Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Civil Society in Mexico, Entrepreneurship and Citizenship Organizations Translating CSR on Behalf of Civil Society Stakeholders
Author: Sire, Pierre-Olivier , posire@hotmail.fr
Department: Departamento de Estudios Ibero y LatinoAmericanos
University: Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico
Supervisor: Isabel Blanco
Year of completion: In progress
Language of dissertation: Spanish
Keywords:
Corporate Social Res
, Civil Society
, stakeholder
, translation theory
Areas of Research:
Economy and Society
, Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change
, Communication, Knowledge and Culture
Abstract
This dissertation analyzes the ways in which civil organizations participate in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its civil society stakeholder translations. The argument relies on an ideal type dichotomy between entrepreneurship and citizen civil society organizations. The data is collected using a triangulation-based methodology which includes content analysis of multilateral agreements institutionalizing CSR and civil society as a stakeholder, content analysis of documents, participant observation, and interviews. The theoretical purpose of the dissertation is to highlight the way civil society organizations are translating CSR as network actors, and through this process, defining who can and cannot be civil society CSR's stakeholder. On the one hand, entrepreneurship organizations that represent themselves as as the civil society CSR stakeholder, include: the Mexican Center for Philanthropy (Centro Mexican para la Filantropía), the Mexican Entrepreneurs Social Union (Unión Social de Empresarios Mexicanos), and Chihuahua Entrepreneurship Federation (Federación del Empresariado Chihuahuense). On the other hand, citizenship civil organizations are looking to appropriate CSR for themselves. To study this, I consider the cases of: Net Bridges Mexico (Red Puentes Mexico, as a national chapter of international CSO networks), the Center for Laboral Reflection and Action (Centro de Reflexión y Acción Laboral), and a concrete case of an indigenous community demanding that a Canadian minin firm (GoldCorp) respect its local community rights in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. Analytically, this study seeks to verify the hypothesis that the civil society CSR stakeholder translation, as a result of civil organizations' CSR translation, embed civil society in the market. By exploring the market logic inherent in CSR, this dissertation seeks to shed light on the social, institutional, and economic processes of actor networks that undergird the CSR and civil society stakeholder translations in Mexico.
