Organizing Transnational Accountability - 9781845429010

Fourteen papers, presented by Boström (sociology, Södertörn U. College, Sweden) and Garsten (social anthropology, Stockholm U., Sweden), explore the topic of organizational accountability in transnational context from multidisciplinary perspectives. Contributors are especially concerned with organizational arrangements for accountability and the political struggles behind such arrangements. The first six chapters focus on organizational arrangements and processes, discussing the United Nations' consensus-oriented approach to accountability, the entrance of the International Organization for Standardization into the field of corporate social responsibility, the Forest Stewardship Council's certification model of accountability, Royal Dutch Shell's accountability initiatives following scandals, and the regulation of accounting standards organizations in the wake of the Enron scandal. The next four papers analyze the establishment of tools and techniques with a secondary focus on broader organizational and discursive context and include discussion of changing organizational boundaries related to socially responsible buying, the development of evaluations and benchmarking of European Union member states in the realm of employment, the move from corporatist logic to auditing rationality in the context of administrative changes in Swedish labor policy, and the development of a code of good corporate governance in Sweden. Three chapters then explore limitations and challenges of accountability in relation to environmental disclosure and nuclear waste management, followed by a summary conclusion. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)