The Emperor's New Clothes: Shell's Corporate Social Responsibility in Nigeria's Niger Delta
Summary
Since the public outrage over Shell’s role in the hanging of nine Nigerian activists in 1995, Shell
has been a proactive proponent of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) while simultaneously
vehemently resisting legal accountability for corporate human rights violations. This thesis argues
that Shell’s seemingly contradictory positions on CSR and human rights can best be understood by
conceptualizing Shell’s CSR as strategic action that serves to protect the status quo in the Niger
delta against the external threat of enforceable legal obligations. Using Strategic Action Field
Theory as a tool for analysis, this thesis approaches the phenomenon of CSR through a critical,
post-colonial lens. It finds that because the field of oil extraction in the Niger delta emerged in
Nigeria’s colonial period, the power disparities that characterized the relations between European
multinationals and African communities continue to shape the rules, practices and understandings
that govern oil extraction in present day Nigeria. As a result, the key elements of the status quo of
oil in the Niger delta have remained surprisingly stable amidst the continuous crisis and political
turbulence that characterizes the Niger delta. Binding, enforceable human rights obligations could
however fundamentally change the status quo of oil extraction in the Niger delta. So far, Shell has
been able to forestall this development by presenting corporate social responsibility as an
alternative to corporate legal accountability in global policy making spaces. However, analysis of
two examples of Shell’s CSR in the Niger delta shows that Shell’s CSR by design only achieves
marginal changes: all core aspects of the status quo in the Niger delta are left intact. This finding
confirms a central hypothesis of Strategic Action Field Theory: a lack of change, like change, is achieved through action.