Doctoral Dissertation Research: Geopolitical Shifts in the Geographies of Extractive Economies

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation research project will analyze how recent geopolitical shifts are affecting national-level resource governance debates and subnational politics in developing nations. The doctoral student will investigate the interplay between national and subnational resource politics and two broader trends in extractive economies. The first of those trends are the growing involvement from resource extraction entities based in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the so-called BRICS states that are characterized as having large, fast-growing economies. The second of the trends is the increasing involvement by national governments in resource extraction. Natural resource ownership, governance, and revenue distribution often are contentious topics, and extraction-related tensions can aggravate or catalyze political unrest in the countries of extraction, particularly in those with poor governance structures. Increasing involvement in extraction by African states and by BRICS actors have raised anew the geopolitical and political economic implications of tensions among foreign investment actors, governments, and citizens with respect to natural resource extraction. These dynamics have significant implications for extraction-related social relations at a variety of scales, but there has been little scholarly attention to how these developments are being understood by residents of the countries and localities where extraction is occurring. This project's findings will advance interdisciplinary social science knowledge regarding resource politics and the increasing global prominence of BRICS states by extending and testing studies of the individual-level factors that shape citizens' perceptions of resource governance and geopolitics. By providing data regarding the factors that shape perceptions of resource extraction and governance, the project will enhance capabilities to understand, predict, and address political tensions, including violence, in resource-rich states and improve resource governance, especially in Africa. This enhanced knowledge is of critical value to the United States as it seeks to redefine its relationships with developing nations and the rapidly growing states that are playing a growing role in global economic activity. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career. The doctoral student will undertake an analysis of the politics of natural resource ownership, extraction, and governance through a geographic approach and multiple methods research design. She will seek answers to two sets of focal questions: (1) How have entities based in BRICS nations interacted with national and subnational politics of resource extraction? (2) How are ordinary citizens interpreting and responding to these shifting extractive geopolitics and politics, and which factors shape those interpretations and responses? The student will employ a multi-scalar theoretical framing to explore the interactions between individuals and a range of subnational, national, and international entities. The student will focus her research in Namibia, one of Africa's largest mineral exporters, conducting an in-depth analysis of resource politics and geopolitics at a national level and in two subnational sites with divergent extractive contexts. Integrating quantitative and qualitative methods, she will investigate how local perceptions of resource governance differ between the two primary study sites and in comparison with national-level portrayals by state and private actors.