Extracting Accountability
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Extracting Accountability
How engineers in the mining and oil and gas industries attempt to reconcile competing domains of public accountability. The growing movement toward corporate social responsibility (CSR) urges corporations to promote the well-being of people and the planet rather than the sole pursuit of profit. In Extracting Accountability, Jessica Smith investigates how the public accountability of corporations emerges from the everyday practices of the engineers who work for them. Focusing on engineers who view social responsibility as central to their profession, she finds the corporate context of their work prompts them to attempt to reconcile competing domains of accountability—to formal guidelines, standards, and policies; to professional ideals; to the public; and to themselves. Their efforts are complicated by the distributed agency they experience as corporate actors: they are not always authors of their actions and frequently act through others. Drawing on extensive interviews, archival research, and fieldwork, Smith traces the ways that engineers in the mining and oil and gas industries accounted for their actions to multiple publics—from critics of their industry to their own friends and families. She shows how the social license to operate and an underlying pragmatism lead engineers to ask how resource production can be done responsibly rather than whether it should be done at all. She analyzes the liminality of engineering consultants, who experienced greater professional autonomy but often felt hamstrung when positioned as outsiders. Finally, she explores how critical participation in engineering education can nurture new accountabilities and chart more sustainable resource futures.
Extracting Accountability from Non-State Actors in International Law
Author: Lee James McConnell
language: en
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Release Date: 2016-11-10
The human rights of communities in many resource-rich, weak governance States are adversely affected, not only by the acts of States and their agents, but also by powerful non-State actors. Contemporary phenomena such as globalisation, privatisation and the proliferation of internal armed conflict have all contributed to the increasing public influence of these entities and the correlative decline in State power. This book responds to the persistent challenges stemming from non-State actors linked to extractive industries. In light of the intersecting roles of multinational enterprises and non-State armed groups in this context, these actors are adopted as the primary analytical vehicles. The operations of these entities highlight the practical flaws of existing accountability regimes and permit an exploration of the theoretical challenges that preclude their direct legal regulation at the international level. Drawing insights from discursive democracy, compliance theories and the Pure Theory of Law, the book establishes a conceptual foundation for the creation of binding international obligations addressing non-State actors. Responding to the recent calls for a binding business and human rights treaty at the UN Human Rights Council, and the growing influence of armed non-State actors, the book makes a timely contribution to debates surrounding the direction of future developments in the field of international human rights law.
CSR Reporting and the Belt and Road Initiative
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a major development strategy launched by the Chinese government with the goal of fostering economic cooperation among countries along the proposed routes. The BRI marks a new era in which multinational enterprises (MNEs) from developing countries are beginning to take primary responsibility for driving global flows of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). Among hotly debated topics on how the BRI is reshaping the global competitive landscape, corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting practices of Chinese MNEs along the Belt and Road are noteworthy but relatively less discussed. This book investigates how do Chinese MNEs engage with, define, and implement CSR under such an enormous cooperative initiative through analyzing their CSR reporting practices in the BRI host countries. Besides this, opportunities and challenges of the BRI investments for sustainable development in host countries are examined. The book provides critical insights into the current institutional architecture for CSR reporting to promote sustainable development. It also highlights the importance of stakeholders’ capacities to sustain, enact, and execute strict CSR disclosure laws and regulations. The findings mark important implications, particularly in view of growing concerns about international reputational damage of unsustainable OFDI. The book is suitable for researchers, undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of CSR, sustainability development, accounting, and international business; as well as others who are keen on the latest development of the BRI in relation to other developing and least-developed countries.