‘Corporate Social Responsibility’: A New Regulation of Capitalism? An Institutionalist Interpretative Framework of CSR, Based on the French Experience

Abstract

The Fordist wage compromise may resemble an attempt to macroeconomically establish ethico-political rules governing the conflicting cooperation between capitalists and employees (Aglietta, 1998; Boyer, 1993). The question of the relationship between ethics and economics is, thus, not contemporaneous with the CSR movement. It is particularly misleading to see this recent movement as a fundamental break with the era of relationships between capital and labour, or even, as a definitive and modern break with the old ‘conflicting’ form of productive relations. The Fordist compromise represents a very subtle and substantial means of linking ethics and efficiency, but it is situated at the macro-social level, in contrast to the CSR movement.

Citation

Postel, N., Rousseau, S. and Sobel, R. (2011), "‘Corporate Social Responsibility’: A New Regulation of Capitalism? An Institutionalist Interpretative Framework of CSR, Based on the French Experience", Sun, W., Louche, C. and Pérez, R. (Ed.) Finance and Sustainability: Towards a New Paradigm? A Post-Crisis Agenda (Critical Studies on Corporate Responsibility, Governance and Sustainability, Vol. 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 39-61. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2043-9059(2011)0000002009