ABSTRACT
Corporate social responsibility (hereafter, CSR) often features in some business-related discourses as the investigation of the role of business in society. This exploration includes issues such as response to present or anticipated climate change challenges, fair trade, corporate governance, and responsible investment. Despite the popularity of CSR in both business theory and practice, recent developments in the early part of the 21st century continue to challenge the role of business in society and question the efficiency and effectiveness of markets to deliver fair and just societies in the United States and around the world. Prominent among these are the Great Recession of 2008, the Supreme Court's campaign finance ruling (January 2010), the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (April 2010), and the Occupy Wall Street movement (September 2011).
