Corporate Interests Research Articles

Agrarian Conflict in Aceh: The Intersection of Corporate Interests, Farmers' Rights, and Government Governance

Ideally, agrarian conflicts in Aceh could be resolved with a fair and sustainable approach that accommodates the interests of companies, farmers' rights, and the role of the government in transparent governance. However, in reality, these conflicts are often triggered by inequalities in land rights distribution, injustice in the treatment of farmers, and the lack of effective oversight of companies, as well as government policies that do not always favor local communities' interests. This study aims to analyze the dynamics of agrarian conflicts in Aceh, focusing on the interactions between the interests of companies, farmers' rights, and the role of government governance, as well as identifying the factors influencing the inequality in land dispute resolution. The methodology used in this study is qualitative literature-based research with a descriptive analysis approach. The results of the study conclude that agrarian conflicts in Aceh are caused by imbalances in land control between companies, farmers, and the government, with the interests of companies often clashing with farmers' rights, while government governance has not yet been able to accommodate all parties fairly. Resolving these conflicts requires a holistic approach that strengthens agrarian reform policies, oversight of companies, and transparent dispute resolution mechanisms, followed by the active role of indigenous communities and advocacy organizations in protecting farmers' rights.

A Responsible and Inclusive Technology Framework for Attending to Business-to-Business Contexts

Technology development practices in industry are often primarily focused on business results, which risks creating unbalanced power relations between corporate interests and the needs or concerns of people who are affected by technology implementation and use. These practices, and their associated cultural norms, may result in uses of technology that have direct, indirect, short-term, and even long-term negative effects on groups of people and/or the environment. This is especially critical in B2B (business-to-business) settings due to the potential for responsibility gaps to emerge in such contexts where technologies are sold to one or more third party company obfuscating downstream impacts. This paper contributes a formative framework -the Responsible and Inclusive Technology Framework- that orients critical reflection around the social contexts of technology creation and use; the power dynamics between self, business, and societal stakeholders; the impacts of technology on various communities across past, present, and future dimensions; and the practical decisions that imbue technological artifacts with cultural values. The framework and its components were iteratively developed based on observations of 10 internal exploratory workshops conducted with a total of 49 participants across the company. We expect that the use of the Responsible and Inclusive Technology framework, especially in B2B industry settings, will serve as a catalyst for more intentional and socially-grounded practices, thus bridging the responsibility and principles-to-practice gap.

Is the Digital Services Act Here to Protect Users?

The regulation of social media platforms continues to be a hotly debated issue in policy and academic circles. In these discussions, the Digital Services Act (DSA) is widely seen as a major piece of an architecture under construction. However, much of the current academic discussion focuses on the content of its new rules and their implementation, with very little work examining the context in which the DSA was passed. This paper explores this context by focusing on the strategic litigation by social media platforms against the Austrian Communication Platforms Act, a member state law adopted during the transition period from the E-Commerce Directive (ECD) to the DSA. The paper's case study shows how social media platforms successfully used EU internal market principles to challenge the Austrian law, paradoxically aligning their interests with the European Commission's goal of preventing legal fragmentation within the EU. This highlights an alliance between corporate interests and the EU regulatory framework and raises questions about the objectives of the DSA. The paper argues that it is important to challenge the narrative that the DSA represents a radical shift towards user protection in the digital sphere. Indeed, the Austrian case study shows how the ECD has been constructed in a way that is very favourable to companies. It is therefore doubtful whether the new compliance-based regulatory tools of the DSA, which are supposed to ensure user protection, can be effective forms of counter-power, given that the dominant paradigm of the ECD, which favours corporate interests, has largely been retained in the DSA.

