Entzauberung eines Mythos? Kritik und Rechtfertigung am Beispiel von Nike.

Criticism and justification using the example of Nike. This paper deals, on the one hand, with the criticism of Nike's exploitative labour practices that has emanated from western industrial societies and, on the other hand, with the firm's subsequent attempts to secure legitimacy through adaptation and justification. By thawing upon Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot's sociological theory of justification it becomes possible to see the complex interrelationships between corporate responsibility, social responsibility, Fair Trade demands and the like. This perspective suggests that criticism is able to categorize and that this categorization is then incorporated as rules in legally formalized tests. This function has two consequences: First, it plays a role in setting morally induced profit maximization limits; and, second, it enables Nike to measure expectations and respond to them, thereby allowing Nike to promote an image of a socially responsible enterprise; an image that, in the end, generates value. The question therefore arises: For whom is this actually a story of success? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]