Doctoral Dissertation Research: Mining at the Margins: Extractive Industry and Local Governance

在世界各地的边境地区，自然资源的开采往往使农村社区流离失所和重新定居。由于制度国家可能远离这些领土，主权要求和行使监管权力的权利往往在当地得到解决。这些不断演变的关系提出了关于当代世界政府性质以及社区建立和评估政治合法性的能力的重要问题。该奖项资助的研究通过利用哥伦比亚东北部煤矿区的一个有趣的自然实验来解决这些问题。范德比尔特大学博士生艾玛·班克斯将在莱斯利·吉尔博士的监督下，在哥伦比亚的一个边境地区进行这项研究，该地区二十多年来一直是一个大型露天煤矿的所在地。 该矿使一些社区离开其农村社区，重新安置在城市周边的村庄。为了研究的目的，这些社区沿着两个重要的轴线相互对照：他们最近流离失所的时间以及他们在种族上是非洲人后裔还是土著印第安人。利用这些对比，班克斯将收集四个社区的数据，这些社区沿着这些路线形成对比：两个社区早些时候重新定居，每个种族一个;两个社区最近重新定居，再次，每个种族一个。这将使她看到地方政治进程如何随着时间的推移而演变，以及这种演变如何受到不同社会地位的人所能获得的资源的影响。 银行将比较法律的资源，种族认同政治，联盟网络使用的每个社区合法化的权威，使安置的影响可见，并影响安置的结果。 为了找到和比较合法性建设的证据，她将在矿山和社区之间的圆桌会议上进行参与观察，并采访矿山官员、州政府官员和社区成员。 为了将这些发现置于背景中，她还将进行档案研究，并与社区成员进行深入的生活史访谈。 这些数据将使她能够更好地了解一个在世界范围内发现的现象，包括在美国：社区和自然资源公司，远离政府的直接控制，如何谈判合法性和相互影响。这项研究的结果将告知社会科学理论如何在地方一级的地方政治功能在当代世界。研究结果也将有助于政策制定者，他们寻求制定方法来支持资源开采，而不破坏公民和社区。

In frontier regions worldwide, natural resource extraction often displaces and resettles rural communities. Because the institutional state may be distant from these territories, claims to sovereignty and the right to exert regulatory power often get worked out locally. These evolving relationships raise important questions about the nature of government in the contemporary world and the capacities of communities to establish and evaluate political legitimacy. The research funded by this award addresses these questions by taking advantage of an interesting natural experiment in a coal-mining region in northeastern Colombia. Vanderbilt University doctoral student Emma Banks, under the supervision of Dr. Lesley Gill, will undertake the research in a frontier region of Colombia that, for over two decades, has been home to a major open pit coalmine. The mine has displaced communities from their communal rural territories and resettled them in peri-urban villages. Usefully for research purposes, these communities contrast with each other along two significant axes: how recently they have been displaced and whether they are ethnically Afro-descendant or indigenous Indians. Taking advantage of these contrasts, Banks will gather data in four communities that contrast along those lines: two communities resettled earlier, one of each ethnicity; and two resettled more recently, again, once of each ethnicity. This will allow her to see how local political processes evolve over time and how this evolution is affected by the resources accessible by people in different social positions. Banks will compare the legal resources, ethnic identity politics, and alliance networks used by each community to legitimize authority, make the impacts of resettlement visible, and influence resettlement outcomes. To find and compare evidence of legitimacy building, she will conduct participant observation at roundtable meetings between the mine and communities, and interview mine officials, state officials, and community members. To contextualize these findings, she will also carry out archival research and conduct in-depth life history interviews with community members. These data will allow her to better understand a phenomenon found worldwide, including in the United States: how communities and natural resource corporations, away from the direct government control, negotiate legitimacy and influence each other. Findings from this research will inform social science theory of how local politics functions at the local level in the contemporary world. Findings will also be of use to policy makers who seek to devise ways to support resource extraction without disadvantaging citizens and communities.