Coordination and negotiation between a mining corporation, villagers and local government : a multi-stakeholder platform in Guizhou Province, China | |
| Author | Huang, Xia |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.NR-18-03 |
| Subject(s) | Negotiation--Social aspects--China|zGuizhou Mining corporations--China|zGuizhou |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Natural Resources Management, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Dissertation ; no. NR-18-03 |
| Abstract | It is commonly acknowledged that the development of Resource Extraction Industries leads to various types of adverse impacts on the environment and society, such as environmental pollution, loss of land and destabilized livelihoods in the communities neighbouring mining sites. As a consequence, mining companies are increasingly called on to organize compensation activities for these communities, as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility. They are increasingly pressed to do so using a participatory approach. In the Guizhou Province of China, when a gold mine was opened, most of the land farmed in the surrounding villages was expropriated. The mining company set up a multi-stakeholder platform to enable good relations with neighbouring communities and to identify activities for local development. The platform included representatives from the villages, local government, the mining company and a provincial university. Such initiative is very innovative in the Chinese context. The thesis examines the coordination and negotiation that took place between the different actors and assesses the activities that were developed. Based on an actor-oriented approach, five issues were identified as key topics of interaction between actors and were used as "entry point" to assess actors' perceptions, strategies, interactions, and the outcomes of these interactions. The multi-stakeholder platform enabled some two-way communication between participants, but village representatives had very little say in the decision-making. Many infrastructure projects were implemented, but most income-generating projects failed. There was also no mechanism to evaluate past actions and to collective learn from them in order to plan better ones in the future. The mining company provided overall many funds to ยท support development activities. However, these funds did not compensate for the lack of institutional suppmt for designing and implementing income-generating projects. As a consequence, the sustainability of villagers' livelihoods appears very fragile once the mining site closes. This thesis contributes to understand the interactions between various stakeholders in a mining context, in this case study not only involving a mining company and communities as most case studies present, but also local government. It also advances understandings about negotiations between industries and neighboring communities and community involvement practices, and the strategies by which issues of local mining community development can be explored in the Chinese context. |
| Year | 2018 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation ; no. NR-18-03 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Natural Resources Management (NRM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Faysse, Nicolas; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Kim, Sohee Minsun;Shrestha, Rajendra Prasad;Ren, Xiaodong;Kemp, Deanna; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | China Scholarship Council (CSC); |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2018 |