Corporate Social Responsibility - hur det talas och inte talas om ansvarighet

This thesis examines the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for maintaining human rights in a transnational context. In a globalized world, where companies have their head office in the western countries but its production located in developing countries, the lack of supranational regulation is severe. The ambition is to understand how responsibility for human rights is represented within CSR, and in extension what role CSR can play in the gap of transnational responsibility for human rights. In order to achieve this understanding, an analytical framework is constructed – the cycle of responsibility – which consists of a retrospective and a prospective dimension of responsibility. Based on this framework, and through a qualitative textual analysis with discursive elements, the way it is spoken and not spoken about responsibility within three Swedish multinational companies - Ericsson, H & M and SCA – are examined. Through this investigation, we understand that companies mainly direct their responsibilities to their own production, as well as the production in the final production stage. We also understand that the reason for CSR's existence and propagation is to respond to customers' requests for corporate responsibility, in order to enable profitability and ultimately to satisfy the company’s shareholders. The conclusion is that CSR cannot be a substitute for a binding regulation, but rather should be seen as a complementary in order to maintain human rights on a transnational level