Prefigurative Partaking: Employees’ Environmental Activism in an Energy Utility

Skoglund, Annika; Böhm, Steffen

doi:10.1177/0170840619847716

Cited by 41 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 116 publications

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“…Leveraging their insidership and pursuing their ‘passion with an umbrella’ (Scully and Segal, 2002), employee activists may use conventional channels of politics within organizations, thus adopting a collaborative approach to top management. Indeed, previous work has observed how some activist employees position themselves as protagonists of CSR and use various forms of sweet talk to persuade others to adopt new ideas and practices in their company, including through gracious appeals and issue selling (Girschik, 2020; Risi et al, 2014; Skoglund and Böhm, 2020). These observations align with micro-CSR research on the activities of CSR professionals aimed at gaining management support and securing resources for addressing social issues (e.g.…”

Section: New Directions For Micro-csr Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transforming corporate social responsibilities: Toward an intellectual activist research agenda for micro-CSR research

2020

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In their recent essay, Gond and Moser (2019) have proposed that micro-CSR research has the potential to “matter” and transform business practices as it engages closely with how individuals in companies work with and experience corporate social responsibility (CSR). But can micro-CSR research in its current form realize this transformative potential and serve social justice? Adopting an intellectual activist position, we argue that the transformative potential of micro-CSR is severely limited by its predominant focus on CSR as defined, presented, and promoted by companies themselves, thereby serving to sustain the hegemony of the business case for CSR, promoting narrow interests and maintaining managerial control over corporate responsibilities. We propose that micro-CSR researchers broaden the scope of their research to cultivate the potential of alternative ideas, voices, and activities found in organizational life. In so doing we lay out a research agenda that embraces employee activism, listens to alternative voices, and unfolds confrontational, subversive, and covert activities. In the hope of inspiring other micro-CSR researchers to explore these unconventional paths, we also offer suggestions as to how we can pursue them through empirical research.

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Section: New Directions For Micro-csr Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transforming corporate social responsibilities: Toward an intellectual activist research agenda for micro-CSR research

2020

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“…In prefigurative politics, actions have a priority over planning (Polletta and Jasper, 2001;Maeckelbergh, 2011;Farias, 2017a). Everyday practices of the movement members, that are developed in line with the values of the movement, are influential in transforming the status quo (Reedy et al, 2016;Fernandez et al, 2017;Reinecke, 2018;Skoglund and Böhm, 2019). As prefigurative spaces, CICs re-socialize the economic relations so that the excluded and marginalized groups in the prevailing food production and consumption chain will be included in the new alternative system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, social movements such as AFNs can be conceptualized as "spaces" (Haug, 2013) where encounters among members and transformations in practices occur. Such an approach also enables to study the role of practices used by movement members in transforming the status quo (Haug, 2013;Reedy et al, 2016;Fernandez et al, 2017;Reinecke, 2018;Skoglund and Böhm, 2019). The practices that are developed in line with the values of the members of a movement influence the accumulation of knowledge and the development of alternative forms of organizing (Yates, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unifying nature of food: consumer-initiated cooperatives in Istanbul

Oba

Ozsoy

2020

SBR

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Purpose This paper aims to study how activists involved in consumer-initiated cooperatives, in a specific context, challenge the practices of the neoliberal system and develop counter-practices that are ingrained with their values. It aims to access the transformative capacity and inclusiveness of consumer-initiated cooperatives and the role played by prefigurative practices in changing the status quo. Three practices – defetishization of agricultural commodities, surplus generation and distribution, prefiguration – that enable the inclusion of those groups who are marginalized in the food production and consumption nexus by neoliberal policies are identified. Design/methodology/approach The findings of this paper were developed from 23 unstructured interviews, participant observation and analysis of the social media accounts of five consumer-initiated cooperatives located in different districts of Istanbul and which are involved in a collective response to the neoliberal policies. Findings The study discusses that, in a specific context, political events and economic policies can be a catalyst for the initiation of alternative consumer-initiated cooperatives. The findings indicate that these organizations can develop and articulate prefigurative practices that are influential in transforming the prevailing capitalist food provisioning system to be more inclusive. Research limitations/implications The findings offer an alternative view to the dominant capitalist logic and advance the concept of how the economic sphere can be re-politicized and how the persevering notion of financial performance is resolved by invoking values of inclusion, solidarity, responsibility and sharing. The findings are based on the study of five cases in a specific context during a specific period. Originality/value This paper focuses on cooperatives owned and governed by activist consumers and presents results concerning their underlying practices for creating a food provisioning system that is inclusive and aiming for social justice and equality. Similarly, it provides evidence of how local political and economic conditions influence the appropriation and development of these practices – commodity defetishization, surplus distribution and prefiguration.

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“…While corporate activism may already be a recognized field of practice, it remains nascent as a topic of scholarly concern. Existing contributions to the development of the field include studies of organizational members' everyday environmental activism (Skoglund and Böhm, 2019), CEOs' advocacy on environmental and social issues, both liberal and conservative (Chatterji and Toffel, 2019), recycling systems in fashion retailing (Corvellec and Stål, 2019) and brand activism (e.g. Böhm et al, 2018;Manfredi-Sánchez, 2019).…”

Section: Corporate Activism: Identification Of An Emerging Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

S(t)imulating resistance: Corporate responses to the Trump presidency

Gulbrandsen¹,

Just

Uldam

2020

Organization

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This article contributes to the emergent field of corporate activism by exploring how corporate advertising voices, or is interpreted by the media as voicing, Trump resistance – that is, sympathy with anti-Trump protests and dismay at the politics of the White House incumbent. In so doing, we first situate corporate activism in relation to the more established fields of political corporate social responsibility and corporate social responsibility communication, focusing on discussions concerning the interplay between talk and action as well as the potential of talk to lead to action. On this basis, we propose a conceptual framework that posits talk and action as operating conjointly on the ontological plane of s(t)imulation, a conceptual conjunction of simulation and stimulation that is inspired by Baudrillard’s notion of the simulacrum. Empirically, we conduct a qualitative analysis of 20 examples of corporate advertising that has been reported as anti-Trump in the media. We find that the advertising in our sample is characterized by the following three main distinctions: (1) humorous references to Trump, (2) favourable and highly emotional appeals to social justice and (3) dystopian visions of society. We argue that a postmodern perspective on signs and representation may not only nuance our understanding of corporate activism, but also contribute to the conceptualization of the phenomenon by pushing the explanatory framework beyond the dialectic of talk and action.

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Prefigurative Partaking: Employees’ Environmental Activism in an Energy Utility

Cited by 41 publications

References 116 publications

Transforming corporate social responsibilities: Toward an intellectual activist research agenda for micro-CSR research

Transforming corporate social responsibilities: Toward an intellectual activist research agenda for micro-CSR research

Unifying nature of food: consumer-initiated cooperatives in Istanbul

S(t)imulating resistance: Corporate responses to the Trump presidency

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