Buscar

Suscríbete
a nuestro blog

Partnerships for development in the extractive sector: protecting subterranean interests?

Partnerships for development in the extractive sector: protecting subterranean interests?

This article analyses how the PfD strategy has been crafted and implemented in the extractive sector and assess its potential to contribute significantly to local development

Partnerships for Development (PfD) is the antidote that extractive industries have used over the last decade to counteract the proliferation of conflicts with local communities. Normatively, the concept of ‘partnership’ positions companies as actors on an equal footing with others in their attempts to collaborate to achieve development outcomes.

This article analyses how the PfD strategy has been crafted and implemented in the extractive sector and assess its potential to contribute significantly to local development. Using the Foucauldian framework on power/knowledge and genealogy, we explain how, in a relatively shorttime, the interaction between context, preexisting discourses, and actors’ interests shaped the PfD discourse and made it famous. The second part of the paper goes beyond the normative conceptualisation and analyses the implementation of PfD through the case studies of the Antamina copper mine in Peru and the Pacific Rubiales oil operation in Colombia.

The companies use the PfD discourse to advance their interest vis-à-vis the different stakeholders, minimising the risk of conflicts and cultivating their reputation. These companies resort to the fragmentation of bargaining spaces and rely on the legitimacy provided by paid experts. The result is that PfD has limited capacity to promote local sustainable development.

También te puede interesar

salvar_afganos
Opinión
CEA

Salvar a «nuestros afganos»

Hace tan solo un año el epicentro de las urgencias mediáticas estaba en Kabul. La «vuelta» de los talibanes al gobierno afgano cerraba un círculo

Día de los Derechos Humanos
Opinión
Javier Martínez Contreras

Insistimos: Derechos Humanos

Tal día como hoy, hace 73 años, en París, la por entonces recién creada Organización de Naciones Unidas, proclamaba la Declaración Universal de los Derechos

. Transición energética, extracción de minerales y formas de vida en el Norte
Publicaciones
Javier Arellano

Transición energética y extracción de minerales

Las tecnologías ‘limpias’, paradójicamente, agravan los problemas vinculados a la extracción de minerales. Investigadores ofrecen datos para entender la complejidad de este reto.