Research Proposal
“We can non take Communion from the communion tables of a dominant civilization which confuses monetary value with value and converts people and states into merchandise” ( Eduardo Galeano ) .
Context and Statement of Problem
Nigeria is sub-Saharan Africa ‘s largest manufacturer of oil and the 8th largest universe exporter of rough oil, yet a bulk of its population lives in poorness. The mean life anticipation at birth is 47 old ages ; this is a lessening of 20 old ages from the old study in the sixtiess when the mean life span was 67 old ages. One in every eight Nigerian kids will non populate to observe their 5th birthday ( WHO 2008, UNICEF, 2008 ) . These intense contradictions between resource wealth and an destitute population have become one of the universe ‘s starkest and most distressing illustrations of the alleged “resource curse” . The term “resource curse” is used to depict how states or parts with an copiousness of natural resources, specifically non-renewable minerals and fuels, are unable to utilize that wealth to hike their economic systems and how, counter-intuitively, they tend to hold lower economic growing and less development results than those with fewer natural resources ( Auty, 1993 ; Sachs and Warner 1999 ; Ross 1999 ) .
The wealth of Nigeria as a state has provided few benefits to the public chiefly due to the deficiency of answerability of both the authorities and the multinational oil corporations, and the failure of the authorities to put in development. Watts ( 2009 ) utilizing IMF informations assert that the $ 700 billion in oil grosss since 1960 have added about nil to the criterion of life of the mean Nigerian particularly those populating in the Niger Delta part that is afloat with oil.
Contemporary exigencies due to globalisation, the terminal of the Cold War, the information engineering revolution and the bifurcation of universe political relations have all facilitated the re-invigoration of the thought that concern has a societal duty that goes beyond net income devising to include assisting work out societal and environmental problems- a theory termed corporate societal duty ( CSR ) . Several decennaries of province force and corruptness, consecutive broken promises and fraudulence by authorities, and a history of the power agents throwing money at edgy young person in the hope that they can purchase peace, have bred nil but common intuition.
Multinational oil corporations operating in the Niger Delta part have sought to travel beyond what Michael Watts ( 2009 ) called the “politics of dolling out ( oil ) money” towards “self disciplining” through norms of ‘civil treatment ‘ , – therefore replacing their usual corporate-sponsored compensation with consent-based societal ordinance and stabilisation through a procedure known as partnership development ( Lapin, 2000 ) . This theoretical account is aimed at accomplishing community consent and is referred to in the corporate universe as a company ‘s ‘social licence to run ‘ ( Zalik, 2004: 402 ) . The building of a big community development bureaucratism within these oil corporations and the burgeoning local civil society organisations as sub-contractors for peculiar community development intercessions – young person preparation, adult females in development, micro-credit and struggle declaration – have formed portion of the plan ‘s execution.
However, as oil pollution, gas flaring and the denaturing of the landscape from oil grapevines installings continued unabated, the Niger Delta communities see these partnership initiatives as a matrimony of incommodiousness and a manner for the corporations to kip peacefully with the enemy. Observers like Frynas ( 2005 ) and Akpan ( 2006 ) besides continue to reason that multinational oil corporations ‘ attempts at community development are abysmal and that the standards for the appraisal of multinational oil corporations ‘ part to community development are ill-defined.
A closer scrutiny of the societal procedures and the political-economic construction through which these communities participate in or are excluded from decision-making illustrates the determiners of environmental justness. Furthermore, as emphasized by Schroeder ( 2000 ) , the construct of justness raises a assortment of inquiries with respects to, for case, rights to livelihood, sweetening of substructure for democratic political procedures, and recognition of cultural diverseness. The disputing inquiry so is: what constitutes justness to the ordinary work forces and adult females in the Niger Delta part?
My thesis is that although corporations may encompass community development partnership in their one-year studies and booklets, the ways in which they develop and maintain their operations remains questionable. The corporate rhetoric of community development partnership is worlds off from the complex world of voyaging just dealingss environing extractive industries operations. This research will pull from the construct of “plurality of Justice” ( Ishiyama 2003 ; Walker and Bulkeley 2006 ) to show the demand to believe beyond the distributive justness presently employed by these multinational oil corporations in turn toing procedural inquiries of unfairness.