Tradition and Political Economy in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (18th century)

The legal traditions of the Spanish Empire, which had certain particularities but were always in line with the imperial Catholic culture, played a major role in the development and expansion of the Hispanic world in the Ancien Régime. The converging interests and goals of the Crown, the Church and various groups of individuals were ment to ensure the institutional stability of an immense geoeconomic and cultural space, in which public policies and their implementation were based on the principle of the common good. Throughout the 18th century, beyond the conflicting corporate interests and the great challenges of the time, tradition and reformism influenced one another shaping a political and socioeconomic space, which contributed to strengthening the power and increasing the administrative efficiency of the Hispanic Monarchy. Meanwhile, the two tendencies’ mutual influence boosted the economy in terms of production, finance, trade, and welfare. At the local level, the Hispano-Indian cities and communities had their own administrative and economic resources, and contributed greatly to meeting the financial needs of the Crown, which was often based on negotiation. The Spanish Empire’s fiscal policy and public expenditure, in turn, sought to meet not only defence needs but also those of the government, in addition to promoting Christian education. On balance, the state, the Church and the civil society contributed to the maintenance and development of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

The OECD and Ritualized Isomorphism: Anti-Corruption Monitoring, the ‘Narrow View’ of Corruption and the Transnational Political Order

While there is considerable literature on the causes of corruption and its harmful effects, along with an extensive body of work focused on anti-corruptionism, there is a paucity of research that examines the anti-corruption dynamic. Few studies contemplate why anti-corruption rhetoric has come to occupy a central role in global governance, despite a growing consensus among some scholars that the anti-corruption movement has done little to reduce corruption globally. This paper explores the anti-corruption dynamic through an examination of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) Anti-Bribery Convention and related peer-review process of the Government of Canada’s anti-corruption measures. It does so by situating the OECD’s work as part of a transnational movement that is more about advancing corporate interests on a global scale than about combating corruption in its various guises. In the process, our findings shed important light on how the state’s regulation of corporations is itself regulated through supranational political institutions.

The auditor and his role as a watchdog on the interests of stakeholders: the case of transactions between related parties and regulated agreements in Algeria

Regulated agreements and transactions between related parties are common practices in the life of companies. However, it can be misused by the parties controlling the company or managers to the detriment of its shareholders and stakeholders. Directors may also be tempted to put their personal interests ahead of the company's corporate interest. In addition to the objective of transparency ensured by the traceability required by formalism on regulated agreements through the Commercial Code, the IASB has developed IAS 24, which aims to improve the transparency of transactions between related parties by providing relevant information on related parties in order to facilitate the control of corporate governance structures. Also, for their part, the statutory auditors draw up two reports throughout the process, one addressed to the Board of Directors to enable them to authorize the agreement, the other called the "Special Report" to the General Meeting on the authorized agreements.

Mind, Language, Work

If AI is to emulate the language, mind, and work of humans, what remains of being human? One scenario is that humans are at risk of becoming robots of AI-powered systems, serving the interests of a few global corporations. We have already reached this stage of transformation. Given this predicament, the issues concerning the capacity of AI beyond the human should be addressed through a critique of AI ideology. Methodically, this would imply a shift in perspective, from the subject of AI to the function and deceptive power of its intelligent devices. Do they serve us or do we serve them? Here, it is important not to follow the standard approach to AI as the prospect of creating super- human intelligence, to avoid the trap of basing the critique on the discourse of AI ideology. The goal, rather, is to revive the strength of philosophical critique and reestablish a certain idealism.

Unveiling chemical industry secrets: Insights gleaned from scientific literatures that examine internal chemical corporate documents-A scoping review.

