Seven Corporate social responsibility and community development in a mining region in India: issues of power, control and co-option
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Satu Ranta-Tyrkkö
Abstract
“Earlier, not much care was taken about the local society. Now that awareness is there.” This claim was made in an interview with the managing director of a large-scale iron mine in eastern India in January 2015, when he reflected back on his long experience in the Indian mining industry. While the claim encapsulates a long-term corporate trend, in India corporate involvement in community-level matters remains an issue of constant debate, even suspicion. Can corporate and community interests be complementary, and if so, to what extent, especially in cases where the corporate activity has negatively affected the health and well-being of local people? Whose interests are actually at stake – who, locally, is ‘the’ company, who passes as ‘the’ local people, and whose interests do not count? How do the mining companies implement their community development programmes under corporate social responsibility (CSR), and how participatory are these programmes? Should social and community workers engage with corporations to get resources, such as funding and other assets for the actual work with people, and what kind of risks or compromises might that entail?
In this chapter, we discuss these dilemmas in the context of the mining area of the eastern Sundergarh District in the state of Odisha in eastern India. In spite of its context specificity, our case connects with universal themes regarding extractive industries, CSR, and community work and development. These include the deterioration of the local ecosystems and ecosystems-based livelihoods in regions of resource extraction, growing disparities and uneven power positions between those who benefit from extractive industries and those who do not, complexities of CSR in a multi-ethnic and hierarchical society, and the subordination of ‘extractive peripheries’ to broader political and economic structures and tendencies.
Abstract
“Earlier, not much care was taken about the local society. Now that awareness is there.” This claim was made in an interview with the managing director of a large-scale iron mine in eastern India in January 2015, when he reflected back on his long experience in the Indian mining industry. While the claim encapsulates a long-term corporate trend, in India corporate involvement in community-level matters remains an issue of constant debate, even suspicion. Can corporate and community interests be complementary, and if so, to what extent, especially in cases where the corporate activity has negatively affected the health and well-being of local people? Whose interests are actually at stake – who, locally, is ‘the’ company, who passes as ‘the’ local people, and whose interests do not count? How do the mining companies implement their community development programmes under corporate social responsibility (CSR), and how participatory are these programmes? Should social and community workers engage with corporations to get resources, such as funding and other assets for the actual work with people, and what kind of risks or compromises might that entail?
In this chapter, we discuss these dilemmas in the context of the mining area of the eastern Sundergarh District in the state of Odisha in eastern India. In spite of its context specificity, our case connects with universal themes regarding extractive industries, CSR, and community work and development. These include the deterioration of the local ecosystems and ecosystems-based livelihoods in regions of resource extraction, growing disparities and uneven power positions between those who benefit from extractive industries and those who do not, complexities of CSR in a multi-ethnic and hierarchical society, and the subordination of ‘extractive peripheries’ to broader political and economic structures and tendencies.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Rethinking Community Development ix
- Acknowledgements xi
- Notes on contributors xiii
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The ethico-political context
- Ethics, equity and community development: mapping the terrain 3
- Community development in an unequal world: challenging neo-liberal values 37
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Everyday ethics in community development practice
- Negotiating roles and boundaries: ethical challenges in community work 59
- Negotiating consent in neighbourhood-based community development work 83
- Whose ethics counts? Ethical issues in community development and action research with communities facing stigmatisation 103
- Koorliny birniny, ni, quoppa katatjin respect and ethics in working with Indigenous Australian communities 123
- Corporate social responsibility and community development in a mining region in India: issues of power, control and co-option 143
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Envisioning an ethical space for community development
- Relational ethics and transformative community organising in the neo-liberal US context 167
- A Community Economies perspective for ethical community development 189
- Concluding reflections: philosophical perspectives on community and community development 209
- Index 221
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Rethinking Community Development ix
- Acknowledgements xi
- Notes on contributors xiii
-
The ethico-political context
- Ethics, equity and community development: mapping the terrain 3
- Community development in an unequal world: challenging neo-liberal values 37
-
Everyday ethics in community development practice
- Negotiating roles and boundaries: ethical challenges in community work 59
- Negotiating consent in neighbourhood-based community development work 83
- Whose ethics counts? Ethical issues in community development and action research with communities facing stigmatisation 103
- Koorliny birniny, ni, quoppa katatjin respect and ethics in working with Indigenous Australian communities 123
- Corporate social responsibility and community development in a mining region in India: issues of power, control and co-option 143
-
Envisioning an ethical space for community development
- Relational ethics and transformative community organising in the neo-liberal US context 167
- A Community Economies perspective for ethical community development 189
- Concluding reflections: philosophical perspectives on community and community development 209
- Index 221
