Social sustainability in mineral-driven development

Richard M. Auty
Additional contact information
Richard M. Auty: Department of Geography, Lancaster University, UK, Postal: Department of Geography, Lancaster University, UK

Journal of International Development, 1998, vol. 10, issue 4, 487-500

Abstract: Social capital as well as natural capital must be incorporated into sustainable development. This is especially vital in mineral-driven economies because the government has a key role in substituting produced and social capital for the depleting natural capital (the ore). A typology of political states captures key facets of social capital at the national level: it shows that mineral economies, like most resource-rich countries, tend to engender political states that are prone to government failure. One consequence is that local communities (which often lack social capital) must bargain directly with multinational mining firms which, for their part, must internalize many welfare functions. Although local groups can use environmental issues to extract higher rents, this has heightened dependence on the depleting mineral asset and is not sustainable. A social audit can help promote sustainable development by creating a consensus-building transparency for deploying the mineral rents. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 1998
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:10:y:1998:i:4:p:487-500

DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1328(199806)10:4<487::AID-JID540>3.0.CO;2-Y

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Development is currently edited by Paul Mosley and Hazel Johnson

More articles in Journal of International Development from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().