The number and scale of business associations focused on corporate responsibility and sustainability has grown dramatically in recent decades and they are becoming influential actors in both national and international governance. Yet surprisingly little research exists on such organizations and recognition of the organizational lineage they share with special interest groups is yet to be examined—are industry business associations merely lobbies for their members’ own interests or are they viable self-regulatory institutions capable of addressing contemporary social and sustainability issues? This (...) paper identifies and reviews fragmented insights from literatures that address this question. Drawing on various streams of research within the political science, economics and management disciplines that provide diverse lenses on the phenomenon of business associations, it juxtaposes and groups them into two broad perspectives: business associations as special interest groups that are detrimental to society ; business associations as self-regulatory institutions capable of addressing contemporary challenges. (shrink)

This paper addresses recent calls to study the role of the state in private regulation. Integrating current scholarship on the state as a catalyst of private regulatory regimes with prior literature on regulatory failure and self-regulation, it identifies and problematizes unsettled assumptions used as a starting point by this growing body of research. The case study traces the evolution of public debates and the interaction of different regulatory initiatives dealing with corporate social responsibility issues in Canada’s mining industry. Findings reveal (...) the conditions under which the state is more likely to encourage firm-level, fragmented initiatives than facilitate and promote industry-wide regulatory strengthening and consolidation. I discuss the need for greater analytical precision regarding the variation in regulatory policy preferences across time and branches of government and the interaction between public and private regulatory initiatives. The conclusion outlines suggested areas for future research as well as the likely outcome of Canada’s current CSR policy framework. (shrink)

Este artigo abordará as relações entre o esporte, a comunicação e a cultura por ocasião da Copa do Mundo da FIFA 2014, realizada no Brasil entre junho e julho daquele ano. Analisaremos o discurso do jornal norte-americano The New York Times, a fim de identificar a maneira com que o periódico retratou esse evento em suas páginas. Nossa abordagem procurará verificar se um dos mais prestigiados jornais estrangeiros reproduz determinadas formas recorrentes de construção da identidade brasileira, as quais apontariam para (...) um “estilo brasileiro de jogar futebol” ou para a ideia de que o Brasil seria “o” “País do futebol”, lugares-comuns que vêm sendo estabelecidos por uma perspectiva de brasilidade essencialista e homogeneizadora. (shrink)