These pages provide information about the seminar series 'When Worlds Collide' - a series of six seminars about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Find out more, book a place on forthcoming seminars, or download slides from previous seminars, or podcasts from the first seminar held at the British Library in December 2008
This seminar series aims to bring together leading figures in the CSR debate - from academia, policy, business and the professions, from the UK and overseas. There is a bibliography (PDF) to accompany the series.
Seminar 1: Deciphering the domain of Corporate Social Responsibility (December 2008)
Speakers included Professor Jesse Dillard of Portand State University, Lucian Hudson of the UK Ministry of Justice, and Paul Turner, Head of Sustainable Development at Lloyds TSB. Download the presentation slides or listen to the speeches.
Seminar 2: Is corporate taxation practice a CSR issue? (March 2009)
Speakers included Professor Prem Sikka of University of Essex, Gregory Morris of University of Nottingham, and Professor Jane Frecknall-Hughes of the Open University, with responses from Professor Matthias Beck of York University and Dr Lutz Preuss, Royal Holloway University of London. Download the presentation slides.
Seminar 3: How - in a world of depleting resources - can we ensure equity between business and society? (June 2009)
This seminar, at CASS Business School, City University, London, looked at environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Download the presentation slides or listen to the speeches.
Seminar 4: Can CSR make poverty history? (September 2009)
This seminar, at the University of St Andrews, asked the difficult question of whether CSR can make poverty history, raising issues such as how does a sustainable global market society expand and continue to embrace others within finite resources.
Forthcoming seminars
Seminar 5: Can Corporate Philanthropy contribute to social justice?
Should businesses give some of their profits to elevate social injustice? Should staff do voluntary work paid by corporations? How do businesses measure and deliver long-term social value to stakeholders? One approach to CSR has been the existence of both passive and active philanthropy by corporations. A social and ethical enterprise business model is becoming more prevalent, including community interest companies and not for profit businesses such as Global Ethics whose profits from selling bottled water go towards the purchase of water pumps in developing countries.
Date: January 2010
Venue: Lancaster University
To book: Details to follow.
Seminar 6: Where do the responsibilities of corporations, government and civil society begin and end?
What are the limits and expectations of responsibility and the actions that can be taken by companies, the state, civil society or the individual? This final seminar using a more considered social science analysis will consider these issues and consider how a responsible government and corporation can respond and where it draws the line. Raising pressing theoretical concerns about state reflexivity, blame philosophy and policy learning and the role of the corporation in a 21st century free market democracy, it will also synthesize reflections from the series, revisiting the earlier topics and linking them to an agenda for further theory building (or theory refutation), and priorities for policy and future research.
Date: 2010
Venue: CASS Business School, City University, London
To book: Details to follow.
