Ethical Corporation’s regular review of new releases
Better World Shopping Guide: every dollar makes a difference
By Ellis Jones
Paperback: 208 pages, £8.50
ISBN: 0865717249
Publisher: New Society Publishers (4th ed)
Published: October 2012
The Green Consumer Guide was published more than two decades ago. The link between what we buy and how the world is shaped has become increasingly well entrenched since then. This North American-focused guide (now in its fourth edition) brings the story right up to date.
Sustainability: a cultural history
Paperback, 224 pages £14.95
ISBN: 0857840455
Publisher: Green Books
Published: October 2012
The term “sustainability” may be in vogue these days, but many of the ideas that underpin it are far from new. This cultural history introduces readers to everyone from Greek philosophers to Enlightenment thinkers, giving contemporary practitioners a profound sense of their intellectual heritage.
Managing Responsibly: alternative approaches to corporate management and governance
By Jane Buckingham and Venkataraman Nilakant (eds)
Hardcover: 240 pages, £60
ISBN: 1409427455
Publisher: Gower
Published: September 2012
This book takes a refreshing look at current corporate culture by asking what non-western traditions and experience can teach about organisational effectiveness. Particular attention is given to Indian and Maori cultures, as well as the relationship between business and development.
Organizational Change for Corporate Sustainability
By Dexter Dunphy, Andrew Griffiths and Suzanne Benn
Hardcover: 368 pages, £95
ISBN: 0415695481
Publisher: Routledge (3rd ed)
Published: October 2012
Now into its third edition, this CSR classic brings readers up to speed on the organisational models on which successful corporate responsibility programmes are based. Among the new material are case studies on BP's Gulf oil spill and Tokyo Electric Company's nuclear reactor disaster.
Corporate Responsibility: the American experience
By Archie Carroll et al
Hardcover: 562 pages, £75
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: August 2012
ISBN: 1107020948
In this thought-provoking history of corporate responsibility in the US, Carroll charts changes in business behaviour over the last two centuries and more. One of a current spate of CR histories, this book helps show where modern capitalism should head by revealing where it’s come from.
Regulating Multinationals in Developing Countries
By Edwin C Mujih
Hardcover: 280 pages, £65
ISBN: 1409444635
Publisher: Gower
Published: August 2012
Mujih is all for mandatory frameworks for social responsibility. His in-depth analysis of the flawed Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline project gives weight to the case in favour of tougher legislative frameworks. A convincing argument for a complex problem.
Reconciling Friedman with Corporate Social Responsibility
By Athanasios Chymis
Paperback: 132 pages, £46
Publisher: AV Akademikerverlag
Published: August 2012
ISBN: 3639453212
At last. A robust attempt to critically assess the rift between Friedmanites (those of the “business-is-business” school of thought) and CR advocates. This important book addresses head-on the research in favour and against responsible competition. Academic in tone.
Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility
By Samuel O Idowu et al (eds)
Hardcover: 2,530 pages, $1,350
ISBN: 3642280358
Publisher: Springer
Published: November 2012
An encyclopedia to a subject area is what a plinth is to a statesman: they confer the status of importance and the sense of permanence. For these reasons alone, this colossal compendium of facts and theory should be welcomed. A worthy collection with which to line your office wall.