Introduction: Journal of Developing Societies’ Special Edition on Corporate Social Responsibility

In the introduction to this special issue, we point to the large-scale failure of existing corporate social responsibility systems to address ongoing global environmental and labor standards issues. Competing codes, absent harmonization, conflicted and limited auditing and transparency, and an almost complete lack of enforcement mean that the considerable efforts by corporations and their partner international organizations, consultants, and NGOs have not led to any objectively measurable improvements in outcomes. If anything, ongoing labor and environmental disasters and conflicts threaten to undermine the positive intentions and resources dedicated to improving conditions for workers in the South as reflected in anti-immigrant and anti-globalization populist outbreaks in the North. This volume offers a series of ideas about how to begin to reform the system to move towards sustainability and decency in environmental and labor conditions.