Corporate Social Responsibility and Civil Society in India - (Anthem Contemporary Studies in Corporate Social Responsibility) by Nandini Deo

About the Book

This book explores how the partnerships between big businesses and civil society organizations are influencing the development and rights landscape in India. Can these collaborations lead to win-win solutions for marginalized groups or will they destroy civil society's resistance to market forces?

Book Synopsis

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) or billionaire philanthropy is like a Rorschach test - the same act can look very different depending on how we understand its intentions and its consequences. In this book the author examines the politics of CSR in India to assess its ability to advance inclusive and sustainable development. The focus is on how CSR is remaking the practices and agendas of civic organizations that are being encouraged to collaborate with business to advance equality and prosperity.

Civil society organizations (CSOs) and corporations have a history of hostility to each other. According to CSO workers, businesses selfishly exploit workers, despoil natural resources, and distort democracy to serve their own profit-making ends. According to business executives, CSOs are hopelessly naïve, inefficient, and interfere in the market in ways that reduce economic growth. And yet, in the past decade more and more CSOs and businesses are collaborating in new ways. Individuals from both sectors are setting up social impact enterprises, and social investing funds are increasing. The more traditional forms of corporate-CSO collaboration have expanded as more funds are flowing from business to the social sector. The divide between the corporate sector and civil society seems to be narrowing. Why is this happening and what are its consequences? This book examines these trends in India, where since 2013 the state has mandated co-operation between the largest firms and NGOs in pursuit of inclusive and sustainable development.

This book offers evidence that CSR is unlikely to contribute to inclusive and sustainable development. By claiming to be "helpers" corporations are able to silence their critics and thus avoid making the deeper shifts in business models needed in order to create a more just and sustainable society.

Review Quotes

An eloquent, erudite, informative, deftly organized and presented work of original, seminal, and ground-breaking research, "Corporate Social Responsibility and Civil Society in India" by Nandini Deo will prove a welcome and high value addition to personal, professional, governmental, and college/university International Civil Society & Corporate Social Responsibility collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. --Midwest

"Academic literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in India, is sparse. More importantly, a focus on the politics of the civil society-corporate relationship is almost entirely absent. Traditionally, the relationship has been conflictual. What is valuable about Nandini Deo's book is that by examining both theory and empirical evidence she advances our knowledge of whether, and how, mandated CSR under the Companies Act (2013) is remaking this relationship for the better or not. A thought-provoking book!" --Pushpa Sundar, Author, Beyond Business (2000) and Business and Community (2013)

"Analyzing the incompatibility between corporate social responsibility and civil society organizations, Deo unravels the multiple and contradictory motivations at play as stakeholders envision new paradigms in the contested landscape of neoliberal India, where profit often triumphs. Strongly argued and lucidly written, the book is a must-read for students, NGOs, and policymakers." --Lamia Karim, Head and Professor of Anthropology, Affiliate Faculty Asian Studies, Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, USA.

"Cutting neatly through voluminous literature on the relationship between civil society organizations, and corporations who donate but a fraction of their wealth through "corporate social responsibility," Nandini Deo in this fascinating work speaks of the corporatization of civil society. Civil society as the realm of associational life was expected to be an alternative to the powerdriven state and the profit-driven market. Today, it is dominated by professional NGOs and their complex relationship with corporations. The implications are not too happy for social well-being either through activism or philanthropy." --Neera Chandhoke, formerly Professor of Political Science, Delhi University, India. Currently Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Equity Studies.

"Deo's nuanced analysis of the impact of CSR on Indian civil society challenges those who hope CSR will produce a more just society. Her detailed research demonstrates how CSR-NGO partnerships reproduce corporate and capitalist aims, and bypass possibilities of inclusive economic and social development." --Erica Bornstein, Professor of Anthropology, University of Oregon, USA.

Midwest

About the Author

Nandini Deo is an expert on civil society activism and teaches political science at Lehigh University