Toward Peaceful Resolution of Company-Community Conflicts

Abstract

Drawing on resource dependency theory, this study investigates how the involvements of civil society organizations and state actors with different orientations toward mining projects affect the conflict intensity between mining companies and communities. We theorize that different combinations of these actors’ involvements can shape the relative balance of power between companies and communities, as well as communities’ perceptions of justice, which have important effects on conflict intensity. We also examine how vertical and horizontal inequalities can worsen power imbalances and increase conflict intensities. By using a hand-collected, multi-source dataset of 317 global mining conflicts between 2002 and 2013, we found that the involvement of state actors who have pro-social orientations lowers conflict intensity, while the involvement of state actors who have pro-business orientations when combined with the involvement of civil society organizations, increases conflict intensity. We also found that societal horizontal and vertical inequalities increase conflict intensity when both civil society organizations and state actors are involved, as these inequalities may weaken collaborations among the parties.