Extractive Industries, Social Movements, and Policy Implementation (Part I)

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The Research Group on Mobilization, Extractivism, and Government Action (MEGA) is a network of scholars investigating the impact of contentious action against mega-development projects on policy and governmental institutional change. By mega-development projects, we refer to large-scale forms of investment that characterize extractivist orientations toward economic development, which often have local costs that generate protest or broader patterns of contentious action. In these two panels, we analyze how social movements and other actors engage with and influence the implementation of environmental laws, regulations, and rights in settings also characterized by extractivist forms of development. Policy implementation is widely recognized as a vital yet understudied problem in the emerging literature on the policy and institutional consequences of contentious politics.

Sub Track

• Civil Society and Social Movements

Session Organizers

• Eduardo Silva, Tulane University

• Maria Akchurin, Tulane University

Chair

• Eduardo Silva, Tulane University

Discussant

• Anthony J Bebbington, Clark University

Individual Presentations

• Mega-hydro vs a Diversified Matrix: Social Mobilization and Energy Policy in Costa Rica - Ludovico Feoli, Tulane University

• The Policy Dynamics of Extractivism: Gold Mining in Nicaragua - Rose J Spalding, DePaul University

• Oil Policy in the Ecuadorian Amazon: Mobilization, Contentious Action and Policy Implementation - Lorenzo Pellegrini; Murat Arsel

• Protest and the Implementation of Social and Environmental Safeguards: Efforts to Regulate Large-scale Infrastructure Investment in the Western Amazon - Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Clark University; César L Gamboa, Derecho Ambiente y Recursos Naturales