Resource governance and norm domestication in the developing world

Environmental Policy and Governance, vol. 30, pp. 223–226

Abstract

Aims and contributionThe politics surrounding governance of natural resource sectors-encompassing mineral, oil and gas industries as well as forest and land-intensive sectors-have been highly contentious for as long as modern economic systems have depended on extraction of these resources.Unlike many other industries, natural resource sectors have deep historical linkages to practices of national ownership and ideas of sovereignty (Nem Singh 2019; 2014;Haslam and Heidrich 2016).States remain the central actor controlling access to territories and natural resources, and often fiercely defend the principle of sovereignty over resource governance processes and outcomes.Yet global regulatory norms also have far-reaching effects on shaping contemporary resource governance in the developing world.Powerful reforms designed to liberalize the oil, gas, and mining sectors have been promoted vigorously with the active support of the World Bank and other international financial institutions (Hatcher 2014; Nem Singh and Bourgouin 2013).Transnational regulation has also been promoted in the form of international initiatives seeking to combat corruption, charters embedding commitments to transparency, and a multitude of environmental and social regulations-some led by intergovernmental bodies, and some taking the form of voluntary codes of conduct or corporate social responsibility initiatives.Such global norms have often been framed around the aim of governing social, political and environmental risk, as efforts to manage the socio-ecological consequences of extractive industries have risen in priority amongst many state and non-state actors.While to some extent such regulatory initiatives come into direct tension with market-enabling policy frameworks, they can also function to legitimise natural resource extraction as a constitutive

Authors 2

1. Kate Macdonald

   The University of Melbourne

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Social and Political Sciences University of Melbourne Parkville VIC Australia

   School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne Parkville, VIC, Australia

2. Jewellord Nem Singh corresponding Aachen Institute of Political Science Leiden University Wijnhaven Campus The Hague The Netherlands Institute of Political Science

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Political Science Leiden University Wijnhaven Campus The Hague The Netherlands

   Institute of Political Science, Leiden University Wijnhaven Campus, The Hague, The Netherlands