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How professionals can help each other engage in corporate social responsibility


28 August 2020


Although organisations are increasingly aware of societal and ecological values, most still find it difficult to give concrete shape and substance to corporate social responsibility. How can you, in your professional position, make sure to avoid sliding into a simplification of the approach? And how can professionals support each other in this regard? In her dissertation Gezelschapsvorming in het Duurzaamheidswerk (' Developing Fellowship in Sustainability Work'), Marije Klomp examined the value and meaning of normative professionalisation for the development of sustainability work. She will defend her dissertation at the University of Humanistic Studies on 7 September. 


Klomp investigates four questions to identify the difficulties encountered in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Should companies engage in CSR, is this part of their function? And if so, do they do so with the right motivation? The questions whether a company has the right knowledge and skills in-house to engage in CSR,  and whether the environment in which companies operate stimulates a concern for sustainability, are also found to be relevant in the literature and in the field. 


Marije Klomp wondered how the development of CSR can be promoted in the private sector, as the issues are becoming increasingly complex and there are no ready-to-go solutions. She examines this question using the concept of ‘normative professionalisation’ and its increasingly popular notion of ‘community building’. She seeks to develop methods that run counter to the tendency within the CSR discourse toward simplification and instrumentalization.


This goal gained concrete form in an ‘Expedition for CSR managers’: a learning programme set up by MVO Nederland and Nyenrode Business University, based on the principles of ‘communities of practice’ and of normative professionalisation. A shared commitment to ‘good work’ also plays an important role in this programme. The further elaboration of the notion of ‘community building’ through networks of communities and their interconnections in other domains leads to the urgent and hopeful perspective that community building could extend to embrace a ‘bigger-than-human register’, thus recognising the community that we form here on earth with all other organisms and forms of life.


Marije Klomp (1984) trained as a lawyer and humanistic practitioner. Over the past ten years she has contributed to sustainable development in the private sector and higher education through various roles and positions, programmes and projects.

PhD Defence

Promotion Gezelschapsvorming in het Duurzaamheidswerk. Maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen door normatieve professionalisering (full title; Developing Fellowship in Sustainability Work - Corporate social responsibility through normative professionalisation)

Date and location (online) 7 September 10 hrs. Academiegebouw Utrecht

University of Humanistic Studies

Information: Yvette Nelen, y.nelen@uvh.nl

Marije Klomp examined the value and meaning of normative professionalisation for the development of sustainability work. She will defend her dissertation at the University of Humanistic Studies on 7 September.