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Ideal for undergraduates, this introductory textbook comprehensively examines the often fraught and contentious relationship between business and society.

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Corporations dominate our societies. They employ us, sell to us and influence how we think and who we vote for, while their economic interests dictate local, national and global agendas.

Written in clear and accessible terms, this much-needed textbook provides critical perspectives on all aspects of the relationship between business and society: from an historical analysis of the spread of capitalism as the foundation of the ´corporate´ revolution in the late nineteenth century to the regulation, ethics and exclusionary implications of business in contemporary society. Furthermore, it examines how corporate power and capitalism might be resisted, outlining a range of alternatives, from the social economy through to new forms of open access or commons ownership.

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Introduction: A Critical Introduction to Business and Society
1. The Emergence of Capitalism in Western Europe
2. The Spread of Capitalism
3. The Corporate Revolution
4. Corporate Governance
5. Corporate Responsibility
6. Corporate Power
7. Global Economy and Varieties of Capitalism
8. Global Governance
9. Global Environmental Change
10. Markets and Economic Order
11. Economics, Capitalism and Business: The Orthodoxy
12. Political Economy and Critiques of Capitalism: Heterodox Perspectives
13. Business, Regulation and Policy
14. Ethics and Business
15. Business and Social Exclusion
16. Resistance and Alternatives to Corporate Capitalism
17. Social Economy
18. Rethinking Ownership: The Market vs. the Commons

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´The ideal user´s guide to the modern world and how we got here. It untangles the thicket of politics and corporate power and gives readers cogent intellectual arguments and an inspiring message that change is possible and already happening.´
Katherine Trebeck, Oxfam GB

´A fresh, topical and highly engaging introduction to the vital issues surrounding the business world. There is much food for thought in this book: every student of business should read it.´
Geoffrey Hodgson, author of Conceptualizing Capitalism: Institutions, Evolution, Future

´Goes beyond conventional accounts to critically expose the complex realities of the relationship between business and society. With clarity and originality, the authors illuminate the role of business for shaping society both in the past and present.´
Sara Gorgoni, University of Greenwich

´A most serviceable compass, timely and effective, for a time in which we are constantly told that society should be treated as just another type of business.´
Fabian Muniesa, Ecole des Mines de Paris

´Offers a wide ranging introductory interdisciplinary text for the study of the modern world. Rich in conceptual debate, it provides students with incisive analysis and criticism. This is the antidote to the anodyne business school textbook.´
Liam Campling, Queen Mary University of London

´In this tremendous text, Kean Birch and his colleagues show us why we must understand economic activity as embedded in political decisions. This book should be compulsory reading for anyone who wants to understand how another business world is possible.´
Martin Parker, University of Leicester

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