Youth as partners in the social dialogue : corporate social responsibility in risk society

The notion of CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility - has evolved in last years from philanthropy to strategic risk management. Contemporarily, the idea of CSR refers to Sustainable Development and creates tools for coping with new types of social risks. Th e institutionalized process of social dialogues is such a tool useful not only in administration, but also in business sector. However, it still needs contribution by theoretical refl ection in the form of normative theory and critical theory as well. The aim of this paper is to present the mechanism of CSR and the mechanism of conforming the company to change in its social environment. I use inspiration from the risk society theory, theory of reflexive modernisation and, on the other hand, system-theory by Niklas Luhmann, to analyse the meaning and potential of modern CSR. Then, analysing chosen case studies of CSR activity in Poland, I will attempt to answer the question about the role of youth as the stakeholders in the process of social dialogue.