science

The Black Book of Corporations

The Black Book of Corporations is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Black Book of Corporations rather than just read about it. In short: The Black Book of Corporations (German: Das Schwarzbuch Markenfirmen) is a book by Austrian journalists Klaus-Werner Lobo and Hans Weiss first published in 2001. The publication appeared shortly after large-scale protests against the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Genoa.

Key takeaways

The Black Book of Corporations belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Black Book of Corporations to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Black Book of Corporations from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Black Book of Corporations (German: Das Schwarzbuch Markenfirmen) is a book by Austrian journalists Klaus-Werner Lobo and Hans Weiss first published in 2001. The publication appeared shortly after large-scale protests against the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Genoa.

Content The book discusses the activities of a range of multinational corporations linked in the authors’ view to social discrimination, environmental pollution, and alleged violations of labor standards, human rights and consumer protection. Werner investigated companies accused of purchasing raw materials from suppliers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, raising concerns about child and prison labour and indirect financing of armed groups. Weiss examined allegations regarding the conduct of clinical trials in parts of Eastern Europe. The authors present these case studies in the broader context of globalization, international trade organisations, and the influence of multinational enterprises.

Editions A second edition, The New Black Book of Corporations (German: Das neue Schwarzbuch Markenfirmen), was released in 2003. A third updated edition appeared in 2006. The book has been translated into several languages, including Dutch, Spanish, Hungarian, Turkish, Chinese, Korean, Swedish and Russian.

See also Anti-globalization movement Globalization Corporation No Logo

Further reading Klaus Werner-Lobo / Hans Weiss: Schwarzbuch Markenfirmen. Die Welt im Griff der Konzerne Archived 2022-08-29 at the Wayback Machine

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Black Book of Corporations

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Black Book of Corporations claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Black Book of Corporations before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Black Book of Corporations ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Black Book of Corporations

In research: The Black Book of Corporations appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Black Book of Corporations in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Black Book of Corporations is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2001 non-fiction books, Anti-globalization books, Criticism stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Black Book of Corporations outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Black Book of Corporations in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Black Book of Corporations means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Black Book of Corporations out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Black Book of Corporations in simple terms?

Why does The Black Book of Corporations matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Black Book of Corporations?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Black Book of Corporations.