Corporate Accountability and Sustainable Development

This volume is part of the series Ecological Economics and Human Well-being that offers outstanding recent work in the transdisciplinary field of ecological economics, whose focus is the study of the relationship between economic activity and environmental sustainability. Recent decades have witnessed a profound transformation in regulatory regimes that shapes the social and environmental performance of business. As neoliberal thinking and polices took effect in the 1980s, attention focused on corporate self-regulation and voluntary initiatives associated with ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR). The adoption of CSR initiatives has involved not only some of the world’s largest transnational corporations but also large national firms as well as Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) that form part of global value chains. While the CSR discourse and agenda has gained widespread international attention, its limitations have also become increasingly apparent. This book explores a range of ideas, initiatives, and alterative approaches that go beyond standard notions of CSR. These include: a) greater use of legalistic and binding regulations; b) greater reliance on public policy to deepen voluntarism; and c) forms of multi-dimensional, multi-stakeholder, and multi-scalar governance that aim to reassert social control over corporate activities and markets. This pioneering study will be invaluable for academics, economic and environmental policymakers, NGOs interested in sustainable development, and researchers seeking interdisciplinary ways to study environmental policy and sustainable development.