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Corporate Responsibility and Transnational Governance

Vak
2012-2013

Corporate Responsibility and Transnational Governance

Description

Is my T-shirt made in a sweatshop? How were workers treated who assembled my smartphone? Is my chocolate bar made from cocoa won by slave labour? Do coffee farmers receive a fair price for the coffee I buy and drink? Are tropical forests destroyed for my new furniture? These are questions that arise on a daily basis for consumers that are sensitive to issues of sustainable development and fair trade.
In the absence of enforcement by governments and inter-governmental organizations, transnational governance organizations arise that oversee social, environmental and human rights standards in the production of global consumer goods. In these new non-state types of governance, multinational firms participate on a voluntary basis, often with civil society organizations, and monitor and enforce these standards in their production chains, answering to pressures for so-called Corporate Responsibility.
This course will introduce students to the theory and practice of Corporate Responsibility and transnational governance. It will discuss how transnational governance arrangements have evolved and why Corporate Responsibility has surfaced as a leading concept in governing global standards. In addition it will familiarize students with academic and political discussions of the legitimacy, effectiveness and impact of these transnational governance arrangements. Finally it will discuss how transnational governance and Corporate Responsibility intersect with contemporary national and international governmental arrangements.
In this way, students are trained to develop their own empirically and theoretically informed perspective on the promise and perils of the transnational governance of social, human rights and environmental standards, and its evolving relationship with national and international public governance.

Course objectives

The specific objectives of this course are:
1. To familiarize students with the evolving shape of global governance and in particular its non-state form
2. To provide students with an overview of contemporary research on transnational governance
3. To provide insight in the evolution, effectiveness and legitimacy of contemporary transnational governance arrangements
4. To learn to reflect critically and write academically on Corporate Responsibility and transnational governance
5. To further develop skills with regard to substantive discussion of issues of global governance and develop and defend informed positions with regard to academically and societally relevant questions regarding Corporate Responsibility and transnational governance.

Timetable

Wednesday 6-2-2013 13:00 16:00 CDH-Schouw A0.06
Wednesday 13-2-2013 13:00 16:00 CDH-Schouw A0.06
Wednesday 20-2-2013 13:00 16:00 CDH-STichthage Room Buitenhof
Wednesday 27-2-2013 13:00 16:00 CDH-Schouw A0.01
Wednesday 6-3-2013 13:00 16:00 CDH-Stichthage room Buitenhof
Wednesday 13-3-2013 13:00 16:00 CDH-Stichthage room Buitenhof
Wednesday 20-3-2013 13:00 16:00 CDH-Schouw A2.01

Mode of instruction

Lectures and class discussion

Assessment method

Take home exam (35%), final paper (55%), class participation (10%).

Reading list/Literature

Selected articles and internet sources.

Blackboard

Instructor uses Blackboard. This page is available a week before the course commences.

Registration

Via USIS

Contact information

Dr. Luc Fransen l.w.fransen@fsw.leidenuniv.nl

Remarks / Preparation for first session

The first session we will discuss readings that will be announced in time on the Blackboard page.