Towards Anthropology of Corporate Social Responsibility in India

Abstract

This paper examines the study of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) inside the discipline of Anthropology to understand its applied and practical scope for ethnographic researchers in India. The journey of business engagement with society is not new, but the surge ofCSR as system of exchange has forged unforeseen kinship between corporation and community. The paper reflects upon conceptual development of CSR as well as its contextualization in anthropology by taking theoretical cue from some recent works in different social settings globally, and supplementing it with two first hand ethnographic researches in Delhi. The paper emphasizes on a critical anthropological methodology for examining CSR phenomenon and is a call for further researches to enrich the domain of' Anthropology of CSR' in India.