An Evaluation Of Environment-Oriented Corporate Cooperation Projects In The Context Of Instrumentalization Of Social Responsibility In Turkey

Abstract

The concept of social responsibility gained a corporate structure in the second half of the 1900s. Corporate social responsibility projects, which find their place both in the world and in Turkey, are embodied by companies' projects to solve social and environmental problems. These projects seem to contradict the nature of capitalism, mainly because they are the product of moral concerns. However, capitalist logic is driven by economic concerns rather than moral values. For this reason, corporate social responsibility can become a tool of economic actors acting for profit maximization. Instrumentalization theory, one of the theories of corporate social responsibility, emphasizes this aspect of capitalism. According to this theory, the primary responsibility of a company is to maximize the profits of its shareholders. The instrumentalization theory, also known as the "Friedman Doctrine", is frequently encountered in corporate social responsibility projects. In this study, it is claimed that some environment-oriented corporate cooperation projects in Turkey act in harmony with the instrumentalization theory. According to the findings of the article, corporate social responsibility is instrumentalized with environment-oriented corporate cooperation projects. In particular, the institutional collaborations of TEMA and WWF Turkey foundations with capitalist circles provide evidence that the logic of instrumentalization is clearly revealed through social responsibility projects.