Governance gap? Vale's corporate action and socioenvironmental conflicts in an international perspective

Abstract

Mining transnational corporations (TNCs) can be seen as engines of several forms of dispossession and violence in the lives of affected populations. Through the exploitation concession, TNCs go on to exercise governance functions in the political order of the territories where they settle. This contribution is the result of empirically-driven work motivated by national and international activity of the Brazilian mining TNC Vale S.A. in three host countries where it operates: Brazil, Canada, and Mozambique. It demonstrates how the everyday governance of the population affected by the TNC go beyond territories of weak states and has two main aspects: the “government role”, where the corporation acts as provider of services traditionally performed by the government; and the expanded exercise of corporate power in the political order using coercive as well as cooperative and participatory governance mechanisms. Contrary to the supposed prosperity that comes with mineral abundance, a joint analysis of Vale's presence in the three contexts reveals scenarios of conflict emerging as resistance from the affected populations to counter the dynamics of corporate governance and violence that the mining project generates.