Examine peer-reviewed scientific articles that used internal industry documents in the chemical sector to reveal corporate influence. Summarize sources of internal documents used in prior scientific papers to identify ongoing corporate strategies within the chemical field. Compare the corporate strategies identified in the chemical sector with the ones identified already identified in the pharmaceutical sector. Propose a theoretical framework for categorizing and examining the different form of corporate capture at play. Performed a scoping review to pinpoint scientific papers employing internal industry/corporate documents within the chemical sector. We conducted a systematic search using broad and case study-derived keywords, detailed in the S1 Appendix. This resulted in 351 sources from 28 databases, encompassing peer-reviewed articles analyzing internal documents of chemical corporations. We complemented our efforts with a snowball sampling method to uncover additional case studies and journal articles not initially captured by our search. Results were categorized and analyzed using Marc-Andre Gagnon and Sergio Sismondo's ghost management framework. The final results included and analyzed 18 scientific papers. Legal proceedings served as the primary source of internal document data for all examined articles. We uncovered and categorized dynamic strategies employed by chemical corporations to protect and advance their interests, including scientific capture (n = 16), regulatory capture (n = 15), professional capture (n = 7), civil society capture (n = 6), media capture (n = 4), legal capture (n = 4), technological capture (n = 3), and market capture (n = 2). The limited scientific literature meeting our criteria confirms early findings by Wieland et al, highlighting a research gap in the chemical industry. Our analysis, building on the ghost-management framework, shows a different emphasis in the way internal documents were used in scientific literature to understand corporate strategies at play in the chemical sector as compared to the pharmaceutical sector. In contrast to Gagnon and Dong's pharmaceutical corporate capture review, which identified 37 papers before 2022, our chemical industry findings reveal a lower count, with only 18 papers identified. Notably, the vast majority of the papers in both sectors shows an emphasis on analyzing strategies used for scientific capture. However, the area of regulatory capture reveals a significant distinction: only 6 of the 37 articles related to the pharmaceutical industry analyzed this dimension, as compared to 15 of the 18 articles related to the chemical industry. This body of work suggests that existing research on the chemical industry is particularly concerned with analyzing how the sector navigates and circumvents regulatory oversight. Both industries employ strategies involving conflicts of interest and the legitimization of their actions to shield themselves from public policy scrutiny and protect their interests. However, their goals seem to be significantly different. The scientific literature analyzing the pharmaceutical industry's internal document tends to identify strategies maximizing profits through the biased promotion of health products, whereas the scientific literature analyzing the chemical industry's internal documents is more inclined in identifying strategies institutionalizing ignorance about existing risks, evading accountability, and preventing regulatory actions. Our scoping review shows how internal documents can reveal how the chemical industry strategically institutionalizes ignorance to manage business risks. It exposes intentional efforts by chemical corporations to promote ignorance and foster conflicts of interest, thereby legitimizing their business models and safeguarding corporate interests. We shared our research findings on the Dataverse/ Borealis platform (https://doi.org/10.5683/SP3/EOIOAU), making them accessible for future studies to apply the same analytical framework seamlessly. We excluded papers that did not meet our research criteria, prioritizing those that analyzed internal corporate documents for uncovering covert ghost management captures. Beyond scientific literature, various grey literature sources have conducted quality investigations on ghost management strategies in the chemical industry, and many leaked internal documents in the chemical industry, often available through toxicdocs.org, were not analyzed in the scientific literature. Also, market concentration and other corporate captures can be investigated using publicly available resources. Despite searching scientific papers in various languages, no relevant publications were found outside of English. This presents an opportunity for future research to conduct a separate scoping review.

TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN GLOBAL POLITICS: CHALLENGES AND MECHANISMS OF INFLUENCE ON STATES

The article examines the growing role of transnational corporations (TNCs) as key actors in the modern system of international relations, where they actively influence the formation of political, economic and social realities. The author outlines the mechanisms of influence, such as lobbying, control through global financial and information networks, shaping public opinion and cooperation with governments. The analysis focuses on examples from the European Union, the United States, and Ukraine, which is at war with Russia. Particular attention is paid to the interaction of states with corporations in wartime, including attracting investments, providing humanitarian aid and supplying military technologies. The author establishes that TNCs, thanks to their financial resources and geopolitical influence, are becoming the drivers of globalisation, while creating new challenges for state sovereignty, economic balance and environmental safety. The author emphasises the role of corporations in setting political priorities through lobbying mechanisms, as seen in the case of BusinessEurope in the EU or the influence of corporations on electoral processes in the United States. At the same time, the article describes the measures taken by states to regulate TNCs, such as the adoption of the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act in Europe, antitrust investigations in the United States, and the promotion of international investment in Ukraine. The author concludes that the current interaction between states and corporations is ambiguous: on the one hand, it promotes innovation, investment and solving global challenges, and on the other hand, it threatens with monopolisation, excessive concentration of influence and increased inequality. The article offers recommendations for creating an effective balance between the interests of states and corporations, which is a key factor in ensuring sustainable development, especially in the context of global crises.

