THE TECHNOLOGICAL CORPORATION: DURABILITY, POLITICS AND SCIENCE-FICTION

Abstract

Science fiction questions our relationship to technology, innovation and progress. In so doing,
it also encourages us to consider the political nature of companies engaged in technological
innovations with an environmental dimension. This is the perspective from which we analyze
the 2017 movie Okja, a science fiction film directed by Bong Joon Ho. The film features the
multinational company Mirando, developing a genetically modified pig, presented as a societal
innovation that meets the global challenge of access to food while protecting the environment.
We focus on the social and societal role of the company in a context of technological innovation.
Relying on the research by Jacques Ellul, we show how the film poses several sets of theoretical
questions. On the one hand, it allows us to reconsider the literature on Business and Society in
a way that includes new technology. On the other hand, it allows us to analyze how technology
companies approach CSR as a framing operation that allows them to impose their values and
reference systems on external stakeholders.