Overview

Explores how the partnerships between big businesses and civil society organisations are influencing the development and rights landscape in India. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and corporations have a history of hostility to each other. According to NGO workers, businesses selfishly exploit workers, despoil natural resources, and distort democracy to serve their own profit-making ends. According to business executives, NGOs are hopelessly nave, inefficient, and interfere in the market in ways that reduce economic growth. And yet, in the past decade more and more NGOs and businesses are collaborating in new ways. Individuals from both sectors are setting up social impact enterprises and social investing funds are increasing. The more traditional forms of corporate-NGO collaboration have expanded as more funds are flowing from business to the social sector. The divide between the corporate sector and civil society seems to be narrowing. Why is this happening and what are its consequences? This book examines these trends in India, where since 2013 the state has mandated co-operation between the largest firms and NGOs in pursuit of inclusive and sustainable development.

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9781839985966

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Reviews

“Cutting neatly through voluminous literature on the relationship between civil society organizations, and corporations who donate but a fraction of their wealth through “corporate social responsibility,” Nandini Deo in this fascinating work speaks of the corporatization of civil society. Civil society as the realm of associational life was expected to be an alternative to the powerdriven state and the profit-driven market. Today, it is dominated by professional NGOs and their complex relationship with corporations. The implications are not too happy for social well-being either through activism or philanthropy.” —Neera Chandhoke, formerly Professor of Political Science, Delhi University, India. Currently Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Equity Studies. “Analyzing the incompatibility between corporate social responsibility and civil society organizations, Deo unravels the multiple and contradictory motivations at play as stakeholders envision new paradigms in the contested landscape of neoliberal India, where profit often triumphs. Strongly argued and lucidly written, the book is a must-read for students, NGOs, and policymakers.” —Lamia Karim, Head and Professor of Anthropology, Affiliate Faculty Asian Studies, Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon,USA. “Deo’s nuanced analysis of the impact of CSR on Indian civil society challenges those who hope CSR will produce a more just society. Her detailed research demonstrates how CSR–NGO partnerships reproduce corporate and capitalist aims, and bypass possibilities of inclusive economic and social development.” —Erica Bornstein, Professor of Anthropology, University of Oregon, USA. “Academic literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in India, is sparse. More importantly, a focus on the politics of the civil society–corporate relationship is almost entirely absent. Traditionally, the relationship has been conflictual. What is valuable about Nandini Deo’s book is that by examining both theory and empirical evidence she advances our knowledge of whether, and how, mandated CSR under the Companies Act (2013) is remaking this relationship for the better or not. A thought-provoking book!” —Pushpa Sundar, Author, Beyond Business (2000) and Business and Community (2013)

Author Information

Nandini Deo is an expert on civil society activism and teaches political science at Lehigh University

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