Abstract

This project explores how corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns are creating new forms of governmentality through partnerships formed between multinational corporations, government institutions, non governmental organizations (NGOs), and not for profit organizations. By focusing on one multinational corporation, the Coca-Cola Company, and utilizing Gramsci’s understanding of hegemony and Foucault’s concept of “field[s] of intervention,” this project argues four main points:

1.) CSR initiatives are part of a broader initiative to bolster legitimacy for free market policies by attempting to incorporate social concerns. The result of CSR initiatives has been the creation of new forms of governmentality.

2.) The Coca-Cola Company utilizes corporate sanctioned studies, technology, and institutional research to create an image of social responsibility. This top down approach serves the following functions: to gain specific information about the local environment, which is incorporated into micro-organizational strategies; it serves as a mechanism to co-opt and control local discourses on social responsibility; and allows the Coca-Cola Company to position itself as a moral authority.

3.) CSR campaigns allow Coca-Cola to create relationships with powerful NGOs and state institutions. Out of these partnerships, Coca-Cola gains access to new locations for corporate advertising, increasing its corporate encroachment into local spaces.

4.) The image of a ‘socially responsible’ corporation is used to distract from unethical international corporate practices. It is also used to discredit ‘grassroots’ organizations calling for corporate accountability, as part of a preemptive plan to counter any accusations of unethical business practices, and as a way to avoid government regulation.