World Economic Forum

=== Institutional initiatives ===
In addition to economic policy, the WEF's agenda is in recent years increasingly focusing on positively connoted activist topics such as [[environmental protection]]<ref name="World Economic Forum"/> and [[social entrepreneurship]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship – Home|website=Schwabfound.org|publisher=|url=http://www.schwabfound.org/|format=|access-date=|last=|date=|year=|language=|pages=|quote=|archive-date=4 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504005120/http://www.schwabfound.org/|url-status=live}}</ref> which critics see as a strategy to disguise the organisation's true [[plutocracy|plutocratic]] goals.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/25/davos-world-economic-forum-capitalism-plutocracy | title = The high priests of plutocracy all meet in Davos. What good can come from that? | work = The Guardian | date = 25 January 2020 | access-date = 24 September 2021 | archive-date = 24 September 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210924150239/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/25/davos-world-economic-forum-capitalism-plutocracy | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{citation|surname1=Steven Umbrello|periodical=The Journal of Value Inquiry|title=Should We Reset? Eine Rezension von Klaus Schwab und Thierry Mallerets 'COVID-19: The Great Reset' |at=pp.&nbsp;1–8|issn=1573-0492|pmc=7886645|date=17 February 2021|volume=56 |issue=4 |language=German|doi=10.1007/s10790-021-09794-1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cicero.de/wirtschaft/meinungsherrschaft-ziemlich-verstiegen|title=Dominion of Opinion - Quite Degenerate|website=Cicero Online|language=en|access-date=12 August 2021|archive-date=12 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812143340/https://www.cicero.de/wirtschaft/meinungsherrschaft-ziemlich-verstiegen|url-status=live}}</ref>

In a December 2020 article by ''[[The Intercept]]'', author [[Naomi Klein]] described that the WEF's initiatives like the "Great Reset" were simply a "coronavirus-themed rebranding" of things that the WEF was already doing and that it was an attempt by the rich to make themselves look good. In her opinion, "the Great Reset is merely the latest edition of this gilded tradition, barely distinguishable from earlier Davos Big Ideas.<ref name="intercept120820">{{cite news |last1=Klein |first1=Naomi |title=The Great Reset Conspiracy Smoothie |url=https://theintercept.com/2020/12/08/great-reset-conspiracy/ |access-date=14 December 2020 |work=The Intercept |date=8 December 2020 |archive-date=13 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213162038/https://theintercept.com/2020/12/08/great-reset-conspiracy/ |url-status=live|quote=Writing about 'The Great Reset' is not easy. It has turned into a viral conspiracy theory purporting to expose something no one ever attempted to hide, most of which is not really happening anyway, some of which actually should.}}</ref>

Similarly, in his review of ''COVID-19: The Great Reset'', ethicist Steven Umbrello makes parallel critiques of the agenda. He says that the WEF "whitewash[es] a seemingly optimistic future post-Great Reset with buzz words like equity and sustainability" while it functionally jeopardizes those goals.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Umbrello|first=Steven|date=17 February 2021|title=Should We Reset? A Review of Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret's 'COVID-19: The Great Reset'|url= |journal=The Journal of Value Inquiry|volume=56 |issue=4 |pages=693–700|language=en|doi=10.1007/s10790-021-09794-1|issn=1573-0492|pmc=7886645}}</ref>

A study published in the [[Journal of Consumer Research]] investigated the sociological impact of the WEF. It concluded that the WEF do not solve issues such as poverty, global warming, chronic illness, or debt. The Forum has, according to the study, simply shifted the burden for the solution of these problems from governments and business to "responsible consumers subjects: the green consumer, the health-conscious consumer, and the financially literate consumer."<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/677842 |title=Creating the Responsible Consumer: Moralistic Governance Regimes and Consumer Subjectivity |date=28 August 2021 |work=Blick |doi=10.1086/677842 |jstor=10.1086/677842 |language=en |last1=Giesler |first1=Markus |last2=Veresiu |first2=Ela |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=840–857 |access-date=28 August 2021 |archive-date=28 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210828083124/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/677842 |url-status=live }}</ref>