Exploring the origins of ‘social license to operate’ in the mining sector: Perspectives from governance and sustainability theories

Conceptualising social impacts

Global Spin reveals the sophisticated techniques used by powerful conservative forces to change the way the public and politicians think about the environment. Large corporations are using their influence to reshape public opinion, to weaken gains made by environmentalists, and to turn politicians against improved environmental laws. The corporations' techniques include employing specialized public relations firms to set up front groups that promote the corporate agenda while posing as public-interest groups; creating "astroturf" -- artificially created grassroots support for corporate causes; deterring public involvement by imposing SLAPPS (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation); getting corporate-based "environmental education" materials into schools; and funding conservative think-tanks, which cast doubt on environmental problems and oppose stricter environmental regulations. In the media, corporate advertising and sponsorship affect the content of news programs, and industry-funded scientists are presented as independent experts. In stores, "green marketing" (sometimes called "greenwashing") tries to persuade consumers that corporations are addressing serious environmental problems. Global Spin is the first book to document in detail how corporations in the U.S., Europe, and Australia manipulate the international debate to obscure their role in causing and prolonging our environmental crisis. While certain to be controversial, the book is so deeply researched and well-written that few will be able to dismiss its troubling insights.

Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism

In this article I present a political economic critique of contemporary US journalism, emphasizing the origins and limitations of professional journalism, the commercial attack upon journalism, and the right-wing critique of the liberal media. In my view, the US polity is enmeshed in a deep crisis and the collapse of a viable journalism is a significant factor--but by no means the only one--in explaining the shriveled and dilapidated state of US democracy. A political economic analysis stresses that the reasons for lousy journalism stem not from morally bankrupt or untalented journalists, but from a structure that makes such journalism the rational result of its operations. Hence if we are serious about producing a journalism and political culture suitable to a self-governing society, it is mandatory that there be structural change in the media system. This means explicit and major changes in the public policies that have created and spawned the media status quo.

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The problem of journalism: A political economic contribution to an explanation of the crisis in contemporary US journalism

Corporate political activity is both a long-standing preoccupation and an area of innovation for sociologists. We examine the limitations of investigating business unity without focusing directly on processes and outcomes and then review studies of five types of business political action that offer lenses into corporate power in the United States: engagement in electoral politics, direct corporate lobbying, collective action through associations and coalitions, business campaigns in civil society, and political aspects of corporate responsibility. Through these avenues, we highlight four shifts since the 1970s: (a) increasing fragmentation of capitalist interests, (b) closer attention to links between business lobbying and firms' social embeddedness, (c) a turn away from the assumption that money buys political victories, and (d) new avenues of covert corporate influence. This body of research has reinvigorated the classic elitist/pluralist debate while also raising novel questions about how business acto...

The Political Mobilization of Firms and Industries

Introduction to Public Participation in the 21st Century THE BASICS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION LAW The Emerging International Law of Public Participation Affecting Global Mining, Energy, and Resources Development Underlying Concepts and Theoretical Issues in Public Participation in Resources Development INTERNATIONAL LAW PERSPECTIVES ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION The Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Participate in Resource Development: An International Legal Perspective Public Participation, the Aarhus Convention and the European Community The International Law of Public Participation: Protected Areas, Endangered Species and Biological Diversity Towards the Contractual Management of Public-Participation Issues: A Review of Corporate Initiatives KEY NATIONAL AND REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION - IN THE DEVELOPED NATIONS The Human Dimension in the 21st Century Energy and Natural Resources Development: The New Law of "Public Rights" in Private Development in the United States Canadian Participatory Rights in Mining and Energy Resource Development: The Bridges to Empowerment? The Emphasis on Public Participation in Energy Resource Development in Denmark, and the Rights of Greenland and the Faroe Islands Rights to Public Participation in Norwegian Mining, Energy, and Resource Development Public Participation in Sustainable Development of Energy Supply in the Netherlands NEW LAWS ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE NEWLY INDEPENDENT STATES The Construction of Participatory Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD The Legal Framework for Public Participation in Decision- making on Mining and Energy Development in Nigeria: Giving Voices to The Voiceless The Legal Framework for Indigenous Peoples' and Other Public's Participation in Latin America: The Cases of Argentina, Colombia, and Peru Key Regional Perspectives on Public Participation: Mexico and Central America Public Participation in Mining and Petroleum in Asia and the Pacific: The Ok Tedi Case and Its Implications Index

Human rights in natural resource development : public participation in the sustainable development of mining and energy resources

Preface 1. The Onslaught of SLAPPs Cases in Point * The Definition: What Are "SLAPPs"? * The Process: How SLAPPs work * Why Not SLAPPs? Sympathy for Filers 2. The Constitution's Great Safeguard: The Right to Petition The Theory Behind "Open Government" * The Supreme Court and the Fact Quagmire * The Noerr-Pennington Doctrine and the "Sham" Exception * The Omni Case: A Success Model * SLAPPs: More than a "Legal" Problem 3. Real Estate SLAPPs: Developers, Land Use, and Growth Turning Up the Heat A Classic Real Estate Developer SLAPP * A Rash of SLAPPs * Repeat Players and Developers' Motives * A Protective Precedent 4. The Ultimate SLAPP: Public Servants Turning on the Taxpayers The Police SLAPP * The School SLAPP * The Public Official SLAPP 5. Eco-SLAPPs: Turning the Tables on the Environmental Movement SLAPPs in the Wilderness * "Pollution Buster" SLAPPs * Animal Rights and Wrongs 6. "Not in My Backyard" SLAPPs: Care Homes, Landfills, and Other "LULUs" Turning Up on Our Doorsteps The Least Objectionable LULUs * More Objectionable LULUs * The Most Objectionable LULUs * The Spreading Spectrum and the Solution 7. Rights SLAPPs: Turning Against Consumers', Workers', Women's...and Your Rights The Caveat Emptor SLAPP * What Rights Are Left? 8. Judicial Cures: Managing the SLAPP Managing SLAPPs Before They Happen * Managing SLAPPs as Soon as They Happen * Managing SLAPPs in Court 9. Judicial Cures: Managing the SLAPPback The Birth and Growth of SLAPPbacks * The Legal Grounds for SLAPPbacks 10. Anti-SLAPP Legislation and Other Cures The Legislative Cure: "Anti-SLAPP Laws" * A Model Anti-SLAPP Bill * Executive Branch Contributions Appendix: The SLAPPs Study Methods and Findings: A Conflict Between Democracy and Capitalism The Study Methodology * The Study Findings Notes Index

Slapps: Getting Sued For Speaking Out

This is a study of attempts to use civil tort action to stifle political expression These lawsuits claim injury resulting from citizen efforts to influence the government or sway voters on an issue of public significance We call these cases “strategic lawsuits against public participation” (SLAPPs) We examine data from 100 lawsuits and divide them into three stages to highlight the movement of the dispute between political and judicial arenas In each phase, claims are made that reflect the official audience addressed and the official outcome desired Claims made in the political arena were derailed by claims of legal injury, but defendant's legal victory was the likely result of a third claim, one of the Constitutional “right to petition the government for redress of grievances” We examine how the judicial system responds to SLAPPs and discuss the potential effect of SLAPPs on political values and participation in American society

Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation

Greening justice : creating and improving environmental courts and tribunals

International Environmental Law & Policy for the 21st Century, 2nd Revised Edition, provides a fresh, comprehensive, and in-depth analysis of the immense and challenging field of IEL, perfect for the needs of students, scholars, professionals, NGOs, and lay readers alike.

George (Rock) Pring

Papers

Human rights in natural resource development : public participation in the sustainable development of mining and energy resources

Slapps: Getting Sued For Speaking Out

Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation

Greening justice : creating and improving environmental courts and tribunals

International Environmental Law and Policy for the 21st Century