Gold Mining and the Discourses of Corporate Social Responsibility in Ghana

verfasst von: Dr. Nathan Andrews

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book critically examines the practice and meanings of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and how the movement has facilitated a positive and somewhat unquestioned image of the global corporation. Drawing on extensive fieldwork material collected in Ghanaian communities located around the project sites of Newmont Mining Corporation and Kinross Gold Corporation, the monograph employs critical discourse analysis to accentuate how mining corporations use CSR as a discursive alibi to gain legitimacy and dominance over the social order, while determining their own spheres of responsibility and accountability. Hiding behind such notions as ‘social licence to operate’ and ‘best practice,’ corporations are enacted as entities that are morally conscious and socially responsible. Yet, this enactment is contested in host communities, as explored in chapters that examine corporate citizenship, gendered perspectives, and how global CSR norms institutionalize unaccountability.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Gold Mining and CSR: Responsibility to Whom and for What

Abstract

Andrews explores the historical trajectories of gold mining, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and of the process of ‘responsibilization’, which the chapter describes as an act that has resulted in the elevation of corporate knowledge, power, and capital over the social order. The background information provided in this chapter sets the tone for the rest of the book but it also helps to understand the genealogy of CSR, the corporation itself, and the contextual relevance of the activities of both Newmont and Kinross in Ghana. Andrews also discusses the theoretical and methodological persuasions that inform a discursive exploration of CSR, with insight on when and how field research was conducted.

Nathan Andrews

Chapter 2. “We Need Social Licence to Actually Mine and We Believe Communities Are Part of What We Do”: Contested Corporate Citizenship

Abstract

Andrews engages with two important concepts—social licence to operate and corporate citizenship—to investigate the positive image corporations have created for themselves through the CSR discourse. This is done by examining a variety of information from corporations’ websites, sustainability reports, and personal interviews conducted with several stakeholders. Andrews finds that the enactment that occurs via the discourse of corporate citizenship takes our attention away from the flaws and contestations that the concept and practice of CSR encounters in local sites of implementation. Also, the uptake of sustainable development discourses by the corporation makes us take for granted notions around ‘sustainable mining’ practices, a terminology that is oxymoronic considering the exploitative nature of mineral extraction.

Nathan Andrews

Chapter 3. “We Want to Bring Everyone on Board but It’s Quite Difficult”: Responsibilization via the Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation

Abstract

In this chapter, Andrews assesses how the CSR discourse speaks the corporation into being in specific ways for example through the activities of the Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation (NADeF). The goal is to showcase how such an award-winning CSR activity facilitates the enactment of a corporation that is concerned about the long-term development of affected communities. Andrews also explores what he regards as the five ‘sticky’ elements that underlie the process of responsibilization, including inadequate participation of affected communities, failure/inability to prioritize their needs, and the non-existence or inadequacy of governmental commitment to host communities. These ‘sticky’ elements underscore how, despite the challenges NADeF faces in implementing its various interventions, Newmont uses it to solidify its place in society as morally conscious and socially responsible.

Nathan Andrews

Chapter 4. “A Woman Can Also Speak Out”: Gendered Perspectives on Responsibilization

Abstract

Andrews delves deeper into the grassroots voices, facilitated by insights from in-depth field research in host communities, to examine the gender-specific perspectives around CSR and mining ramifications in Ghana. The chapter intends to not only show how CSR constitutes its responsibilized object (i.e. the corporation), but also expose the direct impact of this enactment on people’s lives, especially vulnerable populations. Andrews uses feedback from the women who formed part of his focus groups to show how CSR has, instead of making people’s lives better, reproduced different forms of abuse, dispossession, and subjugation, including sexual exploitation. Overall, the chapter highlights how instead of empowering impacted populations, as we are made to believe through CSR activities, the discourse reinforces the ‘feminization of poverty’ in local communities.

Nathan Andrews

Chapter 5. “There Is No Yardstick to Measure [Our Performance] With”: A Global Movement for Institutionalizing Unaccountability

Abstract

Andrews explore how responsibilization occurs at the global level through the enactment of a corporation that abides by voluntary international ‘best practice’, and how such manifestation of the CSR discourse institutionalizes unaccountability. The chapter uses the UN Global Compact and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as examples of existing normative mechanisms that facilitate the enactment of the global corporation that is ethically conscious of and fully acquainted with its social obligations. Here too, Andrews employs grassroots voices to counterpoise the official expectations of these frameworks with the objective of highlighting how unaccountability, illegitimacy, and injustice could become institutionalized through such global governance discourses.

Nathan Andrews

Chapter 6. The Bigger Picture: Implications for ‘Engendering’ CSR, De-responsibilization and Re-responsibilization

Abstract

In this concluding chapter, Andrews first provides some modest direction in terms of what characteristics a gendered reconstitution of CSR might embrace. The idea of ‘engendering’ CSR is based on the discussion in Chapter 4 and is primarily drawn from women respondents’ own self-identified notions of how to make things better. Secondly, Andrews reflects on the role of the state in an era of responsibilization, with an understanding that the process of responsibilization is rooted in social relations and practices that leave subjects wanting more. For instance, the patronage and dependency that the CSR discourse creates, repeats itself in a vicious cycle that serves the interest of some stakeholders at the detriment of others. Andrews, therefore, examines ways to re-responsibilize the state while de-responsibilizing the corporation to undermine its enactment as pseudo-government.

Nathan Andrews

Backmatter

Titel: Gold Mining and the Discourses of Corporate Social Responsibility in Ghana
verfasst von: Dr. Nathan Andrews
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-92321-5
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-92320-8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92321-5