Research Aim and Aims
The purpose of this research is to near, acknowledge, regard, and actively prosecute ordinary work forces and adult females in the Niger Delta part in a participatory mode. The aims are ( 1 ) supplying a infinite for look and interaction with this subordinated group of citizens. ( 2 ) that the infinite of look will promote them to joint their ain definitions of desires, capablenesss, and booming in the current corporate-sponsored development.
Research Question:
Based on these sets of aims, the research inquiries are:
- What constitutes partnership development in the oil bring forthing parts of Nigeria?
- To what extent do ordinary work forces and adult females in the Niger Delta part find their voices in partnership development?
- In what ways are societal and environmental justness reconfigured through partnership development?
In amount: under what status can the alleged partnership developments constitute redress for unfairness in the Niger Delta environment?
Research Design and Methodology
Social and environmental unfairnesss frequently occur because of the physical distance between us and the “other”-the insulted, degraded, and excluded-and an rational and emotional gulf from the ideas and perceptual experiences of those sing unfairness. This is peculiarly true for socioeconomically less -well-off and less-esteemed groups and in topographic points that are remote from our day-to-day concerns. The oil-rich Niger Delta communities in Nigeria constitute such a group.
I contend that the cardinal favoritism that affects minority autochthonal communities in the Niger Delta part stems from the fact that governmental policies do non acknowledge them as equal citizens and do except them from educational, proficient, and fiscal support constructions. State directors and politicians operate within a system that is chiefly charged with advancing the activities, policies and statute law indispensable to prolonging the profitableness of multinational investing and markets ( Evans 1995 ) .
Majority cultural groups in Nigeria and international media portray local communities in the part as inferior, tribalistic, bastard, and unsafe. The continued torment of expatriate oil workers, bunkering and grapevine vandalization are presented as a convenient alibi for their devaluation, yet no echt alternate supports are offered to counterbalance for environmental debasement and pollution by oil houses that have turned farming areas into barrens ; since loss of farming areas means loss of income and beginning of support and nutriment for these cultural minority groups.
Connolly ( 1993 ) , argues that relentless misrecognition, discourtesy, and disempowerment are likely to fuel bitterness. Norman and MacDonald ( 2003: 8 ) postulate that partnership development assumes even more indistinctness when corporations attempt to bring forth what looks like cosmopolitan standards. It is even trickier to understand a house ‘s ‘world category ‘ criterions of community development without happening out how its self-defined ‘goods ‘ resonate with ordinary Nigerians. So, in clear uping the contexts of environmental justness, the construct of procedural justness should be elaborated upon. Lake ( 1996.169 ) notes that “ [ R ] edistributing results will non accomplish environmental justness unless it is accompanied and, so, preceded by a procedural redistribution of power in decision-making.” Interrogating the societal procedure and political-economic construction through which communities participate or are excluded ( for illustration, in respect to payment for land and compensation for investings ) from decision-making illustrates the determiners of environmental justness.
Making landscapes of para and engagement may offer a manner out of the current deadlock. Mary Louise Pratt ‘s impression of “contact zones” which she defines as “social infinites where civilizations run into, clang, and grapnel with each other, frequently in context of extremely asymmetrical dealingss of domination and subordination” ( Pratt 1992:7 ) will be a utile construct in this respect. I will besides pull upon the construct of transculturation, foremost developed by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz ( 1947 ) to analyze procedures of cultural alteration. Transculturation will be used in this research to reflect the ability of local communities to utilize a intercrossed signifier of justness in deciding struggles over clip, instead than worsening them.
Given that visions of nature and human-land dealingss are such rich sites of cultural production, I find the construct ideally suited to researching the procedures of exchange and reinvention that occur in the context of corporate partnership development. Furthermore, among critical homo geographers, the construct exemplifies infinites for critical battle and common acquisition that contest the separation of activism and the academy ( Castree 1999 ; Merrifield 1995 ) , similar to Routledge ‘s “third space” ( 1996 ) , promoting bookmans to construe and consequence societal alteration.
