TY  - CHAP
AB  - Purpose This chapter proposes using a dialectical approach infused with elements of dialogism to analyze polyphonic discourses of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in order to create more nuanced understandings of the contradictions, oppositions, tensions, and complexities that characterize the conceptualization, enactment, and communication of CSR.Methodology/approach This chapter draws upon the notion of dialectics discussed by scholars such as Hegel and Marx and infuses it with Bakhtinian notions of dialogism to create a dialectical framework for analyzing discourses of CSR.Findings This chapter illustrates the conceptual argument for a dialectical approach to examining discourses of CSR by using the example of the dualistic discussion of corporations as agents of empowerment or exploitation. When examined through a dialectical lens, the empowerment–exploitation debate reveals, among others, the dissolution of boundaries between the categories of empowerment and exploitation, the coexistence and interplay of a multitude of related oppositions, and raises questions on praxical patterns employed by social actors to manage the dialectical tensions inherent in everyday organizing.Social implications A dialectical approach in communication studies could open possibilities for acknowledging the co-existence of and interplay among multiple voices in society, thus opening spaces for engaging with diverse perspectives and creating a more holistic understanding of complex social constructs such as CSR.Originality A dialectical approach that attends to tensions negotiated by social and organizational actors as they try to conceptualize, enact, and communicate CSR can enrich the study of polyphonic discourses of CSR by generating more textured and insightful understandings of CSR than those currently examined through mostly dualistic lenses.
VL  - 6
SN  - 978-1-78350-796-2, 978-1-78350-795-5/2043-9059
DO  - 10.1108/S2043-9059(2014)0000006020
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S2043-9059(2014)0000006020
AU  - Dhanesh Ganga S.
PY  - 2014
Y1  - 2014/01/01
TI  - A Dialectical Approach to Analyzing Polyphonic Discourses of Corporate Social Responsibility
T2  - Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility: Perspectives and Practice
T3  - Critical Studies on Corporate Responsibility, Governance and Sustainability
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 157
EP  - 177
Y2  - 2024/04/24
ER  -