Corporations as Norm Entrepreneurs

Abstract

The Rise of Corporate Social Responsibility: Mining and the Spread of Global Norms. By Hevina S. Dashwood. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 336 pp., $36.95 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-1-107-43725-8). Researchers interested in corporate social responsibility (CSR) have struggled on two accounts: First, it has been an uphill battle to convince casual observers that CSR is something more than an exercise in public relations, and second, it has proven difficult to frame CSR in a way that renders it theoretically visible to scholars of international affairs and global governance. Hevina S. Dashwood's new book takes on both of these challenges through a case study of corporate social responsibility adoption and promotion in the global mining industry. On the first point, Dashwood's analysis shows that the evolution of CSR in the mining industry had profound and substantive effects on how mining executives and the companies they run view their responsibilities to society, particularly regarding the social and environmental externalities of extractive activities. On the second point, she links CSR to the literature on how global norms emerge and influence international actors—including multinational mining companies. In this respect, The Rise of Corporate Social Responsibility is a study about the promotion and influence of norms, but in broader terms, the book argues for elevating the …