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2017 | Buch

The Politics of Palm Oil Harm

A Green Criminological Perspective

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Über dieses Buch

This book examines the politics of harm in the context of palm oil production in Colombia, with a primary focus on the Pacific coast region. Globally, the palm oil industry is associated with practices that fit the most conventional definitions and perceptions of crime, but also crucially, forms of social and environmental harm that do not fit strictly legalistic definitions and understandings of crime. Drawing on rich field-based data from the region, Mol contributes empirically to an awareness of the constructions, practices, and the lived and perceived realities of harm related to palm oil production. She advances criminological debate around ‘harm’ by putting forward a theoretical and analytical approach that redirects the debate from a central concern with the academic contestedness of harm within criminology, towards a focus on the ‘on-the-ground’ contestedness of palm oil-related harm in Colombia. Detailed analysis and arresting conclusions ensure this book will be of great interest to students and scholars in the fields of Green and Critical Criminology, Environmental Sociology, and International and Critical Development Studies.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
Wherever you find the palm oil industry, you find progress” (Fedepalma 2002). This claim forms the essence of a promotional video that marked the 40th anniversary of Fedepalma, the National Federation of Oil Palm Growers of Colombia.
Hanneke Mol
Chapter 2. The Play of Power in the Politics of Harm
Abstract
Many of the adverse social and environmental impacts associated with the palm oil industry that were mentioned in the previous chapter exceed strictly legalistic definitions of crime.
Hanneke Mol
Chapter 3. Palm Oil in Colombia: National and Local Context
Abstract
As mentioned previously, the principal focus of this study lies on the social and environmental harms associated with the operations of the palm oil industry in the Pacific coast region of Colombia.
Hanneke Mol
Chapter 4. Colombia’s Contested Grounds
Abstract
Towards the end of August 2016, a peace agreement between the government of President Santos and the FARC was reached but when put to the Colombian people for approval in a referendum held on October 2, 2016, the agreement was rejected with a slight majority of votes.
Hanneke Mol
Chapter 5. Preparing the Ground
Abstract
In the previous chapter, I sketched the broader context within which to consider the operations of the palm oil industry, and the corresponding politics of harm, in the Colombian Pacific coast region.
Hanneke Mol
Chapter 6. Reaping the Fruits
Abstract
In industry discourse, oil palm is praised as a “social and ecological crop” (La agroindustria de la palma de aceite en Colombia, Fedepalma, Bogotá, 2006). Whether palm oil production is really all that social and ecological differs greatly according to what, and whose, criteria are followed.
Hanneke Mol
Chapter 7. Conclusion: To Miss the Forest for the Trees?
Abstract
In sharp contrast to government and industry depictions of palm oil as a source of progress and prosperity, for many inhabitants of Colombia’s Pacific coast palm oil is not considered to generate the conditions for a better tomorrow.
Hanneke Mol
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
The Politics of Palm Oil Harm
verfasst von
Hanneke Mol
Copyright-Jahr
2017
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-55378-8
Print ISBN
978-3-319-55377-1
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55378-8