Editorial

Citation

Aras, G. and Crowther, D. (2011), "Editorial", Social Responsibility Journal, Vol. 7 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/srj.2011.36807caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Social Responsibility Journal, Volume 7, Issue 3

Social responsibility as a topic for research is changing and more importantly it is maturing. So no longer is all research concerned with investigating and recording current practice – and highlighting bad practice. Such research still exists – examples can be found in this issue of the journal – and such research is important. Now however there is a concern with investigating how social responsibility operates in different environments and different parts of the world. From this the question is beginning to be raised as to whether CSR is a western concept which can only apply in different forms in other parts of the world. This too is important research and is helping our understanding to develop. So too is the increasingly apparent theorising which is also helping to change the discourse as the subject area matures. Examples of all of this kind of work can be found in this issue. Representatives of a good number of countries can be found in this issue and there are good examples of collaborations between people from very different countries. We are an international journal acting as the voice of an international research community so this is pleasing to see.

This journal is the official journal of the Social Responsibility Research Network (SRRNet) – www.socialresponsibility.biz – a network of scholars interested in various aspects of social responsibility. Currently there are over 600 members of the network and this number is continuing to increase. Members hail from all over the world reflecting the commonality of concern for the subject matter that is truly global. Equally global is the range of authors who contribute to the journal and this issue is no exception – a reflection of the fact that it is not only crises that have a global impact. So too does a concern with social responsibility.

Publishing the journal is one of the main activities that the network undertakes. The other main activity of the network is to organise an annual conference and as this issue is published the 10th International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility will have taken place in New Orlens, USA as a collaboration between the network and Loyola University New Orleans. So we will be making preparations for the 2012 conference to be held in Lahti, Finland. Plans are also firm for the conferences over the next few years, following our plan to host alternative conferences in Europe and elsewhere – and we hope to see you at one of these future conferences. The conferences are designed to act as a forum for the debate and analysis of contemporary issues in the broad area of CSR but we also focus upon a particular issue (without excluding general issues) at each conference. And of course some of the contributions to the conference appear in the journal in due course, just as we have already see papers from previous conferences appearing in issues of the journal – including this issue.

The network is interdisciplinary and so too is the conference. This journal, just as the conference, is also interdisciplinary in its focus and international in its outlook – and this is reflected in the papers this volume. What is apparent however is the commonality of concern as different papers from different parts of the world address similar issues and concerns – reflecting the global nature of our concerns and our research. All papers have the commonality that they investigate an aspect of social responsibility – and one feature of social responsibility is that it is a very wide and very interdisciplinary field. With that we leave you to read the papers, hoping that this will inspire you to contribute to a future edition.

Güler Aras, David Crowther