We address the question of how and why corporate social responsibility (CSR) differs among countries and how and why it changes. Applying two schools of thought in institutional theory we conceptualize, first, the differences between CSR in the USA and Europe and, second, the recent rise of CSR in Europe. We also delineate the potential of our framework for application to other parts of the global economy.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID978942_code791757.pdf?abstractid=978942&rulid=5283126&mirid=5

'Implicit' and 'Explicit' CSR: A Conceptual Framework for a Comparative Understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility

From a world history perspective, the most noticeable trend in the history of the late 19th century was the domination of Europeans over Non­Europeans. This domination took many forms ranging from economic penetration to outright annexation. No area of the globe, however remote from Europe, was free of European merchants, adventurers, explorers or western missionaries. Was colonialism good for either the imperialist or the peoples of the globe who found themselves subjects of one empire or another? A few decades ago, the answer would have been a resounding no. Now, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the more or less widespread discrediting of Marxist and Leninist analysis, and the end of the Cold War, political scientists and historians seem willing to take a more positive look at Nineteenth Century Imperialism. One noted current historian, Niall Ferguson has argued that the British Empire probably accomplished more positive good for the world than the last generation of historians, poisoned by Marxism, could or would concede. Ferguson has argued that the British Empire was a \" liberal \" empire that upheld international law, kept the seas open and free, and ultimately benefited everyone by ensuring the free flow of trade. In other words, Ferguson would find little reason to contradict the young Winston Churchill's assertion that the aim of British imperialism was to: give peace to warring tribes, to administer justice where all was violence, to strike the chains off the slave, to draw the richness from the soil, to place the earliest seeds of commerce and learning, to increase in whole peoples their capacities for pleasure and diminish their chances of pain. It should come as no surprise that Ferguson regards the United States current position in the world as the natural successor to the British Empire and that the greatest danger the U.S. represents is that the world will not get enough American Imperialism because U.S. leaders often have short attention spans and tend to pull back troops when intervention becomes unpopular. It will be very interesting to check back into the debate on Imperialism about ten years from now and see how Niall Ferguson's point of view has fared! The other great school of thought about Imperialism is, of course, Marxist. For example, Marxist historians like E.J. Hobsbawm argue that if we look at the l9th century as a great competition for the world's wealth and …

The New Imperialism

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The Precariat. The New Dangerous Class

The Limits to Capital

Este articulo es, a dia de hoy, una de las piezas clasicas y fundamentales para la posibilidad de estudiar las relaciones globales de poder a partir de las herramientas conceptuales desarrolladas por Gramsci a lo largo de su obra. Cox, contribuye de esta forma a las corrientes criticas de las Relaciones Internacionales al discutir varios conceptos gramscianos y cuales serian las implicaciones para estudiar las relaciones internacionales en distintos periodos de hegemonia y contrahegemonia. De igual forma, el autor planteo la cuestion –en su momento novedosa– de la relevancia de tomar en cuenta los procesos internos de construccion de bloques historicos contrahegemonicos como aquellos que podrian tener un efecto revolucionario en las estructuras y organizaciones internacionales, asi como ruptura con la hegemonia plasmada como una clase perteneciente a un orden economico universal transnacional.  This article is a classic and fundamental for approaching global power relations with the conceptual tools developed by Gramsci. Cox contributes to critical thought in International Relations by discussing various gramscian concepts and what their implications are for the study of different historical forms of hegemony and counter-hegemony. Also, the author draws our attention –novel at the time of its publicaction– to the relevance of taking into account the construction of domestic counter-hegemonic historic blocs. He suggests that these could have a revolutionary effect on international structures and organizations, as well as rupture with the hegemony performed by the transnational economic order.

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Gramsci, hegemonía y relaciones internacionales: Un ensayo sobre el método | Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations: An Essay in Method

Situated within a historical materialist problematic of social transformation that deploys many of the insights of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, a crucial break emerged, in the 1980s, in the...

A critical theory route to hegemony, world order and historical change: neo-Gramscian perspectives in International Relations:

