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date: 27 January 2021

Abstract and Keywords

There are vital issues affecting our planet including climate change, inequality, and political freedom, and publishers have produced many books and articles on these topics. Companies are not obliged to consider the externalities of their operations, but most now recognize they cannot be ignored. Who are the stakeholders of a publisher? What responsibility do publishers have towards society? How sustainable for the planet is the business model of publishing? Since publishing is a global business, how broadly should we think about the impact of the operations of companies? Should not publishers produce books that match the interests of a population that is diversified by, for example, gender and ethnicity? Examination of corporate social responsibility clarifies the role of the publisher in an age of open content and self-publishing.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, CSR, corporate citizen, stakeholder, externality, sustainability, diversity, supply chain, environment, carbon footprint

Angus Phillips

Angus Phillips is Director of the Oxford International Centre for Publishing at Oxford Brookes University. He formerly worked in the publishing industry as a trade editor at Oxford University Press. He has given talks and lectures about publishing all over the world including across Europe and in China and South America; and has carried out consultancy and training work with international publishers. He is on the European Advisory Board of Princeton University Press and was a judge for The Bookseller industry awards for four years in a row. He is the author and editor of a number of books including Turning the Page (2014) and Inside Book Publishing (sixth edition 2019, with Giles Clark). He is the editor of Logos and in 2015 published a book of selected articles from the journal's 25-year history: The Cottage by the Highway and Other Essays on Publishing.

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