State and Farmers’ Protest in India

The Indian farmers' protests against the government's agricultural reforms marked a pivotal moment in the country's history, resonating not only nationally but also garnering international scrutiny and support. The Marxist theory of the state, which holds that the state primarily serves as an instrument of class power, advancing the interests of the ruling capitalist class at the expense of the working class, is used to study the farmers' response to the creation farmers' bills in India. This article employs the study of documents containing secondary data from the journal, news, working paper, and official website. The analysis highlights that the government has consistently favored capitalist interests, contributing to the marginalization of these farmers, and the current laws are seen as a continuation of this trend, further entrenching the power of large agribusinesses. The farmers, therefore, represent a significant moment of struggle against neoliberal policies that prioritize corporate interests ahead of the demands of the agrarian community.

Chain of Oppression: An Aquapelagic Reading of Industrial Fishing in Port of Lies

Tang Fu-jui’s Port of Lies is a Taiwanese crime fiction that critiques the complex network of political and corporate interests undergirding Taiwan’s fishing industry and the industry’s historical exploitation of Indigenous and migrant fishers. Using Philip Hayward’s concept of the aquapelago, this essay reads industrial fishing represented in the novel not simply as a mode of production, but as a more-than-human aquapelago that sustains itself by creating and maintaining specific social and human-nature relations. The essay first reviews Tang’s representation of the major forms of violence in industrial fishing under the conceptual framework of hydrocolonialism to provide a historical context. With an aquapelagic reading, it then highlights the moments in the novel in which industrial fishing sustains itself by reproducing specific subjectivity, social relation, and human-nature relation. The essay concludes with a reflection on ways to decolonise human’s fishing activities.

‘The Most Important Commercial Body Within the Empire:’ The Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire, 1925-501

Based on private papers of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire (FCCBE), this paper provides the first detailed study of the evolution, inner workings and external relations of the apex pan-British Empire business lobby between 1925 and 1950. It highlights the intra-group politics, corporate agenda and economic thought of the Federation on the political economy of the Empire in the global context. Intersecting imperial and corporate business interests, the FCCBE successfully campaigned for a system of imperial preference in the Empire in the face of the diverse interests of its constituents (such as the Association of British Chambers of Commerce), the tension between the Dominions and the United Kingdom (UK), the interwar depression, the Second World War, the decline of the UK, the rise of the United States, Decolonization, and post-war changes in the global political economy.

Commercial determinants of health: a new framework for studying relationships between food corporations and food charities in the UK

Relationships between food charities and commercial partners have been extensively critiqued by food charity scholars, particularly those that involve food corporations supporting charitable hunger relief whilst at the same time holding power over key drivers of food insecurity. This has important implications for health-related research on food charity that involves input from corporate donors. This paper argues that there is an opportunity to expand the field of health research on food insecurity and food charity by engaging with the Commercial Determinants of Health (CDoH) framework, to provide a new way of theoretically and analytically framing evidence and critiques on food charity with corporate involvement. The paper puts the CDoH framework into practice through an empirical study of food charity - food corporation relationships in the UK. Through the CDoH analysis, the findings reveal the different corporate practices that are employed in these relationships, and the disparity between these and the practices corporations could be using to address food insecurity. The framework provides important new avenues for research to further evidence and explore the deep ironies and inequalities embedded in these relationships, and the ways in which corporations leverage charitable efforts to improve their image, whilst holding significant power over key drivers of the very food insecurity that these charities seek to relieve.By applying the CDoH framework, research on food insecurity, food charity and the role of corporations can play an active part in the wider moves in public health towards understanding the impact of corporate entities and interests on health and equity.

The futures for regenerative agriculture: insights from the organic movement and the tussle with industrial agriculture

Concern has been raised about the potential greenwashing/co-optation of regenerative agriculture (RA) due to a lack of consensus on its definition. While the academic literature has cataloged various approaches to defining RA, each definitional approach carries with it a relative concern for its likelihood for co-optation and the potential transformative power it can have within the sector. As the industrial agrifoods sector is taking interest in the field, lessons from the organic movement are worth highlighting. The corporate system has easily integrated the foundational pillar of growing food without chemicals, but left behind the pillars of alternative food distribution, and a focus on whole foods and unprocessed ingredients. Corporate interest in RA could be a major driver for scaled adaptation, yet it may lose its focus on the regeneration of agriculture resources, ecosystems functions, and the social systems required to reproduce the next generation of farmers. The greatest challenge is that the fundamental concern is a philosophical one, which entails a shift in how humans perceive the natural world and their role in it. As RA scales, will it hold to its values and remain obscure, or could its values merge with the predominant industrial system to have significance and affect real change in agriculture?

