The Corporation: A Critical, Multidisciplinary Project

“公司规则在这里”是我们在当代辩论中经常听到的一句话。跨国公司主导着全球经济，世界上最大的公司的规模超过了大多数国家，因此公司在全球范围内发挥着无与伦比的力量。但我们所说的“公司”到底是什么意思呢？在当代学术界，公司的性质及其在全球和地方政治经济学中的作用是从各种不同的学科角度分析的，问题是每个学科都构建了自己的公司的局部图景。存在重大差距和盲点，以及特定学科的偏见，扭曲了公司的形象。当我们从一个单一的学科中写作时，我们甚至考虑到其他学科的方面，我们基于对这些学科及其概念和理论的高度简化和过时的理解做出假设。例如，在法律的学术研究中，关于公司的经济和社会学方面的基本假设往往与经济学家和社会学家实际看待这些问题的方式相去甚远。本系列研讨会的目的是汇集法学、管理学、经济学、政治学、人类学和社会学/犯罪学等领域学者的前沿学术、专业知识和见解。参加我们研讨会的每一位学者都是各自领域的专家，专门研究公司。此外，我们还将邀请来自实践的人士，如工会组织者，与受企业活动不利影响的社区合作的非政府组织活动家，致力于企业监管的政策制定者等。通过将我们的想法和知识结合在一起，我们将发现对公司进行协作分析所产生的重大协同效应。我们的目标是共同构建一个全面的，完整的公司在其本地和全球范围内的图片。这一完整的公司图景，虽然本身就很有价值，但也为当今“公司”世界中许多最紧迫的问题带来了新的视角。例如，关于公司权力在全球一级的性质和用途，公司作为全球治理中合法权威的代理人的意识形态结构，跨国公司作为全球政治经济和全球经济危机中的行为者，以及监管或治理跨国公司集团的挑战-全球社区、全球阶级与当地工人和/或受害者的利益之间的冲突。此外，该汇编将审查旨在解决这些问题的政策建议，并询问这些建议在多大程度上可以解决这些问题。希望我们的工作将使我们能够在必要时对这些建议提出调整或替代办法。研讨会系列将导致一些公共活动，我们将传播我们的调查结果，并让更广泛的公众围绕这些问题进行讨论，并在我们所有人共同编写的“手册”中广泛传播。我们希望，系列研讨会、公共活动和手册将共同推动建设性的协作行动，并最终促成积极的变革。

"Corporate rule is here" is a phrase we often hear in contemporary debate. Multinational corporations dominate the global economy, the size of the world's largest corporations exceeds that of most states, and as a result corporations exert unrivalled power in the global sphere. But what do we actually mean by "the corporation"?In the contemporary academy, the nature of the corporation and its role in the global, and local, political economy is analysed from various different disciplinary perspectives.The problem is that each discipline constructs its own, partial picture of the corporation. Significant gaps and blind spots exist, as well as discipline-specific biases that skew the picture of the corporation. In sofar as we even take considerations of other disciplinary aspects on board when we write from within one single discipline, we make assumptions based on highly simplified and often outmoded understandings of those disciplines and their concepts and theories. For example in legal scholarship, basic assumptions are made about economic and sociological aspects of the corporation that are often far removed from the way economists and sociologists actually view these issues.The aim of this seminar series is to bring together the cutting edge scholarship, expertise and insights of scholars in law, management studies, economics, political science, anthropology and sociology/criminology and beyond. Each of the scholars participating in our seminars is an expert in their field and specialises in research on the corporation. Moreover, we will also invite people from practice, such as labour union organisers, NGO activists working with communities adversely affected by corporate activities, policy makers working on corporate regulation and others. By putting our ideas and knowledge together we will uncover the significant synergies that result from a collaborative analysis of the corporation. Together we aim to construct a comprehensive, and complete picture of the Corporation in its local and global context. This complete picture of the corporation, while already valuable on its own, moreover leads to new perspectives on many of the most pressing issues in today's 'corporate' world. For example, on the nature and uses of corporate power on the global level, the ideological construction of the corporation as an agent of legitimate authority in global governance, the transnational corporation as an actor in the global political economy and the global economic crises, and the challenges of regulating or governing transnational corporate groups - between global communal, global class and local worker and/or victims' interests. Moreover, the collection will examine policy proposals designed to address these questions and ask to what extent these proposals can be expected to resolve the issues. It is hoped that our work will allow us to suggest adjustments or alternatives to such proposals where needed. The seminar series will lead to a number of public events where we will disseminate our findings and engage the wider public in discussion around these issues, and also in a 'Handbook' co-written by all of us for a wide audience. We hope that the seminar series, public events and handbook together will form a catalyst to constructive collaborative action and ultimately positive change.