Presentation at the seminar 'IT’S A NEW WORLD FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT?', Copenhagen Business School, 7 November 2014

1. IT’S A NEW WORLD
FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT?
From uncivil society to the state
Open seminar, panel discussion
Copenhagen Business School
7 November 2014
Professor Steffen Böhm
Director, Essex Sustainability Institute
University of Essex, UK
steffen@essex.ac.uk
http://essex.academia.edu/SteffenBoehm
http://steffenboehm.net/

2. Uncivil society
(companies don’t speak to everyone)
Sullivan, S, Spicer, A and Böhm, S. (2011) ‘Becoming Global (Un)Civil Society: Counter- Hegemonic Struggle and the Indymedia Network’,
Globalizations, 8(5): 703-717.

3. The missing state
(multi-stakeholder initiatives often don’t work)
Moog, S., Spicer, A. and Böhm, S. (2014) 'The Politics of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: The Crisis of the Forest Stewardship Council', Journal
of Business Ethics

4. Perpetual short-termism
(Danone stopped their ethical marketing campaign
after only a few years; the problem has not gone away)
Brei, V. & Böhm, S. (2014) "‘1L=10L for Africa’: Corporate social responsibility and the transformation of bottled water into a ‘consumer
activist’ commodity", Discourse & Society, 25(1): 3-31

5. Conclusions
• Business does NOT talk with ALL stakeholders
• There are so-called ‘uncivil’ actors who are often
not visible (because they are marginalised,
neglected or put in prison)
• Business-civil society relations often driven by
legitimacy and resources/profit interests
• The state is often missing; only the state has
(potentially) the legitimacy, long-term approach
and power to scale up and enforce standards
with justice and consistency
• The activist, social movement state!?