Abstract
We examine the corporate social responsibility (CSR) experience of the mining industry and the limitations of CSR activities. We consider the dominant ideologies that underpin these activities and then juxtapose those ideologies with academic and practitioner critiques of CSR. This is followed by a short discussion of Royal Dutch Shell’s long-standing commitment to CSR, which has resulted in marginal improvement to its corporate reputation at best. We then provide an analysis of the recent publications of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) on development partnerships. We argue that this body’s shift in emphasis from CSR to development partnerships signifies a move away from the CSR discourse of the mining industry toward an approach centred on genuine community development. In the final section, we consider the potential strengths and limitations of the development partnerships approach. To that end, we adapt Arnstein’s (1969) ‘Ladder of Citizen Participation’ to the contemporary mining industry. In so doing, we attempt to illustrate the complexities associated with participation in the development paradigm. While the ICMM appears to be tracking in a more altruistic direction through its promotion of development partnerships, we believe that a greater focus on the complexities associated with participations may add value to companies engaged in the mining industry in their future pursuits to achieve positive community development outcomes.
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Notes
- 1.
Contrary to this view, Windsor (2001) argues that ‘[t]he corporate citizenship notion conflates citizen (which a firm cannot be) and person (which a firm can be), but only as a legal fiction.’
- 2.
The chairman of Rio Tinto acknowledged the depth of the problem in the late 1990s. ‘There is a perception held, often tacitly, by a growing number of people that the global mining industry is incompatible with sustainable development’ (Burton 2002).
- 3.
- 4.
For an analysis of the BOP hypothesis, see Spagnoletti and O’Callaghan (2013).
Abbreviations
- BOP:
-
Bottom of the Pyramid
- CoW:
-
Contract of Work
- CSR:
-
Corporate Social Responsibility
- ICMM:
-
International Council on Mining and Metals
- LTO:
-
Licence to Operate
- UK:
-
United Kingdom
- US:
-
United States
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O’Callaghan, T., Spagnoletti, B. (2017). Mining, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Corporate Reputation. In: O’Callaghan, T., Graetz, G. (eds) Mining in the Asia-Pacific. The Political Economy of the Asia Pacific. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61395-6_17
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