ABSTRACT
The contributions to this book have applied the full range of meaning to the notion of responsibility. Arguments have concerned retrospective responsibility, seeking to allocate blame and reasons for the state of relations between corporation and stakeholders. There has also been concern for prospective responsibility, that corporations and governments have obligations and duties to exercise. Some of the debates have also questioned the capacity for corporations to make moral judgements. This book has not sought to assess causal responsibility, recognising that not all failures or accidents attract blame. Nevertheless much of the debate on corporate social responsibility, within this book and elsewhere, suspect some linkage between corporate actions and a wide range of undesirable social and ecological outcomes.
