Introduction - Conflicts Over Natural Resources in the Global South - page 3

Chapter 4 by Rutten and Mwangi is rooted in a project on the reconciliation of
competing claims in Kenya's dry land regions. Noting that concepts such as 'natural
resources' and 'conflict' are frequently ill-defined, they consider the manner in which
scholars, particularly in Africa, have addressed them. The assessment framework they
formulate to understand the origins of conflict is rooted in historical analysis and
political economy (cf. Peluso and Watts 2001; Sikor and Lund 2009). The framework
is illustrated with an animated case study on conflicts over the mining of marble and
gypsum (which is used for fabricating fertiliser and plaster) that involves representatives
of various ethnic groups. The chapter shows that conflicts that seem straightforward
are in fact intricately multi-layered and have a complex historical nature, in which
power and various notions of justice are at play.
Chapter 5 by Smidt et al. focuses on the issue of groundwater exploitation as it
plays out in three unique cases, the Palestinian Territories and Yemen in the Middle-
East and Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa. Both regions suffer from water scarcity as
well as social strife, all of which increase the importance of the political domain for
realising adequate water usage arrangements. The main aim of this particular chapter
is to analyse, in a comparative perspective, the workings of the 'political black box' in a
collection of state formations: democratic states, autocratic states, exclusive states (in
which certain groups are systematically marginalised), and fragile states. The authors
emphasise that conflict and cooperation are not mutually exclusive concepts, but that
cooperation on minor issues can occur in a context of overarching conflict.
Chapter 6 by Zaitch et al. takes a green criminological perspective and applies
this to the issue of land-use transformations in Colombia and Brazil. These include
deforestation, the conversion of land to agro-fuel monocultures, the construction of
mega-dams, and large-scale commercial mining. The authors argue that criminology
offers inroads into understanding three interrelated issues. First, it allows for analysis
of who the perpetrators are, how illegal mechanisms are constituted, and why illegal
practices take place. Second, it reveals the victims and the social and environmental
harms created by large-scale land-use transformations. Finally, it highlights the vio-
lation of 'rights', and the initiatives to guarantee, defend and enforce them. Events
in the Tapajos Basin in Brazil and the Cauca Basin in Colombia provide illustrations
of the approach, and of manners in which a reduction of harm can be realised. Overall,
the criminological approach permits an analysis of the actors and the mechanisms at
play when natural resources are (mis-)appropriated in manners that violate the de jure
framework.
Chapter 7 by Arsel et al. concentrates on minerals in Bolivia and Ecuador and
the impact of the nationalisation of extractive industries on the conflicts that mark
the sector. The authors use a property rights framework to explore the changes that
are taking place and highlight contradictions that exist in the regulatory framework.
In both Bolivia and Ecuador change follows from the radical demands of indigenous
communities and other groups. The authors argue that a theory of nationalisation
needs to highlight continuities as well as breakages in the historical pattern. Moreover,
nationalisationmust be situated in the much broader political economy dynamics of the
so-called Left Turn. The state is in this context not only the instigator of nationalisation,
but is itself transformed in the process.
Like that of Arsel et al. (Chapter 7), De Theije et al.'s study (Chapter 8) is also
situated in Latin America. De Theije et al., however, instead focus on one specific