CSR and the Politicization of Multinational Corporations: A Foucauldian Governmentality Framework

International audienceThis paper scrutinizes an emerging political conception of CSR, and its power dynamics. By exploring CSR programs, this paper analyzes new micro-powers and their instrumentation by knowledge on CSR. We ground and contextualize these mechanisms by relying on a case study (75 interviews) of Shell Tunisia. First, this study identified different conditions associated with the politicization of Shell Tunisia. Second, the study highlighted that economic motives determined Shell Tunisia's social welfare initiatives, normally provided by the Tunisian State. Finally, this study revealed that the politicization of Shell Tunisia constituted a new regime of governmentality of the business and society relationshi