Abstract

The last sixty years have seen a significant shift away from seeing resource wealth as a key component of positive macro-economic reform, to acceptance of the negative impacts that an abundance of, or dependence on, natural resources can have on security, economic growth, and the development of accountable political institutions. The appropriation and extraction of natural resources emerge as expressions of complex relations existing within and between states, institutions and actors. At the same time, the attention given to this potential 'resource curse' has precipitated a number of critiques that challenge not only the data and statistical methods used to link resource wealth with negative development outcomes, but also the theoretical foundation and relevance of studies that reduce complex socio-political and economic relations to the presence of specific resources. This article draws on key literature from the field of political ecology to demonstrate how the concept of 'nature' has been omitted from these discussions. Critical analysis of 'nature' can refine the theoretical foundation and practical application of the 'resource curse' thesis. By re-inserting, re-politicizing and re-localizing the concept of nature we can include local production and consumption in the analysis, while also highlighting the link between our understanding of natural resources and historically rooted discourses of 'proper-use.'Key Words: Resource curse, political ecology, security, nature

Highlights

  • The study of the relationship between natural resource wealth and development has moved up and down the ladder of research, policy and investment priorities over the past sixty years

  • Viner 1952; Rostow 1961), to new interest in the so called 'resource curse', and the negative impacts that an abundance of, or dependence on, natural resources can have on economic stability (Collier and Hoeffler 1998; Doyle and Sambanis 2000; Fearon 2004), economic growth (Auty 2001; Sachs and Warner 1995) and the development of accountable political institutions (Ross 2001b; Wantchekon 1999)

  • This article draws on key literature from the field of political ecology to demonstrate how the concept of 'nature' has been completely removed from the debate surrounding the 'resource curse.'3 Political ecology's deconstruction of 'nature' and its insistence that it is a socio-political and economic entity offers an effective tool to further refine the theoretical foundation and practical application of the resource curse

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Summary

Introduction

The study of the relationship between natural resource wealth and development has moved up and down the ladder of research, policy and investment priorities over the past sixty years. Le Billon (2001b, 2008) states that the spatial distribution of resources in relation to the centre of power (proximate versus distant) and the methods of extraction (point source versus diffuse) determine the probability and type of conflict.10 Building on these two sub-categories, the literature linking natural resources and conflict is progressing along two different fronts: (a) those studies that postdict the motivations and abilities different actors have to rebel; and (b) those studies that continually parse out and refine variables to strengthen the statistical links between characteristics of specific resources and human behaviour. All these studies emerge as re-workings of different variables, rather than critical efforts to compare and contrast correlations according to theories that explain the evolution of structure and agency within and across scales of human-environment relations

Critiques of the resource curse
Conclusion
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