Shell, Nigeria and the Ogoni. A study in unsustainable development: II. Corporate social responsibility and "stakeholder management' versus a rights-based approach to sustainable development

In the first paper in this trilogy (Boele et al., 2001) we described the hi story of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group from its inception in 1890 through to the year 2000, discussed briefly the importance of corporate reputation to the group and described the significant impacts on Shell of the events of 1 995 in Nigeria. We traced the relationship of the Shell Petroleum Developme nt Corporation in Nigeria to impacts on the natural and social environments of the Niger Delta and more specifically on the Ogoni. Finally we discusse d the emergence of political resistance and significant conflict between Sh ell and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and concl uded that, despite significant apparent changes in attitude at the group le vel, distrust and antipathy towards Shell remained entrenched in Ogoni. In this second paper, we explore in more detail issues raised by economic glob alization for the practice of corporate social responsibility and stakehold er management, and contrast these concepts with an alternative 'rights-base d' approach to sustainable development. We relate our observations to Shell 's current approach and conclude that the Shell group and specifically the Shell Petroleum Development Corporation in Nigeria may require an alternati ve approach to sustainable development if they wish to merit the full confi dence of communities in areas of the world as complex and distressed as Ogo ni. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.