Critical Approaches of Corporate Social Responsibility

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its theories are not new. Even so, the debate about them is not closed and fi nalized. Therefore, the paper examines the main CSR-theories, namely those approaches which seeks to find legitimacy for CSR in terms of the economic rationality discourse. Nonetheless, the critical voices in relation to CSR are similarly multifaceted and manifold. These more critical perspectives turn our attention to serious questions regarding CSR. The paper discusses three of these perspectives. Th e first deals with the question whether companies have the necessary rights and authority to handle social issues. Th e second focuses on the dispute about the possibility of one universal CSR-model, contrasted with the idea that these models are dependent on their social contexts. The last question concentrates on the political role of companies connecting the problem to the division of economic and social sphere.