Introduction: globalisation and non-state actors Richard A. Higgott, Geoffrey R. D. Underhill and Andreas Bieler Part I. Theoretical considerations: the changing nature of authority relations 1. Who does what? Collective action and the changing nature of authority Ann M. Florini 2. Grassroots empowerment: states, non-state actors and global policy formation Kendall W. Stiles Part II. Multinational companies and the establishment of international rules 3. Globalisation and policy convergence: the case of direct investment rules Andrew Walter 4. State authority and investment security: non-state actors and the negotiation of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment at the OECD Elizabeth Smythe 5. Structures, agents, and institutions: private corporate power and the globalisation of intellectual property rights Susan K. Sell 6. Business strategy and evolving rules in the Single European Market Duncan Matthews and John F. Pickering 7. Private sector international regimes Virginia Haufler 8. Corporate political action in the global polity: national and transnational strategies in the climate change negotiations David L. Levy and Daniel Egan Part III. Multinational companies and the international restructuring of production 9. Alliance capitalism as industrial order: exploring new forms of interfirm competition in the globalising economy Brian Portnoy 10. How global is Ford Motor Company's global strategy? Maria Isabel Studer Noguez 11. Foreign capital, host-country-firm mandates, and the terms of globalisation Jochen Lorentzen Part IV. Globalisation and inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations 12. Private authority, scholarly legitimacy and political credibility: think tanks and informal diplomacy Diane Stone 13. International trade rules and states: enhanced authority for the WTO? Gilbert Gagne 14. The World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the environmental social movement Marc Williams 15. 'In the foothills' - relations between the IMF and civil society Jan Aart Scholte 16. Transnational environmental groups, media, science and public sentiment(s) in domestic policy-making on climate change Susanne Jakobsen

Non-state actors and authority in the global system

The agent-structure debate has proceeded in International Relations for some time now. Within an initial `first wave' of debate, this revolved around proposing various `solutions' to the problem of...

The Gordian Knot of Agency—Structure in International Relations: A Neo-Gramscian Perspective

This article explores common commitments between competing historical materialist perspectives within International Political Economy (IPE). It does so by engaging with the approach of Open Marxism that has emerged as the basis of a radical rethinking of theories of the state, the dialectic of subject-object and theory-practice, as well as commitments to emancipating the social world. Despite these contributions, though, there has been a sonorous silence within debates in critical International Relations (IR) theory in relation to the arguments of Open Marxism. In contrast, we engage with and develop an immanent critique of Open Marxism through a ‘Critical Economy’ conception of the state proffered by Antonio Gramsci. Previously overlooked, this alternative approach not only promotes an understanding of the state as a social relation of production but also affords insight into a broader range of class-relevant social forces linked to contemporary processes of capitalist development. A key priority is thus granted to theorising the capitalist state, as well as issues of resistance and collective agency, that surpasses the somewhat ‘theological’ vision of state-capital-labour evident in Open Marxism. Moreover, it is argued in conclusion that the approach we outline provides an avenue to critique additional competing ‘critical’ approaches in IR/IPE, thereby raising new questions about the potential of critical theory within international studies.

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Globalisation, the state and class struggle : a 'critical economy' engagement with open Marxism.

Foreword R.W.Cox Notes on the Contributors Acknowledgements Acronyms PART I: THEORETICAL CONCEPTS AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES Introduction: Neo-Gramscian Perspectives in International Political Economy and the Relevance to European Integration A.Bieler & A.D.Morton The Sociology of Theorising and neo-Gramscian Perspectives: The Problems of 'School' Formation in IPE A.D.Morton PART II: TRANSNATIONAL CAPITAL AND THE NEO-LIBERAL RESTRUCTURING OF EUROPEAN SOCIAL RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION Constitutionalising Capital: EMU and Disciplinary Neo-Liberalism S.Gill The Struggle over European Order: Transnational Class Agency in the Making of 'Embedded Neo-Liberalism B.van Apeldoorn PART III: EUROPEAN TRADE UNIONS AND THE PROBLEMS OF NEO-LIBERAL INTEGRATION European Constitutionalism and Industrial Relations H.J.Bieling Strength Through Unity? A Comparative Analysis of Splits in the Austrian, Norwegian and Swedish Labour Movements over EU Membership A.Bieler & S.Torjesen Neo-Liberal Regionalism and the Management of People's Mobility H.Pellerin & H.Overbeek PART IV: EUROPEAN INTEGRATION AND THE EXPANSION OF NEO-LIBERALISM BEYOND THE EU The Enlargement of the European Union Towards Central and Eastern Europe: The Role of Supranational and Transnational Actors O.Holman What Happened to the European Option for Eastern Europe? K.van der Pijl PART V: CONCLUDING REMARKS Conclusion: Thinking About Future European Social Relations A.Bieler & A.D.Morton Bibliography Index

Andreas Bieler

Papers

A critical theory route to hegemony, world order and historical change: neo-Gramscian perspectives in International Relations:

Non-state actors and authority in the global system

The Gordian Knot of Agency—Structure in International Relations: A Neo-Gramscian Perspective

Globalisation, the state and class struggle : a 'critical economy' engagement with open Marxism.

Social Forces in the Making of the New Europe