In this research, I employ the construct of “contact zones” , – pulling upon both Pratt ‘s original impression of colliding peoples coping with unequal power dealingss and the extremist geographers ‘ apprehension of critical battle. This blend offers a utile entry point for determining possible infinites of engagement, collaborative acquisition, flourishing, and coexistence between local communities, multinational oil corporations, research workers, wellness professionals, NGOs and governmental functionaries. The principle is to use these infinites as a conceptual and procedural tool in parity-fostering participatory research to antagonize the misrecognition and exclusion that characterizes oil pull outing activities in the Niger Delta.
Research Methods and Analysis
This research will use both qualitative and quantitative methods of informations aggregation ( unstructured interviews, focal point group treatment, societal function and direct observation ) that will be integrated into a participatory rural assessment ( PRA ) . Chambers ( 1994 ) defined PRA as an attack and methods for larning about rural life and conditions from, with and by rural people. It requires research workers to move as facilitators to assist local people conduct their ain analysis, program and take action consequently. It is based on the rule that local people are originative and capable and can make their ain probes, analysis, and planning.
Shell Oil Corporation and the communities in which it has its oil Wellss in the Nigerian Niger Delta part will be the focal point of this research. While Shell ‘s corporate societal duty ( CSR ) studies will be exhaustively examined, I intend to travel beyond past research done in this area-which is largely based on obtaining information on societal duty ( SR ) from this corporation and local communities and place jobs of societal and environmental justness. In 2003 there were 221 oil spills associated with Shell installations in which 9,900 barrels of oil were spilled ; 68 per cent of the entire volume of oil spilled was reportedly caused by wilful harm of installations or sabotage ( SPDC, 2004 ) . On norm, most onshore-based oil corporations attribute more than half of the instances of spillage from their installations to undermine ( Zalik, 2004 ) . Oil bearing communities and most conservationists have normally dismissed oil companies ‘ claims of sabotage as overdone alibis to get away legal liability and payment of compensation to local communities ( Omeje, 2005 ) .
In order to make contact zones/spaces for battle in which local communities could do their voices heard and contest misrecognition and the enervation of their capablenesss, this research will borrow from Fraser ‘s impression of “participatory parity” ( 1990, 2001 ) . Fraser argues that para of engagement is more of import than inclusion per Se as it requires mutual acknowledgment of participants ‘ societal standing. The first measure in the de-institutionalizing of parity-impeding values is to demo regard. In making this, I intend to transport out organic structure wellness function ( Keith and Brophy ; 2004 ) , a sort of parity-fostering propensity activity that engages local communities jointly in researching environmental and human wellness hazards and jobs they face on a day-to-day footing from oil extraction.
Many oil Wellss in the Delta are located onshore in really distant and sparsely populated countries. The oil corporations fear that supplying societal comfortss in every oil-producing small town or community exposed to oil pollution would be a drain on their fundss. Consequently, they adopt what may be termed ‘strategic uncertainty ‘ . They doubt that a bantam, stray riverine delta small town could be anyone ‘s ‘permanent ‘ habitation: the dwellers must hold a lasting place somewhere-else. Adopting Nussbaum ‘s impression of “systematic imagining” ( 2006 ) , I will use vision mapping to understand what local communities themselves see as cardinal elements of booming and their conceptualisation of what justness means for them.
Case Study Selection
Field work will be conducted in the three communities of Oloibiri, Ebubu and Iko ( in Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom provinces of Nigeria severally see fig.1 ) . The Niger Delta is smaller than the Netherlands, nevertheless it ‘s comparatively little size belies its immense political and economic importance for the state.
