The University of Queensland in Brisbane
Social Responsibility (ICPD #3 Postdoc-level project Year 1)
Corporate social responsibility (CSR), as a concept, first emerged in the 1950s, evolving from a peripheral concern of business to a central business strategy that now routinely embraces the reporting practices of ESG (environmental, social and governance). The concept has evolved globally with the development of a raft of regulations and standards including linking business with human rights with the appointment of a Special Representative of the UN Secretary on Business and Human Rights, who established the “Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework” (Ruggie 2008). Since 2015, the private sector has also actively engaged with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The mechanisms through which CSR is demonstrated is through the concept of ‘social performance’, now used widely in the extractive industries. This relatively new term recognises that industry suffers a deficit of professional competence for analysing and understanding socioeconomic and socio-political circumstance of the regions within which their operations are situated.
As a fundamentally normative construction, CSR speaks to what social responsibility should look like, who it should apply to, and how it should be demonstrated. By contrast, the analytic position of the corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) discourse is evidence-based, and objects to the notion that companies can claim to be responsible while at the same time act irresponsibly. Though the turn to corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) is not an easy one, this evidence-based project will seek to engage with a more exacting empirical basis for describing corporate actions without the need to reference distracting aspirational statements used in CSR discourse, and in line with the ARC Training Centre’s desire to create a practicum for archaeology and cultural heritage management (CHM) in the resources sector.
Based at the University of Queensland, this postdoctoral research project will undertake in-depth research working with the Training Centre’s industry partners to analyse the organisational ecosystem within which archaeology and CHM in the mining industry is practiced – under the aegis of social responsibility. Embedding archaeology and CHM as integral to the mining industry’s “core business” means improving organisational structures and systems and supporting professionals across the disciplinary spectrum to forge stronger connections. It also involves building knowledge about remedy processes, where breaches or poor practices may have caused loss and damage for Traditional Owners. You will be responsible for collaborating with the full range of partners to support the development of these connections.
By closely engaging with the organisational eco-system within which archaeology and CHM is embedded, this research will help re-balance power dynamics between the social and physical sciences and between Traditional Owners and mining industry professionals in the organisational domain. Up to two positions are available.
