Shaping Sustainability – Zu den Chancen und Grenzen der diskursiven Macht multinationaler Unternehmen (Shaping Sustainability. On the chances and limits of the discursive power of multinational corporations)

Dieser Beitrag untersucht, wie multinationale Unternehmen den Diskurs ueber nachhaltige Entwicklung gestalten. Es wird gezeigt, dass sich Unternehmen an den diskursiven Auseinandersetzungen beteiligen, um privatwirtschaftliche Ideen zu legitimieren. Zudem laesst sich in dem Diskurs ein eigenstaendiger Typ des Einflusses auffinden, der sich durch diskurs-inhaerente Regeln darstellt. (Recently, corporations have begun to create networks that contribute to shaping the sustainable development agenda by influencing the establishment of norms, institutions and discourses. At the same time, there is a wide consensus that the discursive power of transnational private actors has been neglected by scholars of social sciences. This paper addresses the research gap and explores how multina-tional companies shape the discourse on sustainable development. It is shown that corporations take part in the discursive processes in order to legitimize ideas of the business community. Furthermore, it is argued that the specific social constructions of the concept of ‘sustainable development’ are the results of discourse-inherent rules corporations have to deal with.)