On Corporate Citizenship

Abstract

The notion of corporate citizenship is both fashionable and highly controversial within the international development community. This thesis explores corporate citizenship in the context of an environment in which traditional roles and responsibilities have shifted. States are receding and less likely to undertake many of their traditional functions, such as the regulation of corporate behavior. At the same time another actor has emerged-civil society - with the capacity to regulate the environmental, labor, and human rights violations committed by multinational corporations. This has serious implications for developing countries. This thesis asks several important questions: what is corporate citizenship? What strategies do MNCs adopt to promote a more favorable image? What role does civil society play in regulating corporate strategies? And finally, what insight does CC offer in the debate about the changing role of the state and state regulation in an increasingly globalized world? I explore these implications through a case study of Shell. The Shell story brings to light several lessons about a public realm that is being challenged, governance in general, regulating the public interest, and the role of the legal structures within this process. This is a story about corporate citizenship and the arena in which it is often unveiled.