Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 2.5: Mining Industry Responses to Criticism
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Chapter 2.5
Mining Industry Responses
to Criticism
Stuart Kirsch
The following chapter is a paper written by the academic
Dr. Stuart Kirsch. 1 The ideas were originally presented at
the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues workshop
that followed the 2009 Conference, and then developed here
as well as in Cash on the Table, published by SAR press in
Santa Fe.
Dr Kirsch examines the strategies that mining corporations
use in order to manage opposition, particularly through
the co-option of the language of sustainable development.
Through studying them, he analyzes their weaknesses and
the potential opportunities for activists in better understanding
them.
The relationship between corporations and their critics
plays an important role in contemporary capitalism. The
popularity of neoliberal economic policies has led the state to