We were delighted to host the biennial CSR Communication Conference hosting up to 100 delegates at the School.

Still recovering from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are facing a harsh new reality of a rapidly warming globe, escalating social inequalities, ongoing socio-political conflict, and looming economic crises.

Many organisations are stepping up to raise awareness of – and challenge – these issues under the guise of corporate social responsibility. Others may be (inadvertently) exacerbating them.

During this conference we bought together new conceptual and empirical research that builds upon insight at the intersection of CSR and communication and explores the role of CSR communication in these various crises, including:

• grand challenges and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• climate change and activism in and around organisations
• social injustice and marginalisation
• conflict, war and political instability
• artificial intelligence and surveillance
• futurism and post-human interactions
• post-truth and denial

This event provided a wonderful opportunity for academics and professionals to network, discuss, debate and exchange ideas and viewpoints on CSR challenges and opportunities.

You can read the recap of our practitioner panel on the blog.

Watch the video to hear Professor Sarah Glozer, Professor Andrew Crane and Dr Diletta Acuti share their excitement about the conference.

The PhD workshop was hosted prior to the conference aiming to provide doctoral students in the communication and CSR field with an opportunity to discuss their dissertation research with fellow students and leading academics.

The activities at the workshop included:

• keynote speeches
• seminars on publishing and reviewing
• insights into methodologies
• one-to-one meetings with mentors

Workshop team

Mentors involved in the workshop include:

• Amy O’Connor (University of Minnesota)
• Charles Cho (Schulich School of Business)
  
• Dennis Schoeneborn (Copenhagen Business School)
• Elanor Colleoni (IULM)
• Itziar Castello-Molina (Bayes Business School)
• Jeremy Moon (Copenhagen Business School)
  
• Laura Illia (University of Fribourg)
• Mette Morsing (University of Oxford)
• Michael Etter (King’s College London)
• Peter Winkler (PLUS)
• Robert Caruana (University of Sussex)
• Steve Brammer (University of Bath School of Management)

To find out more about the sessions, you can have a look at the conference programme and PhD workshop programme in PDF format.