ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the social liberal corporation is emerging in current academic literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and that it is superior to the competing theories of market liberalism, conservative virtue ethics, and critical approaches in terms of providing better answers to challenges in a globalized world. Historically, stories of child labour and poor working conditions at the bottom of the supply chain have given rise to demands for more responsible behaviour on the part of corporations. Sweatshops are usually small units of production that deliver to retailers and producers further down the production chain, mostly larger corporations. The idea of the social liberal corporation is committed to the value of human rights. The social liberal corporation, because it bases its concept of responsibility on political CSR and thus Young’s, and also Ruggie’s, definition, finds its orientation in current liberal human rights regimes.
