Corporate responsibility toward social transformation. The case of a waste picker empowerment project in Mexico

Abstract

This paper builds on a case study of a project carried out with waste pickers in Mexico to discuss the notion of empowerment and its transposition to the private sector in corporate social responsibility projects. A difference-indifference analysis provides evidence that the main levers of empowerment activated by this project are not economic but socio-political, which stresses the political responsibility of multinational corporations.