Event Date: October 31, 2013 - 3:30 pm
Location: University of Ottawa, Social Sciences Building, room FSS-4006, 120 University Private
Presented by CIPS and the Fragile States Research Network (FSRN).
Free. In English and in French. Registration is not required. Seating is limited and available on a first come, first served basis.
PAUL ALEXANDER HASLAM, Professor at the School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa.
NASSER ARY TANIMOUNE, Professor at School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa.
JEAN DAUDELIN, Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) at Carleton University will be commenting on this research.
The case study research into social conflict between mining firms and nearby communities has produced a rich set of hypotheses. This paper seeks to build on the case study work through a statistical analysis of the determinants of social conflict at the local level in the mining sector in Latin America. We assess three alternative hypotheses derived from the case study literature regarding the principal determinants of social conflict at mining properties: firm-level factors; livelihood issues; and socio-economic explanations. The first two hypotheses are strongly supported by the analysis, while we find that there is little support linking poverty to conflict. The analysis is based on our own dataset of 783 geo-located mining properties at the feasibility stage and above (the full universe of firms known to be operating in Latin America), which includes GIS information on environment and land-use patterns around the property, sub-national socio-economic characteristics of the population, firm and mining property characteristics, as well as information about known social conflicts.