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2017 | Buch

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Contested Extractivism, Society and the State

Struggles over Mining and Land

herausgegeben von: Bettina Engels, Kristina Dietz

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Buchreihe : Development, Justice and Citizenship

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book empirically discusses recent struggles over land and mining, exploring state-society relations conflicts on various scales. In contrast with the existing literature, analyses in this volume deliberately focus on large-scale land use changes both in relation to the expansion of industrial mining and to agro-industry. The authors contend that there are significant parallels between contestations over different variants of resource extractivism, as they reflect the same global trends and processes. Chapters draw on critical theoretical approaches from political ecology, political economy, spatial theory, contentious politics, and the study of democracy. The authors not only provide empirical insights on actual resource struggles from different world regions based on in-depth field research, but also contribute to theory-building by linking concepts from various critical approaches to one another, developing a perspective for analysing struggles over resources related to current global crisis phenomena.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Contested Extractivism, Society and the State: An Introduction

Abstract

The recent global 'resource boom' manifests in a rise of national budgets as well as GDPs of many states. However, the trend towards extractivism as a development strategy across the global South has also social and political effects. When state revenues, growth and national well-being depend on resource extraction, societal and institutional norms and state–society relations are shaped in specific and contested ways. Struggles over land and mining have thus increased around the world, with a rising number of non-state and state actors being involved. This introduction outlines a framework of analysing struggles over land and mining in the context of global transformation processes as well as the relevance of these processes for state–society relations.

Kristina Dietz, Bettina Engels

Reimagining Extractivism: Insights from Spatial Theory

Abstract

This chapter explores the spatial dynamics of extractivism beyond a state-centred analysis based on the dichotomy between resource-dependent and industrialised societies. Its aim is twofold: to outline the analytical biases and spatial omissions that the widespread Latin American literature on extractivism presents, and to lay the foundations for a framework that focuses on the significance of spatial categories for politico-ecological research on extractivism. Embedded in the field of political ecology as well as critical space theory, I aim to bring the scholarly imagination back to the task of exploring analytical categories in order to boost empirical research on the spatiality of extractivism and to gain a better understanding of the contentious politics of extractivism.

Facundo Martín

Beyond Curse and Blessing: Rentier Society in Venezuela

Abstract

This chapter critically reexamines current debates within rentier theory, criticizing the widespread rational choice foundation, the focus on the state and the dichotomy between resource curse and resource blessing. I argue for a realignment of the debate towards a more sociological foundation. Based on an empirical study of Venezuela, I highlight shortcomings in the dominant approaches of rentier theory and illustrate the potential of a new analytical framework to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the common characteristics and case-specific particularities of rentier societies, including state–society relations, mental infrastructures and society–nature realities. By generating a more complex and context-sensitive picture, this framework offers new insights into the legacy of natural resource dependence and the failure to overcome rentierism.

Stefan Peters

Ghana – Big Man, Big Envelope, Finish: Chinese Corporate Exploitation in Small-Scale Mining

Abstract

This chapter investigates the activities of a Chinese mining company in the small-scale gold mining sector in a corner of Ghana. It questions the legality of its operations, given that small-scale mining is by law ‘reserved for Ghanaians’, and argues that bribery combined with corruption amongst state officials has enabled the company to operate at the margins of legality with relative impunity. While local opposition to company activities occurred, the local movement was confronted by combined state-corporate power. This case study of a local resource conflict ultimately informs us about the character of the contemporary Ghanaian state and state–business–society relations, highlighting profound changes that have occurred in which the interests of foreign private capital and local political elites are privileged, while those of local people remain marginalised.

Gordon Crawford, Coleman Agyeyomah, Atinga Mba

Small-Scale Gold Mining and the State in the Philippines

Abstract

This chapter analyses the expansion of informal small-scale mining (SSM) in the southern Philippines against the background of open-ended, contested processes of state formation. It is first demonstrated that the expansion of informal SSM has, somewhat counter-intuitively, gone hand in hand with a consolidation of local state structures. The parallel processes of SSM expansion and state expansion are epitomised by the emergence of a joint extraction regime that connects local miner-politicians to SSM interests. It is then argued that this joint extraction regime is a logical outcome of a longstanding tradition of decentralised state-building, which is, however, now at risk of being undermined by the expansion of large-scale mining forwarded by the national government, with potentially significant consequences for socio-political stability.

