Takes as its departure point the criticism of Guthrie and Parker by Arnold and the Tinker et al. critique of Gray et al. Following an extensive review of the corporate social reporting literature, its major theoretical preoccupations and empirical conclusions, attempts to re‐examine the theoretical tensions that exist between “classical” political economy interpretations of social disclosure and those from more “bourgeois” perspectives. Argues that political economy, legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory need not be competitor theories but may, if analysed appropriately, be seen as alternative and mutually enriching theories from alternative levels of resolution. Offers evidence from 13 years of social disclosure by UK companies and attempts to interpret this from different levels of resolution. There is little doubt that social disclosure practice has changed dramatically in the period. The theoretical perspectives prove to offer different, but mutually enhancing, interpretations of these phenomena.

Corporate social and environmental reporting

Introduction Part I. Theory of Collective Action: 1. The construction of collective action 2. Conflict and change 3. Action and meaning 4. The process of collective identity Part II. Contemporary Collective Action: 5. conflicts of culture 6. Invention of the present 7. The time of difference 8. Roots for today and for tomorrow 9. A search for ethics 10. Information, power, domination Part III. The Field of Collective Action: 11. A society without a centre 12. The political system 13. The state and the distribution of social resources 14. Modernization, crisis, and conflict: the case of Italy Part IV. Acting Collectively: 15. Mobilization and political participation 16. The organization of movements 17. Leadership in social movements 18. Collective action and discourse 19. Forms of action 20. Research on collective action.

Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age@@@The Playing Self: Person and Meaning in the Planetary Society

The standard of living

Global ComplexityGlobal Complexity, by UrryJohn. Malden, MA: Polity, 2003. 172 pp. $59.95 cloth. ISBN: 0-7456-2817-6. $23.95 paper. ISBN: 0-7456-2818-4.

Social Emergence: Societies as Complex Systems

This article investigates aspects of the new relationships that are emerging between contemporary trends in political communication and public policy. In particular, it identifies and analyzes how these relationships are extending beyond the traditional domain of political communication as information and persuasion. This is traced through a consideration of the notion of political communication as “recursive governance”—a form of governance that operates according to a generative informational logic. The article explores the impact of recursive processes on policy formation and on democratic practice more generally. It argues that the dramatic increase in the use of communications expertise and public relations by government (as well as business and the third sector) is part of what appears to be a far more fundamental systems shift in the very nature of governance in Western democracies.

Recursive Governance: Contemporary Political Communication and Public Policy

Australian politics in the global era

Listening, learning, steering: new governance, communication and interactive policy formation

New governance patterns in Western democracies pose challenges to political analysis. Key here is the relationship of politics and policy. This article examines how this relationship is changing in terms of a communication systems shift. From this perspective, the adequacy of current frameworks of political analysis is called into question. The article applies this critical review to the rise of policy-politics modes of behavior as distinct from older politics-policy forms. This contrast draws attention to the emergent qualities of interactive policy processes and asks how open generative modes of organization operate in fluid conditions while nonetheless exercising political authority.

Rethinking Systems: Configurations of Politics and Policy in Contemporary Governance

This is an electronic version of an article published in the Australian Journal of Political Science, 36(1), 7-26. Australian Journal of Political Science is available online at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=t713404457 /

/pdf/a-problematic-discipline-the-identity-of-australian-uk9x2bpcvv.pdf

Michael Crozier

Papers

Recursive Governance: Contemporary Political Communication and Public Policy

Australian politics in the global era

Listening, learning, steering: new governance, communication and interactive policy formation

Rethinking Systems: Configurations of Politics and Policy in Contemporary Governance

A problematic discipline: the identity of Australian political studies