Emergent Contexts of Corporate Power

Session Submission Type: Non-Paper Session: Dialogue Format

Abstract

Corporate power is often discussed as a form of dominance, whereby corporate interests have superseded those of both the citizenry and the government. While there is a great deal of merit to this perspective, corporate power is at once far more complex and more fundamental to political life than is normally acknowledged. There is a long history of US legislative, political, and economic developments, from Alexander Hamilton’s policies on credit and banking to the passage of the 14th amendment, that have fashioned the role of the corporation in society. In this roundtable, scholars will discuss the emergent contexts of corporate power and how they continue or disrupt this longer history. These contexts may include the rapid accumulation of powers and protections granted to corporations in recent Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United and Hobby Lobby, political economic developments including the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and movements like the Fight for $15, the integration of corporations into global electoral politics and social movements, the role of corporations in refashioning care relations in post-welfarism, and dynamic relationships between corporations at multiple scales that shape the forms of corporate power exerted on individuals. Together, panelists will attempt to answer the following questions to better understand the emergence of corporations as such powerful actors in the contemporary context.

1. What is the corporation? Has the definition of the corporation changed? Are corporations not only the beneficiaries of emergent powers today, but also transformed by those powers?
2. What is the problem with corporations? Why are corporations the focus of critique? How and why do the contexts listed above present themselves as problematic? 
3. How do we analyze corporations and corporate power? How is the analysis of corporate power related to or distinct from other modes of analyzing contemporary social and political economic relations, such as those attentive to capitalism, neoliberalism, disciplinary power, imperialism, racism, class, etc.?
4. What are the gaps in our knowledge about corporations and corporate power? Given that corporations have long been a subject of investigation across the social sciences, what is it that we don’t know or don’t understand about corporations in the present?  How does contemporary research on corporations address these issues?
5. What new forms of corporate power might emerge next? Given the rapid changes in the legal and tax treatment of corporations in recent years, how might their role in society evolve further in the future?

Sub Unit

• American Studies Association Annual Meeting

Chair

• Carey Hardin, Miami University-Oxford

Panelists

• Jaafar Aksikas, Columbia College-Chicago

• Andrew Davis, Appalachian State University

• Adam R Rottinghaus, Miami University-Oxford

• Howard Horwitz, University of Utah

• Joshua Barkan, University of Georgia

• Kevin Musgrave, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Megan M Wood, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill