There is a difference between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Responsibility (CR). The former is based on social justice and the latter on making the free market more efficient. This book argues that the compassion of social justice is being presented by right wing politicians as left wing socialism that would destroy the free market and reduce our standard of living. The dropping of “social” in CSR puts business above society. The social in CSR does not mean socialism but the common good. The society envisaged by neo-liberal ideology has no room for the “social” in CSR. People seeking to understand CSR also need to appreciate the ideologies of managerialism that support unethical management and of New Capitalism with its inhumanity. The book suggests that a new form of business based on fairness between capital and labour, social business, could be built through pressure and active support from citizens and consumers. Citizens need to see through the political spin of the neo-liberals before an alternative to managerialism and New Capitalism can be found. The “social” in CSR accepts that business is responsible to society and that society should not be subservient to business.
About the author
Peter Challis is the director of his own company, Time 4 Social Change. After a career in accountancy, he moved into strategic systems management first as a senior civil servant and then into local government. His mastersí degree in strategic management included a research paper on shared services in the public sector and he worked as an adviser to the Cabinet Office on the subject. After taking voluntary redundancy, he worked as a volunteer on one of the governmentís Big Society vanguard projects. He then helped several charities respond to austerity and Big Society and was a director of some of them. By becoming a reader in Northampton University library and then in Bodleian library at Oxford University, Peter taught himself the sociology of business. From his experience as a strategic manager, his knowledge of sociology and its application to management, Peter began writing for Bookboon. In his spare time, Peter writes science fiction novels and helps look after his disabled daughter.