Coloniality of corporate social responsibility

Abstract

The objective of this article is to make the case horizontally that the intertwined legal compliance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) abet enduring coloniality in settler colonial states. The focus is on Indigenous nations and settler colonial states in the Americas. There are three key contributions. First, the jurisprudential, managerial, philosophical and political foundations of CSR are of Occidental extraction therefore making CSR susceptible to being a tool of coloniality directed against Indigenous nations. Second, CSR is constrained by compliance with Occidental jurisprudence. Third, firms’ compliance with Indigenous nations’ cosmovisions can be best safeguarded by legal pluralism-based compliance as this entails court-imposed coercive enforcement. CSR is not part of the solution; CSR is part of the problem.