ETHICS-2021 Special Session 1: Corporate social responsibility and engineering education: ETHICS-202l Special Session, Thursday October 28,2021,3:00-4:30 PM ET

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility has a chameleon-like character. It exists as part of a larger ecology of related concepts: sustainability, corporate citizenship, business accountability, social performance, sustainable development, creating shared value, and ESG (environmental, social and governance). Its definition shifts by industry, geographic context, and company invoking the term. Some academics dismiss CSR as greenwash, while others uncritically treat it as a silver bullet for reconciling ethics and economics, morality and the market. This roundtable session highlights current research and practice on training engineers to navigate CSR as a heterogeneous and ethically complex field of practice. The roundtable will feature brief presentations on each topic and then be opened to discussion. Topics range from findings from a five-year research project that infused ethnographic research on CSR into engineering curricula at four different universities, to theories of 'relational CSR,' to assessments of the professional prospects for 'engineers for good' in the corporate job market.