Superfluous Jobs in Extractive Industries: The Usefulness/Uselessness of Job Creation after Dispossession

Sara Geenen and Mollie Gleiberman
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Sara Geenen: University of Antwerp, Belgium; Université Catholique de Bukavu (UCB), Democratic Republic of Congo
Mollie Gleiberman: University of Antwerp, Belgium

Work, Employment & Society, 2023, vol. 37, issue 2, 394-411

Abstract: Job creation has become central to the global development agenda. Extractive industries in particular highlight employment opportunities for the host communities in which they operate through direct, indirect and induced jobs. Exploring literature on surplus populations/dispossession and distributive politics/Corporate Social Responsibility and using evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo, we scrutinize the idea of job creation in the extractive industries as a development strategy. We argue that (1) superfluous jobs are being created to keep people alive yet silent in the wake of dispossession; and that (2) while they may help certain people to ‘stay alive’, these jobs also produce new inequalities and further marginalization.

Keywords: dispossession; distributive politics; extractive industries; superfluous jobs; surplus population (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:37:y:2023:i:2:p:394-411

DOI: 10.1177/09500170211008721

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