The rock, the beach, and the tidal pool: People and poverty in natural resource‐dependent areas

Abstract

Abstract Explaining why poverty exists in natural resource‐dependent areas (NRDAs) presents a formidable challenge, given variability in the nature, spatial manifestations, and social character of human well‐being. Nonetheless, there are structures and processes unique to NRDAs, including resource degradation, increasingly restrictive public land use policies, concentrated land ownership, and high rates of occupational injury that create the potential for impoverization in NRDAs. Given this complex context, we examine two theories of poverty. We find processes such as the shift from labor to capital‐intensive resource extraction, profit squeezes, and increased capital mobility identified in advanced capitalism theory help to explain NRDA poverty. In addition, processes identified in the theory of internal colonialism such as unequal exchange, the clash between traditional and secular cultures, and the control of public agencies by powerful private interests are more basic forces in creating NRDA poverty.