Nigeria
The pick of the three survey communities is guided by: a ) the demand to include a community in each of the state ‘s prima oil bring forthing provinces in order to harmonize the information the necessary distribution and significance, B ) the demand to include communities that occupy important places within the context of Nigeria ‘s oil production history, and degree Celsius ) the demand to include communities with strategic relevancy to the major multinational oil companies, such as Shell Petroleum. On the whole, nevertheless, a major consideration is that the towns must be reasonably representative of the highland and riverine human ecologies of oil and gas production in Nigeria
Shell ‘s operations and its corporate societal duty ( CSR ) policies will be reviewed to find how good they are carry throughing their alleged partnership development ends and whether these ends have any bearing with their host communities ‘ demands, involvements and outlooks in turn toing societal and environmental unfairness. Shell is chosen from the multinational oil corporations operating in the part because of the deepness of its operation in Nigeria. It has the highest operations capacity in the industry, responsible for 50 % of oil production in Nigeria. Besides, it manages a excavation lease country of “about 31,000 square kilometres ; 6000 kilometres of grapevines and flowlines, 87 flowstations ; eight gas workss and more than 1000 bring forthing wells” ( SPDC,2000 ) .
Above all, there is uninterrupted unfavorable judgment of Shell ‘s battles in Nigeria. The corporation ‘s engagement in local communities has remained questionable, despite its claims of passing 1000000s of dollars on community development yearly. In the aftermath of two major events in 1995, the hanging of the Nigerian environmental militant Ken Saro-Wiwa and Shell ‘s presumed function in it, and the protest generated around the universe by the planned dumping of the decommissioned Brent Spar oil storage platform in the North Sea, Shell embarked on big scale reappraisals of its planning procedure and strategic operations around the universe. The success of these new ‘social ‘ schemes as they relate to Nigeria can now be assessed through this independent research.
Intellectual Merit
This research is an effort to lend to environmental justness arguments with an expressed accent on acknowledgment, engagement and capablenesss as a counter force to criminalisation. The selected instance survey will research the construct of pluralistic justness construct in rectifying institutionalised position hurt at the nucleus of favoritism. The local communities are non inactive victims of hegemonic multinationals ; they create their ain societal and environmental “space, ” for which they are accused and ostracized by bulk society. Yet, nil speaks against using the construct of justness to persons or groups of people who, due to relentless devaluation, disenfranchisement, and exclusion from booming, have been basically forced to make whatever it takes to last. Harmonizing to Schlosberg ( 2007 ) , the key prerequisites for acknowledgment and engagement are qualities such as involvements, demands, bureau, physical unity, and the flowering of possible.
Through the usage of contact zones as a conceptual and practical tool for participatory para, this research will lend to knowledge by bridging the survey of environmental justness, political ecology, and extremist geographics. Contact zones allow seting Sen ‘s ( 1999, 2004 ) impression of human or people ‘s bureau at the centre phase of development instead than local elites or external experts that decide what values and conditions for booming should be chosen.
Bibliography
Akpan, W. “Between Responsibility and Rhetoric: Some Consequences of Corporate Social duty Practices in Nigeria ‘s Oil Province.” Development Southern Africa 23, no. 2 ( 2006 ) : 223-240.
Auty, R. M. Sustaining Development in Mineral Economies: The Resource Curse Thesis. London: Routeledge, 1993.
Castree, N. “Out at that place? In here? Domesticating critical geography.” Area 31, no. 1 ( 1999 ) : 81-86.
Chamber, R. “Particpatory Rural Apprisal ( PRA ) : Challenges, Potentials and Paradigm.” World Development 22, no. 10 ( 1994 ) : 1437-1454.
Conolly, W. Political Theory and Modernity 2nd. erectile dysfunction. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.
Evans, Peters. Embedded Autonomy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Fraser, Nancy. “Recognition Without Ethnics? ” Theory, Culture and Sociaty, no. 18 ( 2001 ) : 21-42.
Fraser, Nancy. “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy.” Social Context 25, no. 26 ( 1990 ) : 56-80.
Frynas, J.G. “The False Development Promise of Corporate Social duty: Evidence from Multinational Oil companies.” International Affairs 81 ( 2005 ) : 581-598.
