Corporate Self-Creation through CSR Reporting Discourse: Minimising Victims and Naturalising Power Imbalance

Abstract

Corporate responsibility for their human impact has become generally accepted over the last half-century, as evidenced by the contemporary profusion of corporate reports and rhetoric demonstrating conformity with aspects of the international human rights regime. Despite this rhetorical shift, however, corporate-linked human rights breaches continue to occur globally, demonstrating a disconnect between rhetoric and practice. Given the importance of rhetoric and discourse to the construction and reconstruction of actors and their roles in society, I analyse a substantial body of company-produced reports, as prime examples of such rhetoric. These are drawn from the United Nations Global Compact Communication on Progress (COP) scheme, focusing specifically on Anglophone manufacturing and extractive multinational corporations. The inductive analysis is informed by the concept that all overarching discourses incorporate both a ‘dominant’ and ‘heretic’ discourse, embodied in financialised and rights-based discourse respectively. I demonstrate how corporations construct their social reporting rhetoric in such a way that social interests remain subordinate to those of capital, despite the allegedly socially-focussed perspective of CSR reports. I find that they ultimately depart little from the naturalised assumption that corporate discourse is neutral and normal, leading to the continued minimisation of the individuals and communities affected by corporate action.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, business and society, rhetoric, corporate discourse, corporate victimisation