The Corporation
A Critical, Multi-Disciplinary Handbook

The first critical, interdisciplinary handbook in which leading experts critically debate crucial questions around the corporation.

Grietje Baars (Edited by), Andre Spicer (Edited by)

9781107073111, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 March 2017

564 pages, 5 b/w illus.
25.4 x 18 x 3.4 cm, 1.12 kg

'This is a fantastic volume. Unprecedented in the interdisciplinary way it contextualises the corporation socially, historically and politically. An unavoidable reference point for every student and scholar that is interested in the conspicuous role of this institution.' Dirk Matten, Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility; Director, Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business (COERB); and Associate Dean of Research, Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto; and Co-Editor of Business and Society

The corporation has become an increasingly dominant force in contemporary society. However, comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the concept of the corporation is often restricted, or limited to one disciplinary approach. This handbook brings together the cutting-edge scholarship, expertise and insight of leading scholars in a wide range of disciplines, notably management studies, law, history, political science, anthropology, sociology and criminology, using a critical approach to dissect and understand the corporation. Ten chapters provide overviews of the state of play of critical scholarship on the corporation in each of these disciplines. Further contributors tackle current hot topics, such as corporate social responsibility, corporate crime, global value chains, financialization, and the interaction between corporations and communities. Finally, they consider resistance and alternatives to the corporation. With its interdisciplinary approach, this book is an invaluable resource for all readers studying the past, present and future of the corporation.

Introduction
Part I. Disciplinary Overviews: 1. The corporation in history
2. The corporation in legal studies
3. The corporation in economics
4. The corporation in sociology
5. The corporation in anthropology
6. The corporation in political science
7. The corporation in geography
8. The corporation in accounting
9. The corporation in management
Part II. Interdisciplinary Thematic Chapters: 10. The evolution of the corporate form
10a. Between company and state: the Dutch East and West India Companies as brokers between war and profit
10b. Early modern business projects and a forgotten history of corporate social responsibility
10c. Finance and the origins of modern company law
11. The multinational corporate group
11a. The multinational as a corporate form: a critical contribution from organization studies
11b. Embedding the multinational corporation in transnational sustainability governance
11c. Banks as global corporations: from entities to 'ecological habitats'
12. The financialization of the corporation
11a. The structure and agency of financialization
11b. Financialized business models and the corporation
11c. Transnational corporations and the international tax haven and offshore finance system
13. Corporate value chains
13a. The nature of the firm in global value chains
13b. The corporation and the global value chain
13c. Global production networks and the changing corporation
14. Corporate citizenship
14a. The functions and dysfunctions of corporate social responsibility
14b. Reconsidering the critical corporate social responsibility perspective through French pragmatic sociology: subverting corporate do-gooding for the common good?
14c. Certification schemes and labelling as corporate governance: the value of silence
15. The corporation and crime
15a. The criminal corporate person
15b. The FBI on corporate crime: examining the influence of corporate culture
15c. Mental blockades in the recognition of mens rea in corporations
16. The corporation and ideology
16a. Bad parresia: CSR and corporate mystification today
16b. Capital, corporate citizenship and legitimacy: the ideological force of 'corporate crime'
16c. Corporate foundations and ideology
17. Corporation and communities
17a. Articulating and disarticulating corporation and community
17b. Communities within and without of the corporation: control, power and interests
17c. Coercion and corporate power: notes on class struggle in an Indian city
18. Corporations and resistance
18a. Organizing in the nervous system: global trade unions and global production networks
18b. Rethinking workplace resistance: between revolt and co-optation
18c. Anarchist versus corporate ethics
19. Alternatives to the corporation
19a. Resisting and regulating corporations through ecologies of alternative enterprise: insurance and electricity in the US case
19b. The psychological crisis of the corporation: employee-owned alternatives and futures
19c. Organization is politics made durable: principles and alternatives.

Subject Areas: Company, commercial & competition law [LNC], Ownership & organization of enterprises [KJV], Organizational theory & behaviour [KJU], Corporate governance [KJR], Management & management techniques [KJM], International business [KJK], Business ethics & social responsibility [KJG], Business & management [KJ], Urban economics [KCU], Sociology: work & labour [JHBL]