Social Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility in German TNCs

The project starts from the hypothesis that trade union and CSR actors currently operate in strongly demarcated and differently constituted policy arenas and that the mutual rapprochement of the two arenas can both support the modernisation of the “soziale Frage” with its relation to the ecological dimension and the necessary processes of adaptation and change induced by globalisation. It analyses options of interaction for the actors of the two arenas (distinction, thematic rapprochement, actor related situational rapprochement and institutional rapprochement). The core question of the project is: How can the corporate actors of codetermination – above all the workers’ councils – develop strategies for action as regards CSR issues like climate protection, global social and labour standards, equal opportunities and corporate volunteering, and thereby act beyond their institutional borders?