To me, it's a complex question of strategy - (in the Gramsci/Machiavelli tradition of politics) - working with corporations brings resources, some legitimacy, access to and perhaps influence over corporate decision makers with huge power in their private decision making over our society's technological and environmental trajectory - and who hold virtual veto power over national policy. But this comes at a price, of course, the risks of cooptation.... Effective activists manage these tensions, and work in a broader network of groups, some more mainstream, some more radical.
we explore this in a paper hot off the press about GRI (sorry for the self promotion! all is strategy, you see...) Levy, David L., Halina S. Brown, and Martin De Jong (2009). The Contested Politics of Corporate Governance: The Case of the Global Reporting Initiative. Business and Society. Download a pre-pub version here: http://www.faculty.umb.edu/david_levy/GRI09.doc cheers, David David Levy Professor, Department of Management University of Massachusetts, Boston 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125, USA http://www.faculty.umb.edu/david_levy/ To unsubscribe from this group, send email to gep-ed+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE ME" as the subject.
