Community Mobilization and Environmental Politics: State, Society, and Industry

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Community stewardship of environmental governance is critical to realizing a just transition for vulnerable peoples. Each paper in this panel explores the determinants or consequences of community relationships with the state and private sector surrounding environmental issues. Beacham finds that the impact of natural resource extraction on protected area designation depends on political institutions enabling community participation: in states with stronger democratic institutions, extraction in fact leads to greater protection. Navarro-Rodriguez draws upon unique municipality-level data in Chile, revealing that state-led forestry subsidies diminish material benefits for indigenous peoples and further deepen their marginalization, which holds crucial implications for anti-state sentiment and behavior among these communities. Ratan leverages cross-national data on foreign investment and qualitative evidence from firms and communities in the solar industry to demonstrate that investment from inexperienced firms leads to community opposition due to lack of local co-benefits, while investments from embedded firms with local experience build political support for the energy transition. Wang argues that community cohesion determines local mobilization strategy for compensation around mining projects in the case of Peru, which without contestation, bring few benefits to local peoples. Collectively, these papers enhance our understanding of how community identity and mobilization intersect with state and investor characteristics to shape environmental governance outcomes.

Sub Unit

• Division 39: Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics

Individual Presentations

• Extraction, Contestation, Conservation: Natural Resources and Protected Areas - Austin Beacham, Georgia Insitute of Technology

• Extraction and Mobilization: Chile's Forest Plantations and Indigenous Politics - Vanessa Navarro Rodriguez, UC Berkeley

• Chasing the Sun: The Politics of Solar Investment in the Global South - Ishana Ratan, University of California, Berkeley

• Protest in the Inca Heartland: Mobilization around Mining in Southern Peru - Kehan Wang, Boston University

Chair

• Christopher Lee Carter University of Virginia

Discussant

• Maiah Jaskoski Northern Arizona University