Challenging Power and Redefining Progress: Arundhati Roy’s Critique of Neoliberalism, Militarization, and Environmental Injustice

Abstract: This study examines how Arundhati Roy critically articulates power dynamics in her groundbreaking writings The Greater Common Good and Power Politics: The Reincarnation of Rumpelstiltskin, offering a thorough analysis of neoliberalism, militarization, and environmental injustice. By dissecting modern development theories, Roy reveals structural oppressive mechanisms that disproportionately affect ecological systems and vulnerable groups. The study shows the complex relationships between economic exploitation, environmental degradation, and social marginalization by critically examining the ways in which corporate interests and state-sponsored policies work together to sustain structural violence. The research examines the rhetorical construction of development via a postcolonial feminist perspective, exposing the systematic commodification of natural resources and the dispossession of indigenous population by neoliberal ideology. Roy’s philosophical intervention highlights grassroots resistance as a transformative political approach and centers the realities of marginalized people, challenging prevailing narratives. Large- scale infrastructure projects, like the Sardar Sarovar Dam, are symbolic representations of modern power structures that put economic expansion ahead of the wellbeing of people and the environment, as the analysis shows. The ethical implications of development theories are critically examined in this study, which adds to larger academic conversations about social resistance, political economy, and environmental justice. Roy’s writing are regarded as an important intellectual critique that reveals the normalized violence present in international capitalism systems and provides substitute ideas of progress, sovereignty, and ecological interdependence.

Reflecting on IPEF’s impact and charting the future: a perspective of US domestic politics

The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), a key economic component of the Biden administration’s strategy for the Indo-Pacific, was launched to serve both economic and geopolitical purposes. At the heart of these objectives is the aim to undermine China’s growing influence in the Asia–Pacific region. If well implemented, it is expected to pose a series of challenges to China. The Biden administration’s strategic project, however, is very likely to fall short of its ambitious goals due to the constraints imposed by the US domestic politics, which significantly influences the content of the IPEF and the overall negotiation process. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have been embracing protectionism more than ever, which has greatly undercut the concessional space for any free trade move. In areas such as supply chain resilience, clean economy and fair economy, where the IPEF member states have come to consensus, the Biden administration has chosen to take a pro-workers approach notwithstanding the divergent interest pursuits by different interest groups within the US. This politically correct approach, however, is likely to face challenges in its implementation, as it largely conflicts with the interests of major corporations. Additionally, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives holds the purse strings, adding another layer of complexity to the situation. Meanwhile, the tussles and uncertainties surrounding the domestic politics of the US is very likely to discourage other member states.

Toxic Battery: Pollution as a Dignitary Tort

Corporate interests have contaminated the world and our bodies with chemical pollutants in pursuit of profit. In this Article, I argue that this contamination of our bodies with chemicals constitutes an offensive battery, a violation of our right to be free from nonconsensual contacts. I describe how our bodies are contaminated via factory discharges, train derailments and chemical spills, our use of consumer goods, and the workplace. I argue that traditional toxic tort and statutory environmental law do nothing to prevent this and in fact encourage polluting behaviors by limiting the polluters’ right to pollute only when the pollution can be scientifically shown to cause us physical harm. I discuss how pollution in the absence of physical harm still violates our interest in bodily integrity and autonomy and treats us as less than, as mere means for corporate interests to realize their profits. I analyze the prima facie case for treating pollution as an offensive battery, focusing on the elements of voluntary act, intent, and offense. I evaluate consent and necessity as possible defenses and conclude that they do not hold in most cases of chemical pollution. I discuss the remedies available for pollution victims, including compensatory damages for those who need medical monitoring, punitive damages to punish the polluters who wantonly disregard our rights for their own profits, and injunctive relief to stop ongoing polluting behaviors and inform the public about the chemicals to which they are exposed through consumer goods. In sum, this Article is an attempt at a first step to putting up meaningful boundaries on the cavalier polluting behaviors that have gotten us to this point. There is an urgent need to curtail the discharge of novel substances, in particular, and toxic offensive battery is a theory of liability that could be employed to hold polluters accountable. It is also a theory of liability that reflects a different way of thinking about our relationship to pollution, something we desperately need after more than fifty years of ineffective policies.

