The extractive industries, community development and livelihood change in developing countries

This paper introduces a special issue on the extractive industries, community development and livelihood change in developing countries. The collection of papers presented in the issue reflects upon a broad range of emerging community development challenges surrounding the growth of the mining, and oil and gas sectors in different settings across sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Melanesia. Recognizing the distinction between ‘community-led’ development and ‘corporate-controlled’ development, the contributions critically explore how different stakeholders respond to extractive industries development and reflect upon the role that communities might play in mitigating some of the problematic issues that arise. The collection sheds new light on the complex relationships between communities, companies, governments and non-governmental actors and provides a more nuanced picture of the challenges faced in pursuing more sustainable community-led trajectories.

Address for correspondence: Roy Maconachie, Centre for Development Studies, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK; email:r.maconachie@bath.ac.uk