8 - Conclusion

Summary

The good citizen should know and have the capacity both to rule and to be ruled, and this very thing is the virtue of a citizen

Aristotle, The Politics, Book III

Introduction

This book has been an exploration of ways in which corporations and citizenship might come together. The purpose behind this endeavour was to cast some light on how we might conceive of the firm as a political actor in society, and how we might regard its roles and responsibilities in such a context.

At first glance, however, the results of this exercise might seem somewhat inconclusive. Our analysis suggests that there is some mileage in thinking about corporations as citizens, and also as governments, as well as arenas of citizenship – although we have also shown that there are significant limits to conceiving of corporations in such terms. Moreover, we have yet to determine whether any of these three applications is more suitable than the others, or even whether they are mutually exclusive perspectives. Similarly, while we have clearly shown that it can be helpful to explore how corporations have become involved in the reconfiguration of citizenship along identity, ecological and globalized lines, it is unclear if there is anything to be found in common across these different reconfigurations. Thus, we have an interesting and multi-faceted account of corporations and citizenship, but what in the final analysis does it all mean?