instance "inclusivity" is referenced but not defined and some details are wrong.
This is a cause for concern, since in other books on the subject accuracy has often also been thrown to the wind. The result is that less charitable critics than this reviewer have had a field day with the soft side of a growing and important movement: enquiring into the social responsibilities of the private sector now that the "Washington consensus" has given the private sector carte blanche in almost every area of social and economic activity. Business and its critics have been lackadaisical in defining their terms, particularly in the fast-growing area of the social responsibility of private enterprise. The book reviewed here does not get off to a good start with the remark "the focus is shifting from philanthropy to the impact of core business activities across the broad spectrum of social, environmental and economic dimensions" (so far, so good) but then "represented by the vision of sustainable development" (see below). A civil corporation is defined here as one which "takes full advantage of opportunities for learning and action in building social and environmental objectives into its core business by effectively developing its internal values and competencies". Corporate citizenship is considered to have "emerged in its contemporary forms within the context of the emerging `New Economy' (see below) and is defined as "the total impact of business on society". A better definition, and one used by the World Economic Forum in its statement on corporate citizenship is "committing companies to...