Subnational governance strategies at the extractive frontier: collaboration and conflict in Peru

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed profound transformations in subnational territories engendered by a dramatic increase in natural resource extraction. Research to date has concentrated largely on why the transfer of extractive revenues often reinforces a 'local resource curse'; however, little work has been done on subnational governments' attempts to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of mining expansion. Drawing on the literature on subnational governance in the context of resource extraction and neoliberal reforms, this study analyses the strategiesconfrontational or collaborativesubnational political leaders pursue and the reasons why they pursue them. The findings are based on in-depth field research in two Peruvian subnational regions that are highly dependent on mineral extraction. More specifically, we examine the collaborative strategy pursued in one region and compare it with a confrontational strategy in another. Our analysis indicates that an interplay between institutional capacity and supporting coalitions affects whether subnational leaders undertake a collaborative or a confrontational approach. Based on our findings, we consider the likely effects of these strategies for regional development. By shifting the focus to the agency of subnational leaders, we make an essential contribution to debates about subnational governance in the realm of resource extraction.

Lost and Found in Translation: How Firms Use Anisomorphism to Manage the Institutional Complexity of CSR

“…Ruling elites are interested in securing control over these resources and avoiding internal conflicts. Moreover, since they are generally more interested in extracting rents from extractive industries than in ensuring that their country follows an environmentally sustainable development path, ruling elites tend to view environmental degradation as a second-order preoccupation (Gustafsson and Scurrah, 2020).…”

Mobilising Rents: Natural Gas Production Networks and the Landlord State in Peru and Bolivia

“…While the production of nature‐exporting societies through the mobilisation of ground rent by the landlord state has been largely discussed (Coronil 1997; see also Perreault and Valdivia 2010; Postero 2017), the relationship between local politics and extractive industries is also relevant for making extraction sites (Adhikari and Chhotray 2020). 6 As Gustafsson and Scurrah (2020:2) note, the collaborative relations between extractive industries and local governments may “reinforce depoliticising practices in which technical discourses and solutions ultimately reproduce hegemonic world views and power imbalances”. In that vein, the ways in which the benefits of resource extraction are distributed plays a role in the cross‐scalar dynamics of political mobilisation around extractive industries (Irarrázaval 2020).…”