ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how organizations tell sophisticated stories that express how well things are going, that everything is fine, that there is nothing to worry about, and that everything is under control. It concerns sustainability and the way in which organizations, brands, and politicians have sought to renew people’s trust in globalized capitalism’s ability to provide an ecologically sustainable future for everyone. In it, the chapter first assesses the extent of corporate social responsibility’s (CSR) growth within management and marketing studies. It then suggests that CSR needs to be considered a form of marketing communications that seeks to restore trust and legitimacy in business in the face of ecological breakdown. In doing so, the chapter extends the critique of CSR that treats “perfect information is the economic myth: disingenuous persuasion is the ‘murketing’ reality”. Within the management literature, there has been a suggestion that despite different past both CSR and corporate sustainability share a common future.
