Young’s Social Connection Model and Corporate Responsibility

Abstract

Recent structural innovations in global commerce present difficult challenges for legacy understandings of responsibility. The rise of outsourcing, sub-contracting, and mobile app-based platforms have dramatically restructured relationships between and among economic actors. Though not entirely new, the remarkable rise in the prevalence of these “not-quite-arm’s-length” relationships present difficulties for conceptions of responsibility based on interrogating the past for specifiable actions by blameworthy actors. Iris Marion Young invites investigation of a “social connection model of responsibility” (SCMR) that is, in many ways, better suited to this new commercial reality. Scholars working to understand corporate responsibility have invoked Young’s model to some good effect, though often superficially and uncritically. In this paper, we look closely at Young’s social connection model and its potential for helping us understand corporate responsibility in a radically networked world.

Forward‐Looking Responsibility and Political Corporate Social Responsibility

“…In addition, the paper highlights the potential of Young's work to inform and invigorate debates within the PCSR literature (Phillips and Schrempf-Stirling, 2022;Van Buren and Schrempf-Stirling, 2022;Van Buren, Schrempf-Stirling and Westermann-Behaylo, 2021). Her work on structural injustice, which is informed by a wide range of philosophical traditions along with key debates in sociology and political science, provides fertile ground for CSR scholars to explore.…”

“…However, this is as far as Scherer and Palazzo (2011) go with Young's SCM. From this point on, they emphasize the need for corporations to establish moral legitimacy through processes of democratic deliberation (Phillips and Schrempf-Stirling, 2022). However, in doing so, they fail to engage with an important aspect of 4 Young's concept of political responsibility is informed by a reading of Hannah Arendt (in particular, Arendt 1977Arendt , 1987.…”

“…By offering a critical engagement with the work of Iris Marion Young, this paper draws attention to features of Young's (2011, p. 95) Social Connection Model (SCM) that are relevant to contemporary debates in PCSR. While Young's work serves as a key reference point in the PCSR literature (see, for example, Scherer and Palazzo, 2011, p. 901), her work tends to be taken at ‘face value’ (Phillips and Schrempf‐Stirling, 2022, p. 322). According to Phillips and Schrempf‐Stirling (2022, p. 324), while Young's work has gained traction in the PCSR literature, ‘what is missing in these discussions is a systematic internal critique of [SCM] specific to the context of business’ (see also Tempels, Blok and Verweij, 2017).…”

Entrepreneurial Opportunities as Responsibility

“…Responsibility does not have to be passive or retrospective such as in the liability model. Responsibility can equally have an active and prospective perspective (Phillips & Schrempf-Stirling, 2021; Young, 2011). That is, an actor can intentionally decide to take responsibility for something.…”

Management, Political Philosophy, and Social Justice

“…As Phillips and Schrempf-Stirling (2021) indicate, political philosophy can contribute not only to identifying issues and problems in the contemporary interactions between business and politics, but also to identifying solutions. By putting Young's (2010) "Social Connection Model" at the forefront of these contemporary debates, they also pinpoint how a redefinition of a keynote concept in political philosophy ("responsibility" redefined in relation with "structural injustice") can shed entirely new light on the interpretations of interactions between business and politics.…”