Ishiyama, N. “Environmental Justice and American Indian Tribal Sovereignty: Case Study of a Land-Use Conflict in Skull Valley, Utah.” Antipode 35, no. 1 ( 2003 ) : 119-139.
Keith, J.T and Brophy, M.M. “Participatory Mapping of Occupational Hazards and Disease among ASbestos-Exposed Workers from a Foundry and Insulation Complex in Canada.” International Journal of Environmental Health 10 ( 2004 ) : 144-153.
Lake, L.R.W, . “Volunteers, NIMBYs, and Environmental Justice: Dilemmmmas of Democratic Practice.” Antipode, no. 28 ( 1996 ) : 160-174.
Lapin, Deirdre. “Community Development: A Strategy For Pull offing Conflict in the Niger Delta.” Business and Peace. Lancaster House, London, 2000.
Merrifield, A. “Situated Knowledge Through Exploration: Contemplations on Bunge ‘s Geographical Expeditions.” Antipode 27 ( 1 ) :49-70 27, no. 1 ( 1995 ) : 49-70.
Norman W, MacDonald C. “Getting to the Bottom of Triple Bottom Line..” Business Ethics Quarterly, 2003.
Nussbaum, M.C. Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership. Cambridge, MA: Havard University Press, 2006.
Omeje, Kenneth. “Oil struggle in Nigeria: Contending Issues and Perspectives of the Local Niger Delta People.” New Political Economy 10, no. 3 ( 2005 ) : 321 – 334.
Ortiz, F. Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar. New York: Knopf, 1947.
Pratt, Mary Louise. Imperial Eyess: Travel Writing and Transculturation. New York: Routledge, 1992.
Ross, R.M and Micheal, L. “The Political Economy of the Resource Curse.” World Politics 51, no. 2 ( 1999 ) : 297-322.
Routledge, P. “The Third Space as Critical Engagement.” Antipode 28 ( 1996 ) : 399-419.
Sachs, Jeffrey D. , and Andrew M. Warner. “The Big Push, Natural Resource Booms and Growth.” Development Economics 59, no. 1 ( 1999 ) : 43-76.
Schlosberg, D. Defining Environmental Justice: Theories, Motions, and Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Schroeder, R. “Beyond Distributive Justice: Resource Extraction and Environmental Justice in the Tropics.” In People, Plants and Justice: The Politicss of Nature Conservation, by C. ( erectile dysfunction ) Zerner, 52-66. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
Sen, A. “Capabilities, Lists and Public Reason: Continuing the Conversation.” Feminist Economics 10, no. 3 ( 2004 ) : 77-80.
– . Commodities and Capability. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
SPDC. Peoples and the Environment. Annual Report, Shell Petroleum Development Company, 2004, 7-8.
– . Shell Petroleum Development Corporations SPDC Fact file. March 17th, 2000. www.shellnigeria.com/shell/factfile rhs.asp ( accessed October 10th, 2009 ) .
Spitta, S. Between Two Waters: Narratives of Transculturation in Latin America. Houston TX: Rice University Press, 1995.
UNICEF. At a Glance: Nigeria. 2008. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nigeria_statistics.html ( accessed September 22nd, 2008 ) .
WHO. WHO African Region: Nigeria. September 28th, 2008. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.who.int/countries/nga/nga/en/ ( accessed August 22nd, 2009 ) .
Watts, M. Nigeria at a Tipping Point. August 12, 2009. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-watts/nigeria-at-a-tipping-poin_b_257969.html ( accessed October 30th 2009 ) .
Watts, M. Trust, Trust and Trusting in Niger Delta. October 31st, 2009. hypertext transfer protocol: //234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Opinion/5476124-184/Trusts, _trust_and_trusting_in_the.csp ( accessed November 1st 2009 ) .
Walker, G.P and Bulkeley. “Geographies of Environmental Justice ( Editorial ) .” Geoforum, no.35 ( 2006 ) 655-659
Zalik, Anna. “The Niger Delta: Petro-Violence and Partnership Development.” Review of African Political Economy, no.101 ( 2004 ) : 401-424.
