Business and Social Peace Processes: How Can Insights from Post-conflict Studies Help CSR to Address Peace and Reconciliation?

Abstract

Private sector activities have often been linked to the fuelling of conflict and violence. At the same time, there has been growing interest in the contributions that the business sector can potentially make to peace, both from within academia (for example the 'peace through commerce' literature) and in the global institutional realm (for example the Business for Peace agenda). Proponents of such approaches claim that businesses have roles to play not only in contributing to growth and socio-economic development, but also in resolving orBut what is meant by peace? The chapter engages the insights of post-conflict scholarship in order to employ a more holistic concept of peace, arguing that sustainable peace relies on the success both of a political and a social peace process. Social peace processes involves social transformation that goes beyond the ending of violence. The chapter asks how companies' CSR activities can actively support such social peace processes and address the specific challenges of post-conflict societies, while critically engaging with some of the discourses that are central to the recent business for peace agenda. In reviewing current examples for CSR programming in post-conflict areas, it is demonstrated that social issues around reconciliation and reconstruction are frequently neglected.

Network Analysis of Research Collaboration in the Study of Social Conflict and Peace in Society

“…The study of social conflict and peace has garnered significant attention from scholars across various disciplines, including sociology, political science, psychology, anthropology, and peace studies [5]- [7]. Societies worldwide grapple with diverse forms of conflict, ranging from intergroup tensions to civil unrest and armed conflicts, highlighting the urgency of effective conflict resolution and peacebuilding strategies [8], [9]. In recent decades, research in this domain has evolved rapidly, embracing multidisciplinary perspectives and innovative  333 Vol.…”

Examining the moderating role of principle-based entity of luxury brands and its effects on perceived CSR motives, consumer situational scepticism and brand resonance

“…Recent media reports show that luxury brands are often caught in environmental scandals such as burning out-of-season apparel (Paton, 2018;Napier and Sanguineti, 2018), production of resource-intensive fast fashion (Bhardwaj and Manchiraju, 2017;Brooks, 2019), animal and human right violations (e.g. blood diamonds; Mueller-Hirth, 2017;Saunders and Nyamunda, 2016), mink farming (Bonesi and Palazon, 2007;Donato et al, 2019) and slave/child labour (Kourula and Delalieux, 2016;Thévenon and Edmonds, 2019). As such, many industries have increased regulations to legitimise the practice of these companies (Nwagbara and Belal, 2019), which has compelled existing luxury brands with resistant infrastructure and values to adapt to the rapidly changing, ethical-centric consumer landscape.…”