Description
Book Synopsis Through a series of case studies in diverse regions of the world, this book explores how transnational Norwegian energy and extractive industries handle corporate social responsibility (CSR) when operating abroad in places such as China, Brazil, and Turkey. With significant state ownership and embeddedness in the Nordic societal model, Norwegian capitalism is often represented as “benign” or ethical. By tracing CSR policy and practice—from headquarters to operations—this volume critically explores the workings of Norwegian corporate capitalism and its engagement with key issues of responsibility, accountability, and sustainability.
Trade Review “Offers a timely and vital critique of the practice of corporate social responsibility by state-owned companies, filling a gap in existing literature that focuses on private firms.” • Jessica Smith, Colorado School of Mines
Table of Contents List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction: Bringing the State Back in: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Paradoxes of Norwegian State Capitalism in the International Energy and Extraction Industries
Ståle Knudsen, Dinah Rajak, Siri Lange, and Isabelle Hugøy
Part I: Setting the Scene. Introduction and Framing of CSR in the Norwegian Context.
Chapter 1. Rethinking Access: Key Methodological Challenges in Studying Energy Companies
Ingrid Birce Müftüoğlu, Ståle Knudsen, Ragnhild Freng Dale, Oda Eiken, Dinah Rajak, and Siri Lange
Chapter 2. Samfunnsansvar is not CSR: Mapping Expectations and Practices of (Corporate) Social Responsibility in Norway
Oda Eiken Maraire and Isabelle Hugøy
Chapter 3. Dynamics of Localized Social Responsibility: A Case from Agder, Norway
Eldar Bråten
Chapter 4. Model of a Model: Norsk Hydro at Home and Abroad
Ståle Knudsen
Part II: Ethnographies of Norwegian Corporations’ Engagement with CSR
Chapter 5. Traveling, Translation, Transformation: On Social Responsibility and the Nordic Model in China
Emil A. Røyrvik
Chapter 6. Between Social Footprint and Compliance, or “What IBAMA Wants”: Equinor Brazil’s Social Sustainability Policy
Iselin Åsedotter Strønen
Chapter 7. Gender, Regulation, and Corporate Social Responsibility: The Case of Equinor’s Social Investments in Tanzania
Siri Langeand Victoria Wyndham
Chapter 8. Exporting the Norwegian Model Through the “Capacity Building” of a Local Union Branch: The Case of Equinor in Tanzania
Siri Lange
Chapter 9. Staging Mutual Dependencies: Energy Infrastructure and CSR in a Norwegian Petroleum Town
Ragnhild Freng Dale
Chapter 10. Standardizing Responsibility Through the Stakeholder Figure: Norwegian Hydropower in Turkey
Ståle Knudsen, Ingrid Birce Müftüoğlu, and Isabelle Hugøy
Chapter 11. The “Nordic model” in the Middle East Oil Fields: How Shareholder Value Eclipses Corporate Responsibility
Synnøve Bendixsen
Conclusion: Inactive State Ownership and the Nordic Model Recast as “Values”
Ståle Knudsen
Index
