Transnational Corporations, Violence and Suffering: The Environmental, Public Health and Social Impacts From Comparative Case Studies in Zimbabwe and Uganda
Environmental Impacts of Transnational Corporations in the Global South
ISBN: 978-1-78756-035-2, eISBN: 978-1-78756-034-5
Publication date: 13 December 2018
Abstract
The present effects of transnational corporations (TNCs) on social, health, and environmental aspects of local societies have a long history. The pre-conditions for the insertion of the types of economic initiatives now seen in the Global South, and driven by TNCs, were set through histories of colonialism and development schemes. These initiatives disrupted local economies and modified environments, delivering profound effects on livelihoods. These effects were experienced as structural violence, and have produced social suffering through the decades.
In this paper, we compare two African cases across time; the conjunction of development initiatives and structural adjustment in the Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe in the early 1990s and industrial plantation forestry in present-day Uganda. Each case presents a specific constellation of political and economic forces that has produced prejudicial effects on local populations in their time period of application and are, essentially, different versions of structural violence that produce social suffering. While each case depicts a specific type of violent encounter manifest at a particular historical moment, these are comparable in the domains of environmental impacts, disruptions to societies, co-opting of local economies, disordering of systems of meaning and social reproduction, and nefarious effects on well-being. We analyze the conjunction of these effects through a theoretical lens of structural violence and social suffering. Our analysis draws particular attention to the role of TNCs in driving this structural violence and its effects.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank anonymous reviewers for detailed feedback on an earlier version of this paper. We also thank Eric Fromm for assistance in the production of maps included in this paper. Fernanda Claudio would like to acknowledge the assistance of September Shereni in the Zambezi Valley. Kristen Lyons worked in Uganda in collaboration with Dr Peter Westoby, David Ssemwogerere, Laura Dunstan and Connetie, Ayesiga, Jimmy Lutakome, AldonWalukambe, Phillips Obele, and Emma Karake.
Citation
Claudio, F. and Lyons, K. (2018), "Transnational Corporations, Violence and Suffering: The Environmental, Public Health and Social Impacts From Comparative Case Studies in Zimbabwe and Uganda", Environmental Impacts of Transnational Corporations in the Global South (Research in Political Economy, Vol. 33), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 145-169. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0161-723020180000033006
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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