Constructing domains of corporate social responsibility: a politicization of corporations at the expense of a de-politicization of society?

Using annual reports of Austrian listed corporations between 1990 and 2005, we analyze how corporations theorize their social and societal responsibilities. We empirically illustrate that these organizations not only evoke several distinct domains of corporate responsibility, but also assign themselves and others specific positions in the social matrix of relevancy and power - which in turn gives rise to a distinct pattern on the field level. We discuss various features and implications of what we describe as a politicization of individual corporations at the price of a relocation of politics away from recognized and firmly institutionalized arenas of collective interest representation (i.e., the polity) as well as a broad-scale de-politicization of society.