Editorial

Citation

Crowther, D. (2013), "Editorial", Social Responsibility Journal, Vol. 9 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/SRJ-08-2013-0098

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Social Responsibility Journal, Volume 9, Issue 4

This year it is starting to seem as if the financial crisis of the past six years is receding, as the global economy continues to recover. Surprisingly, however, the much-vaunted need for reform of our economic system seems to have disappeared from the agenda. Pleasingly, however, during all of this time the importance of social responsibility seems to have increased, along with a concern for governance at all levels. These are of course the concerns of this journal and our Network.

Social Responsibility Journal is, of course, the official journal of the Social Responsibility Research Network – a network of scholars worldwide who share similar interests regarding research, scholarship and engagement. In many ways the Network acts as a means of dissemination of information – both through its website and through is Newsletter. Currently the membership of the Network exceeds 800 and members come from almost 100 countries around the world. Many of you will know this and will already be a member. But if you are not already a member then you are also invited to join the Network. Full details can be found at www.socialresponsibility.biz

The other main activity of the Network is to organise an annual conference, and the 12th International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility has recently taken place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference was jointly organized by Fluminense Federal University and the Social Responsibility Research Network and hosted by the University. Plans are currently in place for the 2014 conference – the 13th – which will take place in the UK and will be a collaboration between the Network and Bradford College, while the 14th will be held in Melbourne, Australia. Also the 3rd Organisational Governance Conference has just taken place in Copenhagen, while the 4th will be held in Bucharest in 2014. The rationale for the conferences has been based on the fact that over the last decade the question of the relationship between organisations and society has been subject to much debate. The conferences are designed to act as a forum for the debate and analysis of contemporary issues in this broad area. In doing so, they attract people from a wide variety of disciplines and geographic regions for an exchange of views. The broad range of topics that are of concern both in the area of corporate social responsibility and in the area of organisational governance are reflected not just in the conferences that we hold but also in the contents of the journal. The worldwide interest in, and concern for, the subject matter is also reflected by the range of backgrounds from which participants at the conference hail – not just in terms of areas of expertise, but also in terms of geographical locations. Full details of all past and future conference can be found on the Network website. We hope to be able to welcome you at the next, or a future, conference.

The journal, just as the conference, is interdisciplinary in its focus and international in its outlook – and this is reflected in the papers this volume. All papers have the commonality that they investigate an aspect of social responsibility – and one feature of social responsibility is that it is a very wide and very interdisciplinary field. With that we leave you to read the papers, hoping that this will inspire you to contribute to a future edition.

David Crowther