Corporate social responsibility is useful only when it is made useful

This chapter argues that the main positive impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a legitimacy effect on business. There is much evidence to suggest that when CSR has proven useful for nature and society, it was made useful as a result of active mobilisation of non-business stakeholders. In a constructive spirit, we discuss how CSR can be made useful through: (1) business-aligned stakeholder actions, (2) agonistic dialogue and regulation, and (3) radical, subversive interventions. We conclude that while Sustainable Development Goal 17 encourages business-aligned stakeholder actions, its failure to be open to agonistic and radical approaches is problematic in the prospect of tackling wicked problems.