New Directions for Corporate Social Responsibility and Health?

Abstract

Health is a fundamental element of human wellbeing. As such, many Corporate Social Responsibility activities are aimed at improving health, typically externally of communities living in the locality of the extraction of energy resources, though also internally of employees. What this chapter advances is that whilst such activity is welcome and demonstrates a willingness for corporations to positively interact with either local communities or their employees, that intervention is predicated on a particular model of health that is limited in its scope and understanding of what drives good or poor health. That bio-medical model of health is contrasted with the social model of health, which prioritises the explanatory power of social processes in conditioning health. Adopting the social model of health not only provides a deeper, richer and more holistic understanding of health, but also invites different courses of action to take in regards to improving health. In terms of community health, action becomes directed not at the provision of healthcare but tackling the social causes of poor health, such as inequalities of various forms. For employee health the familiar approaches of improving health by encouraging exercise, fitness and healthy eating programmes give way to redesigning the structures of a company, so as to allow employees to gain more autonomy and control—the prime drivers of poor health in the workplace indicated in the research literature.