Businesses in contemporary societies: the social responsibility north and south

In this paper the diffusion of the slogan of social responsibility is rescued by the analysis of three international trajectories: USA, Brazil and European Union. In the first case, the vast sociological literature American tells the concerns and the different social actors' pressures on the American businesses, during the 1960's. In Brazil, the first elaborations come from business associations in the middle of the sixties and are enlarged exactly when the society, at the end of the 1990's, demand to continue in a direction to integrate the commitment of the application of labor norms and rights. In the European Union, the slogan of social responsibility is introduced in the end of the 1990's involving the commitment of turning around the high tax of structural unemployment. In the last section, the international comparative analysis suggests a recomposition of the framework of several contents of social responsibility starting from the great issue that is in debate in the societies: to recompose the commitment of invigoration of the job bond as source of social citizenship.

social responsibility; businesses; businesses in the society; Brazil and businesses; business culture