Natural Resource Extracton and Indigenous Livelihoods

This book provides an extended analysis of how resource extraction projects stimulate social, cultural and economic change in indigenous communities. Through a range of case studies, including open cast mining, artisanal mining, logging, deforestation, oil extraction and industrial fishing, the contributors explore the challenges highlighted in global debates on sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and climate change. The case studies are used to assess whether and how development processes might compete and conflict with the market objectives of multinational corporations and the organizational and moral principles of indigenous communities. Emphasizing the perspectives of directly-affected parties, the authors identify common patterns in the way in which extraction projects are conceptualized, implemented and perceived. The book provides a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the human environments where resource extraction takes place and its consequent impacts on local livelihoods. Its in-depth case studies underscore the need for increased social accountability in the planning and development of natural resource extraction projects.

Emma Gilberthorpe is Lecturer in Anthropology and International Development at the University of East Anglia, UK and Gavin Hilson is Professor and Chair of Sustainability in Business at the University of Surrey Business School, UK.