Paper short abstract:

Through a study of Rustenburg, global centre of platinum production, I explore how the corporate responsibility creates new economic inequalities while entrenching old social hierarchies, rendering the ideal of empowerment through enterprise that it expounds elusive for all but a few beneficiaries.

Paper long abstract:

Through an ethnographic study of Rustenburg, the urban hub of South Africa's platinum belt and global centre of platinum production, (once labelled the 'fastest growing city in Africa' after Cairo) I explore how the disjuncture (and friction) between corporate social responsibility and state provision, has given rise to increasing fragmentation and exclusion, rather than the vision of economic empowerment that has come to dominate the discourse of development in post-apartheid South Africa. In Rustenburg, the extended supply chains of the mining industry and the expanding secondary economy appear to offer limitless opportunities to share in the boons of the platinum boom. But, as I argue here, as an elite-sponsored programme of social improvement, the project of CSR brings new economic inequalities while entrenching old social hierarchies around the mines, rendering the compelling promise of 'empowerment through enterprise' highly exclusive and unattainable for most.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation examines competing representations of socio-environmental conflict found amongst local activists and communities affected by mining projects in the northern Peruvian highlands. Its aim will be to draw attention to the impact of mining activities on local power structures.

Paper long abstract:

Two decades of mining bonanza have substantially modified the Peruvian economical and social landscape, sparking unpreceding growth alongside widespread social and environmental conflict. In this context, growing dissent from extractive activities has come to assign a central role to local rural communities in the evaluation of and struggle against corporate interest. Moreover, since the early 2000s a progressive indigenization of anti-mining discourse has contributed to create a strong correlation in popular discourse between indigeneity, environmentalism and resistance. But what effects does this moral association produce on the field, when confronted with the inevitable complexity of local responses to mining? What particular means and constraints does it provide for affected communities negotiating with corporate actors? This presentation shall focus on interpretations and appropriations of the "indigenous environmentalist" figure, as observed in local responses to two major mining projects located in the northern Peruvian highlands. On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork conducted amongst local activists and indigenous communities directly affected by extraction, it will outline competing representations of socio-environmental conflict engendered by mining activities and the role assigned to indigenous communities herein. Tensions between local actors concerning these representations and the concrete outcomes they entail will provide insight to conflicting priorities at play. The aim will be to draw attention to the impact generated by mining activities on local power structures, so as to stimulate reflection as to the place for maneuver, and the emancipatory potential available to affected communities in the Andean Peruvian context.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the land use planning processes prior to mineral extraction in the circumpolar Canadian North. I argue for a focus on reading the land as a way to have a more profound understanding of the conflicts, diversity and similarity of different interests, and the ongoing struggles of indigenous peoples with outsiders

Paper long abstract:

The circumpolar Canadian North has become the stage of sensitive and contentious politics, a diversity of conflicting perspectives and interests, and an exemplary case of the complexity of mineral extraction, and environmentalist, frontiers in indigenous lands. This paper examines the current Peel River Watershed resource development and land use planning processes, and the different and similar histories and articulations of several stakeholders. At first sight the mining industry, environmental organizations, tourist operators, and hunting outfitters appear to be very opposite and contradictory, but starting with the premise of lectio/legere terram or reading the land there is a striking similarity in the ways how these stakeholders 'read' the respective Peel River Watershed and articulate themselves in reports, political meetings, and media. These readings predominantly silence, dismiss, or ignore those of indigenous peoples. During Between the Enemy Lines I will investigate the processes prior to resource extraction, make suggestions where anthropological fieldwork can contribute, and has fallen short, in the detailed investigation of different stakeholders in a land use planning process, and argue for ethnographic fieldwork as tool to examine and understand the different readings in life.

Paper short abstract:

This paper considers the impact of Papua New Guinea’s oil and gas industry on the indigenous communities living within its boundaries to show how such research offers valuable insight into kinship, descent, the individual and notions of ‘culture’ and ‘society’ in the contemporary world.

Paper long abstract:

Papua New Guinea's oil and gas industry has a number of positive and negative impacts on the indigenous communities living within its boundaries. Research suggests that the type of interventions employed by the state and company may comply with global 'performance standards' but these help the corporate sector maintain their 'social licence to operate' rather than benefitting local communities. This paper considers the impact of both the process and the ideology accompanying engagement, focussing specifically on the long-term implications of a development discourse that advocates individualism, private property and independent wealth accumulation. The aim is to show how contemporary development interventions can have negative impacts because they are not attuned to the social and cultural factors that essentially dictate how they are articulated and employed at the village level. This highlights the benefits of research in resource extraction contexts to the discipline, emphasising that whilst the extractive sector employs sustainable development discourse (CSR etc) its priority is neither development nor sustainability. The Papua New Guinea case study presented in this paper shows how elements of social organisation of particular value to communities affected by the oil/gas extraction industry are brought into sharper focus in response to interventions. Such research offers valuable insight into disciplinary standards such as kinship, descent, the individual and notions of 'culture' and 'society' in the contemporary world.

Paper short abstract:

Recently oil has been discovered in Uganda’s Albertine Rift Valley. This paper contrasts interventions designed to promote social change within the oil region by rights-based NGOs and the oil company Tullow Oil. Particular attention is given to how each group constructs ”local communitie” as objects of discourse and intervention.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws on fieldwork in Western Uganda's Bunyoro Kingdom in 2011. Here significant oil reserves were recently confirmed and are now being exploited by the UK-based company Tullow Oil plc. Oil has brought massive attention to the region, creating a strongly politicised field. This paper contrasts the actions and discourses of rights-based NGO and civil society actors and Tullow Oil. "Local communities" are constructed in the discourses and interventions of both the civil society groups and Tullow Oil's Corporate Social Responsibility programs, as each positions itself within a wider Ugandan and international political and economic arena.