Can health impact assessment help tackle commercial determinants of health and support a wellbeing economy?

Commercial activity has positive and negative effects on health. Adverse commercial impacts on health are underpinned by corporate power and economic models and policy that prioritize economic growth, rather than a wellbeing economy that prioritizes health, equity and sustainability. Health in all policies (HiAP) aims to ensure that all policies promote health and health equity, using processes including health impact assessment (HIA). We aimed to explore the potential for HiAP and HIA to help address commercial determinants of health and promote a wellbeing economy. We completed a scoping review to identify how HiAP approaches, including HIA, could address commercial determinants, including challenges and implications for practice. This found synergy between the concepts of wellbeing economy and HiAP. However, corporate interests have sometimes co-opted HiAP to influence policy. We found some examples of HIAs of transnational corporations and international trade and investment agreements. We reviewed HIA frameworks for guidance to practitioners on managing corporate influence. This identified little guidance on identifying and managing corporate and other conflicts of interest or managing power differentials between stakeholders. We also mapped wellbeing economy outcomes against health determinants considered in selected HIA frameworks. This found that HIA frameworks with a comprehensive checklist of health determinants prompt consideration of most wellbeing economy outcomes. HIA could support the transition to a wellbeing economy if applied routinely to economic policies, but ideational change is also needed. HIA frameworks should provide guidance on corporate conflicts of interest and power differentials.

(Micro)soft power in Dutch public education: making classrooms platform-ready through partner work

ABSTRACT This article explores how the global technology company Microsoft, supported by local partners, makes Dutch classrooms platform-ready by influencing how schools approach three key public governance responsibilities in their digital transformation: developing a vision for digital education, creating strategies for educational innovation and fostering digital literacy. Using the concept of soft power and extensive empirical research, the study shows how Microsoft aligns these responsibilities with its own corporate interests. As a result, the company gains control over schools’ digital infrastructure – not only in terms of hardware and software but also in terms of its pedagogical design. The conclusion emphasises the importance of collective and collaborative national efforts to resist the global influence of platforms like Microsoft on local digital education.

Navigating Emerging Climate Crises Through Adaptive Polycentric Meta-networks

AbstractWithout urgent, systemic, and collective global interventions to address the emerging climate emergency, we are likely to continue to see a range of increasingly significant adverse impacts globally. Temperatures will continue to increase, ice shelves will melt, seas will rise, crops will fail, water scarcity will increase and spread, wildfires will accelerate, and food and water insecurity, violence, and the largest human migration in history will ensue. According to the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), these climate changes will displace over 1.2 billion people by 2050 at a rate currently exceeding 21.5 million people per year. This mass migration will create incredible burdens on political, legal, economic, agricultural, educational, and health infrastructures in future host countries, and we are globally unprepared. It is well-recognized that the solution to these crises lies in our collective awakening by embracing complexity and employing bold and holistic perspectives. However, theoretical and applied advancements that may meaningfully inform practical approaches to urgently address climate related threats remain scattered and insufficient. The purpose of our proposed paper is to advance the concept of adaptive polycentric meta-networks (APMNs) as a partial solution to collectively address climate crises. We draw upon key insights from works on polycentricity, complexity leadership, and meta-networks, to arrive at our integrative framework. We also discuss ways that the proposed framework aligns with the dynamics of collective mindfulness and practical wisdom, particularly to facilitate cross-sector and global collaborations, across cultures and spiritual practices, to achieve the climate change goals at a macro scale. We believe that our framework offers an important conceptual and practical pathway to tackle the complex dynamics of climate change, and to generate the needed collective sensemaking and awareness to awaken, engage, and align collective leadership where it is needed, at global, national, regional and local levels and across governments, NGOs, and corporate interests.