Abstract
This paper draws from Gallhofer and Haslam’s (2003, 2018) critical theoretical framing around ‘emancipatory accounting’ to theorise corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in Egypt in the late Mubarak era, a context preceding subsequent events that were seen as part of the Arab Spring. As such, the paper responds to a concern to develop more empirically informed theorising around the notion of emancipatory accounting. The study is informed by an exploration of the contextual dynamics and by material garnered from key interviews, conducted in the late Mubarak era, with key stakeholders in Egypt’s especially influential banking sector, which focused upon their perceptions of and attitudes to CSR reporting in Egypt. We trace out a complex of forces linked to the mobilising of CSR reporting in the context. CSR reporting is here appreciated as an ambivalent and multi-dimensional practice. Interesting aspects include how it is linked to issues of openness in Egyptian society and increased pressure against the established socio-political order. Given the empirical materials it draws upon, the paper can also be seen as contributing to other literatures, notably that literature on perceptions and attitudes to CSR reporting.
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