Mining as Development and Conservation: Changing subjectivities in Tolagnaro, Madagascar

This project aims to provide an anthropological analysis of environment and development issues in the context of an ilmenite mine in an area of Madagascar with endangered endemic rainforest and economic deprivation. The primary objective is to analyze loc al people's shifting perspectives on the environment, development, and their own identity as they face mining impacts ranging from environmental degradation, forced re-settlement and restricted use of forest resources, to improved health, education and in frastructure services and access to new types of resources. The research will make use of the ethnographic theory of "development as governmentality", assessing whether local subjectivities, including perceived needs, are being re-cast in productive an ticipation of mining-related changes. Further, the research will use a "political ecology" approach, analyzing how both access to environmental resources and what counts as valid knowledge about the environment is framed by a weak state, a powerful minin g company, the World Bank, and influential conservation NGOs. R&D challenges include the critical and multi-disciplinary approach of the research, combining ethnographic data on local people with biological data on forest coverage and institutional data on policy processes and interfaces. This will be overcome by on-going contact with relevant institutions, building a sense of project ownership based on a common purpose of sustainable development, as well as exchanges with scholars of other disciplines who have analyzed the area, including biologists and development experts. The anticipated application potential of project findings is extensive. An analysis of poor communities' shifting perceptions of the environment, of development initiatives and of own identity will be relevant for environment/development agencies, governments, international/national NGOs, and the private sector.