Development and Conflict at the Ecological Margins: Grassroots Approaches to Democracy and Natural Resources

Abstract

How can politically and ecologically vulnerable groups come to productively govern the development process? The current environmental crisis is felt most intensely by marginalized groups whose livelihoods, food security, and health are threatened as development-driven environmental problems increase. This study looks at the intersection between the state, the economy, and the grassroots as key decision-makers shape the development trajectory: environmental factions of the rebels-turned-politicians in Aceh, Indonesia, the pro-autonomy indigenous movement in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and pro-democracy insurgents in the United States. The subsequent chapters track and analyze the varied fates of insurgents in each site as they attempt to democratize the state and acquire control over local ecologies. The conclusion explores these movements as the tip of a much deeper iceberg of conflict between extractive development and anti-colonialism.