Abstract. How does the information over corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices by industry actors impact individual attitudes toward extraction? In this article, we argue that information over CSR practices impact individuals’ attitudes toward extraction and create insider and outsider dynamics that explain the patterns of support and opposition to mining. Using a vignette experiment, we assess a series of hypotheses about the effects of information on our main outcomes of interest: (1) support for mining, and (2) willingness to protest. The experiment exploits a feature of environmental licensing that divides the local population into insiders and outsiders. While insiders receive direct economic benefits (e.g., employment, development projects) and/or compensation for environmental impacts, outsiders receive minimal to no economic benefits from the mining company. The experiment exposed both insiders and outsiders to different vignettes about environmental costs and economic benefits and then measured their support for mining and willingness to participate in a protest. We find that the level of support for mining is generally larger for insiders compared to outsiders. Second, we find that direct economic benefits decrease individuals’ willingness to protest, regardless of insider or outsider status. However, in the presence of environmental costs, outsiders show a higher willingness to protest than insiders. To illustrate insider and outsider dynamics, we draw on qualitative evidence collected during nine months of fieldwork in the Las Bambas mine in southern Peru.

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Abstract. The apparent association between authoritarian governance and foreign direct investment (FDI) in natural resource industries conceals important variation within the primary sector. Existing analyses often fail to distinguish between mining/extractive industries, which must invest where specific resources exist and may contribute to endogenous processes of authoritarian entrenchment, and agriculture, where democratic regimes may offer stronger incentives for investment. Given the dramatic increases in agricultural investments in the last three decades, this distinction is not trivial and augurs against blanket statements concerning natural resources. Yet, analysts routinely refer to the primary sector as shorthand for mining, despite this heterogeneity. Using subsector FDI data, we investigate the institutional determinants of agricultural investment in 50 emerging economies from 1980 to 2010, an historical period during which inward primary sector investment surged in many developing countries with diverse institutional attributes. We consider how intrinsic characteristics of both agricultural and mining/extractive industries connect to political institutions. We find that in subsectors such as agriculture where firms may consider multiple locations for investment and sunk costs are lower than in mining, higher democratic quality corresponds with increased investment. This has consequences for the politics of FDI as well as broader political implications for natural resource endowments.

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What factors influence agenda-setting behavior in state legislatures in the United States? Using the localized effects of climate change, we examine whether notable changes in temperature can raise the salience of the issue, thus encouraging a legislative response. To evaluate the behavior of individual legislators around climate policy, we utilize an original data set that includes geographic mapping of climate anomalies at the state legislative district level and incorporates individual, chamber, district, and state characteristics to predict climate bill sponsorship. Using a multilevel model that estimates climate change bill sponsorship among 25,000 legislators from 2011 to 2015, we find a robust relationship between temperature anomalies and bill sponsorship for Democratic members of state legislators while Republicans are unresponsive to such factors. Our data and methodological approach allow us to examine legislative action on climate change beyond final policy passage and offer an opportunity to understand the motivations behind climate innovation in the American states.

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The green energy transition to reduce carbon emissions will mean a substantial increase in the demand for minerals. It is important, therefore, to rethink what we mean by mining conflicts and what they signify. We also need to distinguish them from other contentious events that, although with similar characteristics, involve different demands. Here we would like to employ the phrase ‘negotiated settlements’, and in this chapter we focus on these agreements, their key characteristics and the limitations to studying them in detail. We begin defining the terms ‘conflicts’ and ‘mining conflicts’, then proceed to a discussion of the contexts in which it is more appropriate to refer to negotiated settlements than to conflicts as such. We present two contrasting examples of these – Las Bambas and Quellaveco – and conclude with some observations as to what these insights offer.

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