Re V Olvolutions
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Re V olvolutions: Innovation, politics and the Swedish brand Author: Karl Fredrik Emil Palmaas College: London School of Economics & Political Science Degree: Ph.D. Sociology UMI Number: U205475 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U205475 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Cl and Science. Abstract This thesis is an ethnographic study of how professionals within Volvo Car Corporation manage public contestation of the corporation's business practices, notably within the areas of automotive safety, environmental care, and so-called 'corporate citizenship'. Thus, the text interrogates how actors inside the firm mediate between the demands of the public on the one hand, and the economic and technical constraints of the corporation on the other. Theoretically, the text sets out to make two contributions. First, following Bruno Latour's critique of modernity, it explores the modem conception of the economy, in which markets and firms are construed as natural phenomena that are separate from cultural, political and 'subjective' processes. Secondly, building on Michel Callon's work on economic markets, the text examines the practices by which corporate professionals 'invent' new areas of corporate responsibility, and thus participate in the 'refraining' of the automotive market. With regard to methodology, the thesis argues that ethnographies of corporations and their social responsibilities require interventionist modes of inquiry, where researchers 'take sides' and assist in the construction of certain forms of economic action. The thesis concludes that - contrary to the modem conception of markets and firms - the business operations of Volvo have continually been entangled in processes of idealism, politics and ideology. Moreover, the way in which corporate professionals readily traverse the 'inside' and the 'outsides' of the corporation shows that - again, contrary to the modem conception of markets and firms - the boundaries of the firm are fluid and penetrable. Table of contents 1 INTRODUCTION 6 2 MODERN ECONOMIC CONSTRUCTIONS -ON THEORY 11 2.1 Latour and the modern conception of markets and firms 11 The modern illusion and its ontopolitics 12 The modem conception of markets and firms: economics 19 The modem conception of markets and firms: management theory 26 Amodem critique: how to undo the modem 31 Modem critiques of markets and firms: economic sociology and heterodox economics 38 Monoliths versus networks: the global justice writers 48 Standards versus contestability: the corporate social responsibility writers 54 2.2 Callon and the laws of the markets 59 Fusing economic sociology with ANT , 60 Externalities, frames and overflowing in modem markets 65 Hybrids, entanglements and the ontopolitics of markets 69 Framing conventions and Speculative Frames 75 A new political economy? 81 2.3 Conclusion: the theoretical agenda of this text 89 3 ASSISTING THE ACTORS - ON METHODOLOGY 93 3.1 Ethnography as method 93 3.2 Conducting the field study 98 The agreement with Volvo Car Corporation 98 Modes of gathering data 101 Leaving the field 103 3.3 The role of the researcher 104 A reflexive note 104 Relating to power structures: Haraway and interference „ 106 Avoiding the role of the colluder 112 The gravitation towards interventionism 117 3.4 Conclusion: the methodological agenda of this text 121 4 TOWARDS THE PINNACLE OF MODERNITY - A HISTORY OF VOLVO 122 4.1 Introducing: the modern Swedish brand 123 4.2 The invention of car safety 132 Domestic market saturating, automobility going malevolent 133 The conception of The Safe Car: from discourse to legislation 139 Branding and disentanglement , 151 Qualifying the Safe Car through technologies and allies 155 4.3 The invention of environmental concern 164 The Lambda rod, chemicals charting and environmental accounting 166 The Bi-Fuel car and the TRUST alliance 173 4.4 The invention of corporate citizenship • 179 The legacy of stakeholderism 180 Humanised production and industrial democracy 185 Reinterpreting the meaning of corporate citizenship 195 4.5 Political economy and the framing of overflow inventions 202 Overflow inventions during the period of the Swedish model 202 Another Sweden, another Volvo: neoliberalisation and americanisation 210 New politics emerging 218 4.6 Conclusion: a history of entanglements 222 5 RISK MANAGERS AND CHANGE AGENTS - THE HYBRIDITY OF THE ACTIVIST PROFESSIONALS 226 Prologue: "We build cars" 227 5.1 The present organisation of the contested areas of the business 228 The Brand Value Communication team 228 Formal and informal organisational structures 233 5.2 The everyday work of the BVC team 239 The group meeting: reviewing entanglements in the making 239 On the phone: building alliances with the activists 249 We are change agents; they are conservative engineers 256 Lunchtime: where worlds collide 266 Being political through mediation and alliance-building 275 5.3 The networks of the BVC team 281 Corporate citizenship reporting: measurement and management 282 The post-Johannesburg workshop: building internal fora 291 The hybrid consultant: politics dressed up as business 297 Politicising gender and automobiles 304 Stakeholder dialogues: building external fora 311 The hybrid activist and the adopted orphan group 315 5.4 Risk management and the scientist 323 Towards a riskier view of the world: the EMF crisis 324 The risk assessment tool and the social scientist 330 Transformative scientific labour . 337 Epilogue: "I am not a corporate person" 344 6 CONCLUSIONS 346 6.1 The theoretical and methodological issues revisited 346 I. The capitalist machine contains entanglements, hybrids and subjectivity . 348 II. Overflow inventors are modem entanglers 357 III. Re-modemisation is a local phenomenon 364 IV. The firm consists of competing subuniverses 368 V. Overflow invention is a form of brand management 370 VI. Reframings are framed by (the) political economy 372 VII. Performing other worlds into being 376 6.2 The problematic boundary of the firm and the politicised borders of the market 379 BIBLIOGRAPHY 382 ReVolvolutions: Innovation, politics and the Swedish brand 1. Introduction 1 Introduction The publication of Michel Callon's (1998) The Laws o f the Markets has caused economic sociologists to examine notions of 'the inside' and 'the outside' of economic markets. The idea of the market as "a many-sided, diversified, evolving device" (1998b: 51) has raised questions regarding the contested boundaries of this device. For example, Andrew Barry (2001) talks about Callon's market as a "technological zone", and suggested that sociologists ought to study the borders of these zones, where the technological apparatus becomes weaker and open to reconfiguration. Whereas previous work within the Callonian tradition has focused primarily on the notion of the market, this dissertation sets out to study the firm as one such 'technological zone'. Thus, this text interrogates the notions of 'the insides' and 'the outsides' of the firm, focusing on the contested boundaries of contemporary business organisations. As an entry point, the text will focus on the phenomenon of 'Corporate Social Responsibility'. This concept is frequently reoccurring within the business community, civil society, the polity and academia. Under this umbrella term, corporations engage more actively in collaboration with civil society organisations, managed by recently established corporate functions. Moreover, new business practices are emerging, such as social and environmental auditing and reporting, staging of dialogues with stakeholders, and the development of ethical codes of conduct. Thus, these practices operate on the very boundary that traditionally separates the firm from wider society. ReVolvolutions: Innovation, politics and the Swedish brand _______________________________ 1. Introduction___________________________________________ The text is based on a one-year ethnography of Volvo Car Corporation, in which the researcher has worked with 'corporate social responsibility' professionals. As will be explored later in the text, this raised issues regarding the role of the researcher - especially given the sheer power wielded by multinational corporations. The choice of Volvo Car Corporation is pertinent because of the particular nature of its industry. As John Urry (1999: 2) writes, the automobile industry is the quintessential modem manufacturing industry, setting the trends in industrial capitalism; it forms a 'powerful machinic complex' that interconnects a plethora of industrial and technological systems; and it is the industry that consumes the most resources. Moreover, automobility "is perhaps the best example within the social world of how systematic unintended consequences are produced as a consequence of individual or household desires, in this case for flexibility and freedom." (7) This text is structured in four parts - introduction, theory and method, substantive research findings, and conclusions.