The Dark Side of Corporate Social Responsibility: Class Dynamics in Rural Indonesia

Contemporary studies on rural development celebrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a tool for economic empowerment in rural areas. This article challenges that assumption by analysing CSR as a mechanism of ruling class consolidation. Using a political economy lens rooted in agrarian Marxism, the study argues that CSR is co-produced by state-owned corporations and hijacked by the village ruling class to secure legitimacy, fragment resistance, and reproduce class dominance. In rural Java, CSR programmes such as land redistribution and infrastructure development primarily benefit capitalist farmers and landlords, while excluding or marginalising petty commodity producers and classes of labour. The resulting alliance between the corporate and village ruling class transforms CSR into a vehicle of rural class consolidation. This article contributes to critical CSR scholarship by revealing how CSR operates as a material instrument that the rural ruling class uses to consolidate economic dominance and reinforce political influence.