Corporate social responsibility and development: An anthropological perspective

Some analysts suggest that corporate-driven social responsibility initiatives offer a new, and potentially bright, prospect of addressing global poverty and underdevelopment effectively. There is a growing academic literature that examines this proposition critically, often rehearsing debates about the successes and failures of the international development programmes of the second half of the 20th century. From an anthropological perspective, however, the most useful question to ask is not whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives will succeed in fulfilling the promises made by their proponents but rather what the implications and consequences –often unintended – might be of expecting business corporations to become significant engines of development. This article examines current debates about CSR, and the emerging CSR discourse and apparatus, as a prelude to asking ‘What does CSR do?’.