Resource governance

Abstract

Resource extraction has been deepened in the new millennium. Global prices for commodities increased to historic heights between 2000 and 2013 driven by Chinese demand and the trading of these commodities in the financial market. The current global recession derived from the COVID-19 pandemic has not meant the reduction of resource extraction but its intensification in national economies to deal with economic crisis. Consequently, new extraction sites are being developed, ecologically sensitive areas are reaching tipping points, environmental disasters proliferate, and millions of people engage in small-scale mining. In this context, should resource governance seek to govern or to overcome the current pattern of extractivism? This chapter seeks to answer this question by discussing the ways resource governance has been conceived as a development strategy. The chapter thus investigates the nature, operation, and governance of resource extraction from classic development theories such as modernization and dependency to critical institutional perspectives and post-extractivist approaches. Then, it focuses on the multi-scalar nature of resource conflicts and their relation to development imaginaries and outcomes. Finally, it reflects on how new commodities and resource frontiers that enlarge the meaning of extractivism impact the way of governing resource extraction.