Theme “Constructing social and environmental issues: The interface between industry, government and civil society”

Corporate social and environmental responsibility is not purely or even primarily an internal organizational matter for private companies. Rather, the issues it deals with, and the assignment of roles and responsibilities are discursively constructed at the interface between different social actors. Of course, powerful companies pursue their economic advantage but this also necessitates the pursuit of legitimacy and the protection of brand value against consumer or governmental reaction.

We are seeking quality empirical and/or theoretical contributions to a special issue of Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management that examine the construction of social and environmental responsibilities at the interface between industry, government and civil society.

Type of papers sought

• Papers may be theoretical or empirical in nature. Empirical articles should build on a strong theoretical framework.
• Papers may take a national, cross-cultural or international focus.
• Ideally, papers will look at the perspective of two or more social actors, which could include industry, government and its agencies, civil society institutions (e.g. NGOs), etc.
• Papers may look at a variety of different environmental and social issues.
• While it is anticipated that many submissions will focus on (sectors of) industry as one of the social actors studied, this is not required and papers may equally examine (the interaction between) other social actors, such as government and civil society institutions.
• No specific methodological approaches are stipulated although it is anticipated that various qualitative and interpretive methods, including various forms of discourse analysis, will be appropriate.
• Topics may include, but are not limited to the following:
  • The ‘discovery’, maintenance and/or disappearance of particular environmental or social ‘problems’
  • The definition of particular social issues for particular industry sectors
  • Differential understandings of the definition, significance, etc. of particular issues by different social actors
  • The negotiation of solutions to particular problems, including public policy and legislation
  • The (changing) ‘ownership’ of social and environmental problems

Submission Guidelines

Articles submitted for this special issue will be subject to the normal double-blind peer-review process. Submissions should be in English, on A4 paper, double spaced, font size pt.12. Papers should be between 3500 and 6000 words in length. They should include the following: A title page (including full title, short title of up to 70 characters, and names and affiliations of all authors, the full address, including email, telephone and fax, of the corresponding author who is to check the proofs); the name(s) of any sponsors of the research contained in the paper, along with grant number(s); an abstract of up to 150 words for all articles except book reviews; up to eight keywords that describe your paper for indexing purposes.

In addition, authors should follow all the guidelines for authors provided on the CSREM website at http://interscience.wiley.com. Submissions should be made in electronic format (as a Word file) to the guest editor, Anja Schaefer (a.schaefer@open.ac.uk).

Deadline for submission: Friday 30 September 2005