The next Deans’ Seminar in the 2023-24 series will be held this Friday, February 16, 2024. Steven Gerencser, Professor of Political Science, will present his research entitled “The Woke Corporation? The Paradoxes of the Conservative Critique.”
We will meet at noon in the UCET Classroom (NS245). Feel free to bring your lunch. Soft drinks and water will be provided. If you prefer a zoom option you can log in here https://iu.zoom.us/j/93176192536. The zoom session will be recorded.
Abstract:
What do Bud Light, Major League Baseball and Disney have in common? Perhaps a variety of things, but for sure they belong to a growing club of businesses and corporations being criticized by American conservatives for … being woke? This phenomenon of the conservative critique of corporations is a paradox, because for generations, American conservatives and the Republican party have been closely associated with the defense of capitalism and the premier status of corporations in the United States. They have advocated for low taxes and limited regulations on business corporations, and they have positioned themselves opposed to government rules that would inhibit corporations’ decisions about what is best for their financial and economic health. Conservatives folded this into a defense of the national state, generalizing to all corporations the principle “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country.” At the same time, advocates for corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, investing with triple bottom-line, and related approaches have called upon corporations to see themselves as responsible actors in society beyond the economy, and to serve as stewards of interests beyond those of the shareholder. Yet, while some corporations have responded to these pressures, they have found themselves in conflict with previous conservative supporters. When business enterprises incorporate policies respecting gender, sexual or racial equity or support environmental or public safety movements, conservative politicians have criticized them as being “woke” and anti-American and have even undertaken actions to punish them. This talk explores the conflicts in US conservatives’ attitudes toward corporate capitalism when corporations challenge a narrow understanding of American national identity.