Title: Translating ideologically based concerns: how civil society organisations use the financial market to protect human rights

Authors: Emma Sjostrom

Addresses: Sustainability Research Group (SuRe), Department of Marketing and Strategy, Stockholm School of Economics,P.O. Box 6501, Stockholm 113 83, Sweden

Abstract: Civil society organisations are increasingly using the financial market to put pressure on corporations regarding issues such as environmental protection, occupational health and safety and respect for human rights. The purpose of this paper is to explore and explain how this is done and how agreement can be reached despite the often-times differing world-views, ideologies and agendas between civil society organisations on the one hand and financial actors and corporations on the other. One of the main conclusions from this paper is that less powerful actors can achieve a sought-after change by translating the problem so that it fits the ideology of actors who do have power to resolve it.

Keywords: shareholder activism; financial markets; civil society organisations; human rights; ideology; translation; ideologically based concerns; environmental protection; occupational health; safety; sustainable development; sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2007.014201

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2007 Vol.6 No.2, pp.157 - 173

Published online: 25 Jun 2007 *

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