This paper offers a critical examination of these discourses. It starts with a review of the social realities of fishing communities living along the shores of Lake Albert, who are directly affected by the current oil explorations. I argue that neither civil society nor Tullow fully addresses the complexity of life below "the escarpment." Here, in the Albertine Rift Valley, life has long been shaped by the exigencies of a fishing industry on a relatively remote lake, which is also a fraught international boundary. Village populations are diverse, mobile, flexible and characterised by a high degree of adaptivity. These are localized communities but they are not the simple 'local communities' constructed by civil society and Tullow.

With point of departure in local imaginings of present and future possibilities in an emerging oil economy, this paper will conclude with a critical discussion of the role of "stakeholder engagement".

Paper short abstract:

Using approaches from anthropology and archaeology and in particular the notions landscape and ‘sense of place’, this paper seeks to develop a framework for the better understanding of the non-livelihood impacts of resettlement.

Paper long abstract:

The physical resettlement of people, to make way for the construction of a mine or other industrial development of a similar scale, usually has significant negative impacts on those resettled. These impacts include disruption to essential economic activities and the loss, and subsequent re-establishing, of the patterns of daily life. In many instances those resettled are already vulnerable or marginalised, and thus, least well prepared to cope with the stresses and strains of resettlement. In response to repeated failures to adequately protect the vulnerabilities of those resettled, recent efforts have focussed on ensuring that those resettled are, at the very least, 'no worse off'. In current practice, the judgement of 'no worse off' is made by comparing a pre-resettlement livelihoods baseline with post-resettlement livelihoods. Critical to success is the effectiveness of livelihood restoration programmes. As important as these efforts are, and even where livelihood restoration is successful, those resettled still report a profound sense of loss. Using approaches from anthropology and archaeology and in particular the notions landscape and 'sense of place', this paper seeks to develop a framework for the better understanding of the non-livelihood impacts of resettlement.

Paper short abstract:

I analyze the encounters and no-encounters between state and indigenous peoples about the control of the ancestral territory. Likewise, I examine the cultural conflicts by economic model that prioritizes the extractive activities. In this context, I emphasize the role of the Peru´s Consultation Law and its necessary implementation in interaction with others mechanism.

Paper long abstract:

The debate on the control of the existent natural resources in the ancestral territories of the indigenous people in the last two decades, it has gotten more relevance in Peru by the increment of the development of extractive activities for the industries and the approval of new normative frameworks directed to privatize the lands and the natural resources of the indigenous territories. The perception of the Peruvian State with regard to the amazon indigenous people is linked to the perception on the amazon, present in the policies of territorial occupation, "the amazon understands a wide territory of scarce population but with an inexhaustible source of natural resources whose use should contribute to the goals of the integral development of the country and the well-being of the Peruvians". Before the current proposals of strengthen the economic value of the natural resources, the andean and amazon indigenous find as critical point that impacts on their territorial rights, the model economic neoliberal. This model prioritizes the investment of big companies dedicated to the use of the natural resources and puts in risk their territories. From the indigenous vision, there is not an understanding from the State about the cultural value of their territories and necessary legal protection. In this context, I analyze the encounters and no-encounters between state and indigenous peoples about the control of the ancestral territory. Likewise, I examine the cultural conflicts by economic model that prioritizes the extractive activities. In this context, I emphasize the role of the Peru´s Consultation Law and its necessary implementation in interaction with others mechanism.

Paper short abstract:

A review of thirty years of anthropology around the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea.

Paper long abstract:

Anthropologists have been investigating the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea for thirty years, but it still unclear what contribution, if any, has been made to the welfare of Indigenous people who live around the mine.

The midpoint of this period coincided with the rise of Corporate Social Responsibility and 'sustainability' concepts through the mining industry generally which might be thought to be, if not bedfellows of, then at least the fellow travellers in respect of anthropological goals and methods.

The paper examines the different approaches to the ethnography of the impact area, what constraints have been placed on the professional pursuit of anthropological inquiries, and the extent to which anthropologist can be useful to Indigenous communities in mining affected areas.

Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes the impact on the local community of a project of gold extraction in the Romanian mining village Rosia Montana. The research presents the multi-faced situation of a confused community, a multinational company waiting for more than 15 years for official approvals and the Romanian state, an actor among others- all under the critic look of the civil society and mass-media.

Paper long abstract:

After the closing of the state owned gold mine in the village of Rosia Montana in 1996, a foreign investor- GOLD Corporation- immediately showed up its interest for further extraction in the area. The new actor was representing both the Romanian state - in proportion of almost 20 per cent - and the Canadian consortium Gabriel Resources. The installation of the new actor in the area begun with a long series of investments - infrastructure, archeological and anthropological research - and the privatization process continued with a concession from the Romanian state, covering more than a half of the extracting area. Due to Romania's inconstant and incoherent political life, GOLD Corporation has never achieved the full official agreement giving permission to start the extraction process. Meanwhile, an opposition group reuniting several political influenced NGOs together with media groups, all encouraged by the Romanian office of the Soros Foundation, began an aggressive campaign in the area, accusing both the government and GOLD Corporation of corruption. A two weeks intensive group fieldwork in May 2010 in Rosia Montana finalized with an ethnographic movie on the same topic shows the picture of a split, confused, persecuted and tired of waiting community. « I always feel a pressure! Each day… each day… I'm telling you : people have changed in a bad sense since the investment has reinforced, from 2000 on. And this is not because people are different. It's because of this disarray, these continuous discussions and contradiction amplified by the outsiders » confesses Gheorghe Gruber, an ex-manager of the mine.