Moral capitalism: the emergence of business ethics and compliance
The Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen is happy to announce the upcoming seminar with Professor Steven Sampson (University of Lund).
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I have been studying the 'ethics and compliance industry' within the private sector and particularly the training of 'ethics officers' within firms. The dilemma has to do with whether ethics and compliance make good business, or whether it is just a facade, another capitalist trick to make regulators and people think that firms have a conscience. The research relates to anticorruption laws, conventions against bribery, ISO standards, and company internal 'codes of conduct'. What is going on here? Can the anthropology of morality shed light on how capitalist firms are operating these days? Has capitalism become more moral?