Published February 6, 2013
by iris_author
ICCSR Annual Symposium 20th June 2013
Gender and Responsible Business
Call for Papers
Venue: Nottingham University Business School, Jubilee Campus, Nottingham
Symposium Outline:
The marginalization of numerous voices from mainstream CSR discourse has been noted in particular with regard to voices from the South (Gilbert and Rasche, 2007; Nanz and Steffek, 2004), indigenous people (Banerjee, 2011), and women (Marshall, 2007; Newell, 2005). This symposium addresses such marginalization, focusing in particular on gender issues.
Gender equality is recognized internationally as a human right, and identified as key to economic, social and democratic development in the 21st century by, among others, the World Economic Forum. Core CSR issues cannot be tackled effectively without increased attention to gender, as evidenced by the feminisation of poverty (Habermas, 1998); the importance of gender analysis in addressing environmental degradation (Marshall, 2007); and long-standing recognition of gender equality as a key to development (Millennium Development Goals). Yet despite acknowledgement by companies and CSR standards, the status of gender equality within CSR and other systems of responsible business research and practice appears modest. The purpose of this Symposium is to bring insights together from research and practice which examine and challenge this modest status.
Exploring gender issues through a responsible business lens requires us to examine not only corporate governance and workplace issues, which have been addressed by some researchers, policy-makers and companies. It also requires attention to the wider gender impacts of business including in the marketplace, the community, the ecological environment, and through corporate value chains.
Our symposium brings together researchers to address these agendas, in order to explore how we conceptualize and research responsible business with regard to gender issues. The symposium will also provide an opportunity to learn from corporations, NGOs and policy-makers about leading responsible business practice, in order to inform a more coherent research agenda in this field.
Key questions to address include:
• How can we assess the wider impact of business on gender relations?
• Can CSR complement government regulation on equalities issues?
• Where has the dialogue between feminist ethics and business ethics got to, and what are the new emerging issues in this debate?
• What are the key gender issues in stakeholder relations?
• How are leading companies integrating consideration of gender issues in their value chains?
• How might CSR rhetoric on gender equality be instrumentalized by women’s movements?
• How might engagement with the CSR agenda contribute to feminist organization studies, and feminist research on regulation, governance, and even international relations?
• What does feminist scholarship tell us about marginalized voices in CSR, and their importance for addressing core CSR issues effectively?
• How does gender overlap with other inequalities with regard to business impacts in the context of globalization?
• What might a critical feminist engagement with the field of CSR/responsible business involve?
We invite conceptual, theoretical and empirical papers, as well as practitioner papers, which address this broad topic, including, but not limited to the following themes:
• Feminist theory and CSR
• Gender, class and race in CSR
• Gendered organizations and CSR
• Gender and CSR in the workplace, marketplace, community and ecological environment
• Gender and the supply chain/value chain
• Masculinities and femininities in CSR practice
• Gender and CSR leadership
• Gender equality and diversity in business
• Gender and CSR governance – government, business and civil regulation
• Gender and social accounting/sustainability reporting
• Gender, business and human rights
• Gender, business and sustainability/sustainable development
• Feminist ethics and CSR
• Feminist methodology and CSR research
We are exploring the possibility of a journal special issue around the themes of this call.
Authors interested in submitting a paper for presentation at the symposium should submit an abstract of 1000 words to Kate Grosser & Lauren McCarthy at lauren.mccarthy@nottingham.ac.uk
by 28th February 2013
Key Dates:
Notice of Acceptance of Abstract – 15th March 2013
Registration Opens – 4th April 2013
Full Paper Submission – 3rd May 2013
Symposium – 20th June 2013
PhD Workshop - ‘Marginal Voices in CSR’ - 21 June 2013
Click here for Call for Papers information
For Symposium enquiries contact:
International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility
Nottingham University Business School
t: +44 (0) 115 846 6976
e: karen.maltby@nottingham.ac.uk
Posted in: Opportunities