Boris Verbrugge

Politics of Scale and Struggles over Mining in Colombia

Abstract

This chapter analyses the interrelations between struggles over mining and scalar configurations of political power. It draws on an anti-mining protest in the department of Tolima, Colombia, where the South African company AngloGold Ashanti is currently preparing to open an industrial gold mine. The chapter aims to show that struggles over mining are located within the interactions between state structures and the agency of local actors. It is shown that scalar configurations of power, for example political institutions, de- and recentralisation policies and legal frameworks, constrain and enable social engagement in struggles over mining. At the same time, through the exertion of participatory citizenship, actors opposing an industrial mining project contest the scaled geography of state power. Theoretically, the chapter combines insights from debates on the politics of scale, and from critical development and democracy studies.

Kristina Dietz

Not All Glitter Is Gold: Mining Conflicts in Burkina Faso

Abstract

This chapter analyses societal reactions to the expansion of industrial mining in Burkina Faso. It does so by referring to concepts from the study of contentious politics, namely repertoires of contention and political opportunity structures, and from spatial theory, notably place and scale. On the local scale of mining sites, spontaneous protests by artisanal miners and local communities occur frequently, though until recently there has been little mobilisation on the national scale by social movement organisations. While at first there seem to be few connections between spontaneous local uprisings and social movement organisations’ activities at the national scale, the presented case study demonstrates that they are, nevertheless, linked to the same processes of contentious politics.

Bettina Engels

Peasant Movements in Argentina and Brazil

Abstract

Contrary to expectations that the governments of the ‘pink wave’ in Argentina and Brazil would take a ‘left turn’ to address the demands of peasant movements in their struggle to bring about alternative agrarian policies, the structural conditions of these movements have continued to be fraught with violence and criminalisation. New mechanisms to demobilise their bases, including social conformism, have also played a role. Some institutional changes and policies have benefited peasants, yet these are marginal in comparison to the consolidation of agribusiness. The peasant movements have interpreted the political economy of commodity export and poverty reduction in terms of an alliance between ‘progressive’ governments and agrarian elites. They have concluded, therefore, that their main power lies in sustained mobilisation.

Renata Motta

Oil Palm Expansion and Peasant Environmental Justice Struggles in Colombia

Abstract

There is a convergence of land access and environmental justice claims in many of the struggles against extractive activities in Latin America. Drawing on the notion of territory, this chapter explores the nexus between land access, environmental justice and extractivism. The analysis builds on empirical qualitative research on three case studies of peasant struggles for land in the context of the expansion of oil palm agro-industrial cultivation in Colombia since the year 2000. The chapter shows how extractive activities deprive rural populations of their territories through both land access dispossession and socio-environmental transformations. The effects of this territorial deprivation concern four key dimensions of environmental justice: distribution, recognition, participation and capabilities.

Victoria Marin-Burgos

Contested Market-Driven Land Reform in Malawi

Abstract

This chapter explores the complexities of contemporary market-driven land reform in Malawi through the case of the Community Based Rural Land Development Project. By discussing the stories of beneficiaries returning home shortly after the project’s inception, this chapter critically analyses the politics of resettlement underpinning land reform. I argue that the ‘willing seller, willing buyer’ model, while driven by the strong ethos of formalizing the rural economy, at the same time creates inequalities in resource access and social exclusion. The chapter concludes that market-driven land redistribution projects involve a broader restructuring of political power and authority, without extinguishing the functions of existing institutions governing land.

Davide Chinigò

Contesting Extractivism: Conceptual, Theoretical and Normative Reflections

Abstract

The concluding chapter discusses three overarching questions that are crucial for the academic study of the interactive practices through which extractivism is contested. First, taking the notion of contested extractivism seriously, the chapter discusses the types of contestation of extractivism that are highlighted in the literature and suggests a specific way of conceptualizing this object of research. Second, addressing this volume’s focus on state-society relations, the complex relationship between the contestation of extractivism and democracy is discussed. Third, the chapter concludes with reflecting on an important normative tension that is associated with an academic approach that combines a critical perspective on extractivism with the empirical study of its contestation by those affected.

Jonas Wolff

Backmatter

Titel: Contested Extractivism, Society and the State
herausgegeben von: Bettina Engels
Kristina Dietz
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-58811-1
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58810-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58811-1