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Transnational Governmentality as Resource Extraction: Indigenous Peoples, Mutlinational Corporations, Multinational Institutions and the State

Summary
International financial institutions (IFIs), including the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), have actively promoted and financed the liberalization of the
hydrocarbon and mining sectors of national economies across the globe. They have also
espoused the merits of public-private cooperation as a means to sensitize businesses to the
problems that accompany such extraction projects. Common wisdom holds that public-private
collaborations among governments, IFIs and multinational corporations (MNCs) will enhance
social well-being by eradicating poverty, promoting sustainable forms of economic
development, protecting the environment and advancing the rights of indigenous peoples.

A number of IFIs, as well as the United Nations, have voiced concern over the adverse impact
of resource extraction activities on the livelihood and culture of indigenous communities.
Numerous extractive-industry MNCs have also advocated the need to create inclusive
consultative platforms that would provide indigenous groups with an avenue to participate in
decisions that affect their way of life. These new institutions would afford indigenous peoples
the power to veto, sanction or reformulate projects recommended by the government,
international agencies or MNCs that they see as detrimental to their way of life. In response to
these concerns, a number of international agencies and governments have introduced charters
and legislation to protect and promote the rights of indigenous peoples.


Yet, the scale and scope of the problems confronting indigenous peoples as a result of mineral
extraction projects endorsed and funded by governments, MNCs and IFIs is monumental, even
baffling. This leads to a paradox: despite the burgeoning number of international charters, state
constitutions and national laws across the world that assert and protect the rights of indigenous
peoples, the majority find themselves increasingly subjected to discrimination, exploitation,
dispossession and racism. This study explores this paradox by creating a dialogue among
researchers examining large resource extraction projects in Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Chad
and Cameroon, India, Nigeria, Peru and the Philippines.


The study argues that public-private partnerships studied here eventually led to institutional
capture, undermining the neutrality of the state and its capacity to protect indigenous
communities. It stresses the need for governments and international agencies to create inclusive
consultative platforms so that indigenous groups could have a say in decisions that affect them.

Suzana Sawyer is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis. At
the time of writing, Edmund Terence Gomez was Research Coordinator for the programme on
Identities, Conflict and Cohesion at the United Nations Research Institute for Social
Development (UNRISD).