ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on ethnographic research conducted at the headquarters of transnational mining corporations in London and Johannesburg, and at the platinum mines that surround the town of Rustenburg in South Africa's North West Province. By drawing on anthropological theory of the gift it explores how the discourse of corporate social responsibility (CSR), as practised by multinational mining corporations, creates categories of benefactor and recipient, on which structures of patronage and dependency are built. Front-line CSR practitioners often found themselves acting as local patrons: a role that at times inspired a sense of personal achievement, at others, discomfort. The sense of personal achievement expressed by local-level CSR employees was often balanced by a contrasting sense of impotence resulting from the individualisation of responsibility. This chapter argues that the politics of the gift are embedded in the practice of CSR. It also argues that CSR represents a powerful moral discourse, exposing the hegemonic myth that business is politically and morally neutral.