EABIS Workshop for PhD Students:
Locating your CSR Research

Date: 19-21 May 2006

Location: University of Warwick Business School, UK

The focus of the event

The objective of the workshop was to enable PhD students working on CSR issues from a number of disciplines and from a number of countries to compare their ideas and progress, and in particular to discuss their different methodologies and work approaches. To assist them in their deliberations, it was agreed that a paper on methodologies in CSR studies would be prepared, circulated in advance and discussed at the workshop (see below).

In the event 23 PhD students participated in the workshop, from a variety of national backgrounds. The workshop took the form of alternating plenary and small-group discussions. The small-group discussions were particularly valued, as they gave each student a chance to develop his/her research theme.

Overall the quality of presentations made by the participants in both small-group and plenary discussions was high, suggesting considerable energy and high-level intellectual work among a new generation in this field. The opportunity to meet others with similar topics was clearly considerably appreciated by the participants, who were often working alone on their topic area, and feeling in need of guidance and theoretical rooting. In making such meeting and discussion possible, the workshop fulfilled its central aim.

The workshop was co-ordinated by Professor Colin Crouch of the University of Warwick Business School (with strong support from Maureen Kilgour and Simon Smith), and formed part of a programme of activities to raise the profile and academic strength of work on corporate responsibility organised by the European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS) with funding from the European Commission's Framework Programme Six.