Introduction: Bringing the State Back In: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Paradoxes of Norwegian State Capitalism in the International Energy and Extraction Industries

Through a focus on the practices and politics of corporate social responsibility (CSR), this book examines comparatively how transnational companies (TNCs), the state, and the world economic order are linked in complex ways in energy industries. Our focus on energy and extraction corporate operations arises from their considerable environmental, social, and economic footprints (which CSR policies attempt to mitigate); further, states take a particular interest in energy due to its crucial role in society. While both proponents and critics of CSR have focused on the “business case” for CSR, anthropological debates have stressed how private corporations mobilize the language and